Content warning: This article mentions sexual assault and racial violence.

In November of 2018, my colleagues and I in the Adolescent Girls Faith Formation Working Group of the Religious Education Association began talking about current events and how they affect the way we think about forming faith with young people, particularly adolescent girls. The United States Senate had just confirmed the appointment of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Like many in this country, we had watched the bravery of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who came forward to testify to the Senate about her experience of sexual assault by the then nominee to the highest court in our country. We had heard her share her testimony, with no hope to gain anything for herself from publicly disclosing the truth.

As advocates of adolescent girls who wade in the waters of navigating situations similar to what Blasey Ford navigated, we were distressed to hear that what he did to her was not enough to disqualify him from this position in the justice system. It did not seem just at all. His behavior toward Blasey Ford was called a youthful mistake, and he was passed along in the confirmation hearings.

Who Is Allowed to Make Mistakes in Our Society?

Among our group of Christian education scholars, students, and practitioners, especially concerned with how we will educate and form adolescent girls, our conversation then evolved. Who else is allowed to make mistakes in our society? Certainly not Black teenagers. Black girls are overly sexualized and punished for their bodies. Unarmed Black boys lose their lives for their mistakes.

The name of Tamir Rice, a twelve-year-old who was shot and killed while he played with a fun toy outside a recreation center, came into our hearts and conversations. Why could Brett Kavanaugh make a “youthful mistake” and end up a Supreme Court justice, and Tamir Rice lose his young life because of a white police officer’s “mistake”? Moreover, why were we talking about these as mistakes when our theological language offers us something much richer? It is a sin to assault another person. It is a sin to take the life of another.

This is when we knew that our questions were bigger than adolescent girls and ones we desperately wanted to explore. Our hope was that those who minister with youth and teach in Christian education could help our youth navigate all this in different ways.

Addressing Sin and Mistakes with Youth on the Margins

As we began our research, we realized that, in looking at the complex world of sin and mistakes in the experiences and Christian education of young people, the youth on the margins commanded our attention. Our book developed in a sustained conversation with nine practitioners and scholars of Christian education with adolescents on the margins: those who are harmed by policies of exclusion around sexuality in their churches, those who see their very identity as a mistake that excludes them from connection with God and a faith community, those who are at the losing end of a capitalist system, and those who are held to an unfair and unattainable standard of perfection. These are the young people who need help discerning the difference between mistakes and sin and between personal sins and systemic issues that are like a force of the power of Sin moving in our society.

Now, as of the end of February 2025, six and half years after we began, “Nobody’s Perfect: Redefining Sin and Mistakes in Christian Adolescent Education” is out in the world. Our contention in this book is that adolescents are good, embodying the image of God just like the rest of us. Our contention is that adolescents are supposed to make mistakes; they can learn and grow from them. Our contention is that they can find empowerment from calling out sin, especially systemic sin.

Outline of the Book

The book is divided into three sections:

1. Distinguishing Sin from Mistakes

This first section helps those who work with youth think about what mixed messages we might be sending. Is every mistake a sin? Can we learn from sin? Are we allowed to make mistakes?

2. Navigating Institutional Mistake-Making

The second section is really focused on churches and helping youth and those who work with youth to consider mistakes we may be making as congregations and denominations. In this section, youth workers, ministers, hospitality committees, and worship committees will all find resources to help think through what we, as the institutional church, might be teaching our youth (whether we are intending to or not).

3. Navigating Sin and Mistakes in Culture

This section looks more broadly at culture, specifically our culture of racism, sexism, and consumerism, and offers some ways to consider how we might educate youth in the church to speak back to, confront, and challenge the sins and mistakes our culture makes.

A Resource for Youth Ministers

As youth ministries look for ways to form youth to develop a theological lens for their lives, we hope this book helps. We see this book as accessible for youth workers as well as for scholars of youth ministry. It is particularly useful for congregations who are:

• looking to help youth develop a theology of sin that also helps youth realize that every mistake they will make (and there will be many!) is not a sin against the God who loves them
• seeking to make their worship space and church building more welcoming to youth on the margins
• wanting to empower their youth to help them live out their faith in new ways and to be responsive to what youth can see and adults may miss

As youth ministries try to connect authentically with young people who are girls, LGBTQIA+, Black and Brown, and who are trying to exist in a consumer culture while teaching about how our worth does not lie in what we buy, we hope this will be a resource to consider deeply and thoughtfully what it’s like to find a way through all these waters and grow in faith while doing so.

Featured image is by Swapnll Dwivedi on Unsplash