Teens
One of the deepest needs for teens is a sense of belonging. We have worked hard at NRCC to create an environment in which our teens truly belong. We challenge the mindset behind teenage cliques, making sure the environment here is safe, and making sure each teen is comfortable and affirmed being their truest, even goofiest selves. This has created quite a diverse group. Teens hang out with people they wouldn’t tend to associate with at school, and find great value in one another’s uniqueness.
Then we teach them the fundamentals of spirituality. We teach them what it means to live an authentic spiritual life. In the context of being loved and affirmed, we teach them to walk the spiritual journey with companions, finding God better together than they do alone. We talk about teen-relevant struggles, and consider together how a spiritual person handles those struggles. We teach them life-long practices for the spiritual journey, and then practice living them together.
And we have fun.
We go to lunch together on Sunday afternoons. We do community service together. We do fun, relationship-building events each month, and two or three times a year we take a trip together.
Richard Townsend, Braxton Summers, and a team of spirited counselor-mentors watch over our teens. They create a loving, accepting, and safe environment in which teens can ask hard questions, bring up personal struggles, and get counsel from others older and more experienced on life’s journey. They teach our kids the fundamentals of spirituality, to listen for the Divine Inner Voice, and to follow where it leads.
