argumentative essay

Jacob Hill

Mrs. Mckoy

English II

May 18, 2012

Teen Christians

I grew up being taught about God and Christianity. My dad is a preacher, and he has been a big example on how I am supposed to live. He taught me to live like a Christian. Now I am a freshman in high school, and I see a lot of so called Christians doing unchristian like things. Many teens say they are Christians, but they rarely talk about God (Hill). Just because you are a teen you think that you do not have to act like a Christian, but that’s not the case. Teen Christians are just as responsible for leading people to God as anyone else.  I am going to give proof that Christian teens need to live for God, then I am going to show them how we do that.

Christians should act like Christians, no matter the age. We cannot just do whatever we want and think there are no consequences. If we are not acting the way God wants us to, then we are showing others that Christians should not be taken seriously. They will look at us and think we are hypocrites. We will never lead people to Christ like that, and the consequence is that the people you could have led to God never get saved. The Bible says “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:2 New King James Version). This means that if you are saved then you should not be doing the things of the world, but you are changed and do the things God tells you to do. If we are in school doing what everyone else is, then we are not spreading the word; therefore, we are not doing what God wants us to do.

God has teaches us how a Christian is supposed to live. We need to read the Bible and pray to know what God wants us to do.  He has given us a mission that we all need to complete. That mission is to go out and tell everyone about what he did for us. In Mark 16:15 it says “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to every creation.” (Mark 16:15 New Living Translation). We should show nonbelievers that we live for God by the things we do. “Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and give honor to God when he judges the world.”(1 Peter 2:12 New Living Translation). If we are doing that right things then that sets an example for everyone else. 

Some people might say we are too pushy. The reason for this is that we see sin as a spiritual sickness. We have the cure and we want everyone to have it too. Sometime we can try too hard and cram it down people’s throats.  We should feel a certain urgency about sharing the Word though, but we do not need to force it on people (Lutes). People call us hypocrites which can be true sometime. No one is perfect, everyone messes up sometimes, but we are trying. Nobody has lived a perfect life, except Jesus, so no one can judge.  

Teen Christians should show that they live for God. Just like Lewis who accepted God into his life now he is the Chaplin ant St. John's Military School (Demuth). God says for us to go share the good news. He also says to set an example for nonbelievers.

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research memo

Hypothesis

Many people do not know what it really means to be a Christian. In, high school you do not normally see people acting like Christians, but you ask them they will say they are Christian. Being a Christian means doing the right thing, and standing out from the crowd. I want to know for sure how Christian teens should act. Everyone should know that you are a Christian. I think I will find that most teenagers will claim they are Christians but do not talk about Him or act how they should.

Context

            My target audience for the survey was teenagers. I chose this audience because I am researching how Christian teens act. My data is reliable because all my questions are easy to answer and are not confusing. I changed the question “are you a Christian?” because I did not think it was broad enough. At first I only asked if they were Christians, then I changed it and asked it and asked what religion they belong to. I don’t think that change skewed my results any.

Ages	13 5	14 5	15 6	16 6	17-30 4	40-50            2
Are they Christian?	5	5	6	5	3	2
Has an idea of what being a Christian means.	5	4	6	6	4	2
How often they talk about God.	A)       1 B)       3 C)       1 D)       0	0             3             2             0	0 5 1 0	1 3 2 0	3 1 0 0	1 1
Teens do not act like Christians	True)   5 False)  0	5 0	6 0	6 0	4 0	2 0
How often they pray per day	1)        0 2)        3 3 and up)  2	1 2 2	1 2 2	4 1 1	2 0 2	0 0 2
How comfortable they are talking about God	1)         0 2)         0 3)         0 4)         0 5)         0 6)         0 7)         0 8)         0 9)         2 10)       3	0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 1 1	0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 3	0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 4	0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 3	0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1
How important is God?	A)       5 B)       0 C)       0 D)       0	5 0 0 0	6 0 0 0	5 1 0 0	3 0 0 0	2 0 0 0

Data Analysis

            What I found from my data was most people say they are Christian, but they said they only talk about God some of the time. Twenty-six people said they were Christian but only six of them said they talk about God regularly. Another thing I found was that everyone except one person had an idea of what it means to be a Christian. The respondents do not talk about him all the time and four of them put six or lower when I asked how comfortable they were talking about God. The other consistence I noticed was that sixteen people said they only pray one or two times a day. If you are a Christian, you should want to pray all day long. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says to pray without ceasing.

Conclusion

            In, my hypothesis I said that people said they are Christians but do not act like it in school. Based on my data, I would say I was correct. The amount of people that said they were very comfortable talking about God surprised me because I thought one of the reasons people did not act Christian was because they were not comfortable doing it.

Follow Up

            From here I want to research more, and find the answers to all my questions. I think that the next question I need to answer is how you get save. I need to answer this because it is how you become a Christian and get to heaven.  

Annotated bibliography

Annotated bibliography

1st Article

            The article “Disbelief to Devotion” talks about how Gary Demuth didn’t believe in God and lived his own way, but then his mom died. He started looking into different religions and reading different books. He got right with God and then he became a chaplain at St. John’s Military School.

            This article doesn’t have any bias because the author is not putting his feelings in this he is only telling a story. This article relates to non-Christians because it shows that no matter what you’ve done God will always forgive you.

Demuth, Gary. “Disbelief to Devotion.” http://web.ebscohost.com/. 23 Jan. 2012. 30 Mar. 2012 http://www.blogger.com/%20%0d%0dhttp:/web.ebscohost.com/src/detail?vid=12&hid=9&sid=919568fa-a31b-4cb0-834d-39ee2d08e576%40sessionmgr11&bdata=JnNpdGU9c3JjLWxpdmU%3d#db=nfh&AN=2W6347140019

       2nd Article  
    This article talks about how Christians can sometimes be too pushy with their faith. Christians see sin is like a spiritual cancer. Christians have the cure and want everyone to have it. Sometimes they can push too hard.         

  This article is very useful because it explains why some Christians can be pushy. it relates to Christians by telling them they need to try to be less pushy, it also relates to Non-Christians by giving them a reason why Christians are pushy.

Lutes, Chris. “Care Enough to Share.” http://web.ebscohost.com/ . Apr. 24 2012 http://web.ebscohost.com/src/detail?vid=3&hid=111&sid=4535b8d3-04d1-4c46-9df8-ca23c726a49c%40sessionmgr113&bdata=JnNpdGU9c3JjLWxpdmU%3d#db=ulh&AN=995188

3^rd Article

            This article explains why we should believe the bible. It states several questions and gives the answer to the question. It explains what the Bible is, where it came from, and why churches believe it.  

            This article is a very good article because it gives answers to the questions a lot of people have about the Bible and Christianity.

Cockroft, Martin. Why Believe the Bible?. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 May 2012. http://www.christianitytoday.com/iyf/hottopics/defendingyourfaith/4.40.html?start=1

   

Essential Questions

            I chose this topic to answer the question what does it mean to be a Christian teenager? I want to answer this question because I see a lot of kids not doing what there suppose to do and I want to show them how to live for God. This is not only to show everybody else but also to make sure I am doing the right thing and to grow closer to god. The more specific questions I will answer to get to this one are:  

1.      How should Christians spred God's word?

2.      What if we aren't doing what we should be doing?

3.      Why do teens need to act like Christians?

4.      Should we spread Gods word?

5.      Which one of the religions is correct?

How is your relationship with God?

This survey is to see what people think being a Christian teen really means, and how they act around others.  Please answer all questions honestly, and your name is not needed. 

1.      How old are you? _____

2.      Are you a Christian?                                                  

 Yes                                      No

3.      What do you think it mean to be a Christian?  ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4.      How often do you talk to others about God?

o   I always talk about Him.

o   I sometimes talk about Him.

o   I talk about Him around other Christians.

o   I never talk about Him.

5.      Most teenagers don’t act like Christians at school.                   True            False

6.      How many times a day do you pray?  __________

7.      Who is a Christian influence on your life?

o   Parents           

o   Friends

o   Pastor

o   No one

o   Other  ________________

8.       Do you go to church?   Why or why not?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

9.      How comfortable are you talking about Christianity on a scale of 1 – 10?

1       2          3          4          5          6          7          8          9          10

10.  How important is God to you?

o   Really important

o   Semi-important

o   Not important

o   I do not believe in God