The Anxious Generation Goes to Church
By Thom Rainer (Tyndale Momentum)
The information age is rewiring how children and adolescents think and relate to others. It’s creating an anxious generation, and the church needs to respond.
After decades of work supporting local churches and educating their leaders, Thom Rainer urges the church through his new book, The Anxious Generation Goes to Church, to help anxious people.
Rainer responds to Jonathan Haidt’s recent bestseller, The Anxious Generation. Haidt describes the overwhelming mental health crisis of anxiety among our children. He argues spiritual practices can ease some of this anxiety. Rainer takes Haidt’s concept a step further and outlines how the Christian church can and must address the anxiety epidemic.
Rainer echoes and expands Haidt’s assessment that anxiety spreads among our children through mind pollution received via the internet, smartphones, and social media. This pollution increases polarization, loneliness, and pressure, resulting in heightened anxiety.
Rainer writes, “Church teachings promote authenticity and vulnerability, encouraging young people to be genuine in God’s eyes.”
Through statistics and stories, Rainer persuades the church to offer hope through acceptance of those who struggle with anxiety, role models for Christian living, prayer support, Bible education, and helping anxious people discover their purpose and meaning.
Only the church offers the hope that God designed human beings to reflect his image for an important purpose (Ephesians 2:10). This teaching combats pressures to act in a certain way or to strive for achievements set by worldly standards and can do much to calm anxiety.
The Anxious Generation Goes to Church describes a complex problem in a short, easy-to-read, and compelling narrative. Rainer calls the church to engage with this issue, and I appreciate the churches in my circle who have.
As a church leader and high-anxiety survivor, I appreciate Rainer’s effort to specifically address how the Christian church can and must address the rising problem of anxiety. The church cannot ignore or minimize this issue.
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Joletta Sells, graduate student
Dallas Theological Seminary
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