OK, I’ve had enough of hearing teenagers called “students” in youth ministry circles, and I’m going to make a stink about it. Let’s think. What bone-headed thing could we do to make some teens feel not welcome in youth group? How could we change something in the way we talk to make youth believe the church views them in terms of an institutional social role they play in the world rather than the real, full people they are before God? What idea could we come up with that would take a part of life that a lot of teenagers experience as oppressive and closely associate it with church and faith? I got it! Let’s start calling teens “students,” our youth groups “student ministries” and our youth ministers “student ministers.”

Imagine you are a 16-year-old high school dropout, who really needs some help. You wander into a church—miracle of miracles!—and hear: “The high school student ministry will meet tonight at 6 o’clock.” Not being a student in high school, what do you think? Well, I guess that’s not for me. Goodbye. Bingo.

Dropout rates are hard to calculate, but conservative estimates indicate at least 10 percent of school-age teens leave school. That number is much higher for poor teens and racial minorities. Many metropolitan school districts have graduation rates below 50 percent! So, why use the “student” language in youth ministry circles, thereby excluding teens who are not students?

Imagine you are one of the many teenagers who hates school. Classes are boring. What you’re learning seems irrelevant. Other kids are mean to you. The adults in charge simply want you to conform and perform. You can’t wait to stop being a student. Now you go to church, and guess what? The adults in charge call you “students.” What should you conclude? I’d say the church has joined the enemy, can’t think on its own terms, looks to the dominant institutions of the world for categories and language, and conclude the church is just another social institution among the world’s many.

So, What Should We Call Them?
I have not met a teenager who has a problem being called a “teen” or “youth.” So why has the U.S. youth ministry world replaced “teen” and “youth” with “student” and “student ministry”? I don’t know, but my guess is it has something to do with wanting to make the job of ministry to teenagers more respectable, more official sounding, organizationally worthy of more pay. If so, and if what I point out above is correct, then what’s good for teens is being displaced by what is perceived to be best for youth ministers and youth ministry.

Please, everybody, kill the “student” lingo in youth ministry. Teens are not the social roles they play in school. A lot of teens are not even in school. Teens are complex people who stand before God in the fullness of their human personhood. Let’s talk about them as if we believed this truth.