What is so wonderful about teenagers is that they are always testing us.

They push us to the limits. They point us to the logical extension of our thinking.

One year, one of my congregation’s confirmands decided not be confirmed... a very serious breach of the rules in my religious tradition.

I don’t know all the factors that went into his decision but when we met in my office, his logic was absolutely brilliant.

"If God loves us no matter what," he said to me, "then I really don’t need to be confirmed, or baptized or even be a Christian. God will still love me."

And he was unequivocally correct.

Such radical adolescent logic could undermine the entire system of the church and maybe it should.

Of course, I could have talked to him again about the value of ritual, the means of God’s grace, the importance of tradition and history, all of which are true but I was stumped by his simple logic. He had been listening to our class discussion on God’s grace. He was responding to the countless sermons he had heard preached. He was pointing to a truth that goes beyond the limits of our religion.

So where did we go wrong?

We go wrong only when we fail to be honest, only when we fail to pursue the truth.

When our churches become a place where diversity is celebrated and honesty revered, then we put right what we have too often made wrong.

"Hold to Christ," a great preacher once said, "and for the rest be totally uncommitted."

Such would be my advice not just to our youth but to all of us.

To be committed to Christ is to put our faith in the way of love. It is to refuse to be bullied by frightened people or frightening traditions. It is to live for others. It is to live for joy.

Beware of those who seek to confine God and suppress the spirit. Run from them and their evil ways. Run from them even if you find them in the church.