forum tips for writing a teenage catholic/christian character?

Started September 14, 2020 by @darling-velocipede group

tune

Howdy! Life-long Christian here! I though I'd give you some things to look into to make your character a little more realistic.

-In my personal experience, a lot of Christian kids listen to worship music, but it's not the only thing they listen to.
-Research the difference in denominations. Christianity differs greatly depending on what church you went to in what part of the country, etc.
-Most Christians tithe, which is giving 10% of their income to God (by dropping it in the donation bucket at church).
-Many churches vary wildly on their beliefs on LGBTQIA+ people. The church I grew up in does not agree with that lifestyle, but loves and respects people of all genders.
-Lots of Christian teenagers do church on Sundays, but will also attend Youth Group during the week, usually at night. Mine was on Wednesday night. What happens can vary from group to group, but ours was a sermon unrelated to the Sunday one, and then group discussions.
-A lot of parents will encourage their kids to volunteer in different areas of their church, such as childcare, the worship team, and so forth.
-The more strict their upbringing, the wilder most Christian kids get. Seriously, it's a thing. They do absolutely crazy stuff.
-Church merch! If your teen attends lots of youth conferences or special church events, they may own a lot of merchandise with bible verses on it. I know I have about 5 of those shirts in my closet right now.
-In my experience, most Christian teens aren't completely naïve. They know about things that you wouldn't expect them to know.
-Some Youth Groups do a sleepaway camp in the summer and another during the winter.
-Churches have multiple services in one Sunday. My church on any given Sunday had 1st & 2nd service (same message, different times), traditions service (hymns instead of modern worship), as well as services in Spanish.
-Whether or not Catholics & Mormons are fall under the umbrella of Judeo-Christians is an extremely hot topic, and can vary from church to church.
-Many Christian teens grew up watching VeggieTales. Look into it.
-Not every church is stuffy. Many modern churches don't really care what you wear to service, as long as you're clothed. In my experience, I always dressed up because it was my one chance during the week to do so.
-Depending on the size of the church, and how long you've been attending, you'll get to know a lot of the pastors and staff. Many are very accessible and will meet with congregants outside of church just to visit.
-Some churches offer counseling services.
-Many churches have pastors for each area of the church, such as worship, kids ministry, youth ministry, and outreach stuff, in addition to a "lead" or "head" pastor who leads the church.
-For a lot of teens, going on a missions trip to someplace far away with their youth group is the thing to do, if they can afford it. Think places like Mexico and Africa.
-Christian kids that spent their lives in church will be able to rattle off a plot summary of most Bible stories, such as Noah & the flood, Adam & Eve, Jesus' birth and eventual death/resurrection, etc. These stories are used a lot in sermons.
-Do some research into apologetics, which is the study of proving God's existence using logic and science. Some hard-core Christian parents will have their teens read books about this.
-If you settle on a denomination, look into their organizational structure. Most have national leadership, then district leadership, followed by individual church leadership.
-My church had a cafe and coffee shop inside.
-A lot of Christian teens have the issue of having "church friends" and "not church friends." I know in my personal experience, whenever I would have a party, I would often pick one or the other, instead of trying to get them to combine.
-There are many different versions of the Bible. Research it.
-Female pastors are another hot topic. Some say yes, some say no, it depends on the church.
-Most churches experience an influx of newcomers before and after Easter, Christmas, and New Years.
-Many youth groups push their students to invite lots of friends.

Basically, if you takeaway nothing else: every church does things differently.

-Many Christian teens grew up watching VeggieTales. Look into it.

Man, I almost forgot about VeggieTales. I saw lots and lots of VeggieTales as a kid. The majority of the kids that were in my class at my Sunday school still love watching it. Man, the nostalgia-

@Blossom_Utonium thank you so much!! that was all so exactly the lifestyle type info i needed <3 <3

Okay Utonium did an excellent job. I would assume she/he goes to a Protestant church.

Okay Utonium did an excellent job. I would assume she/he goes to a Protestant church.

You're correct! I go to a protestant, Assemblies of God church and was raised in the faith. In fact, my entire extended family are believers and very active in their various churches. @darling-velocipede let me know if you need more ideas.

Unsure if these are specifically Catholic things or not, but:

• Going off of the "church friends" "not church friends" bit, there might also be a bit of tension between families that go to mass every week, and the "Christmas Catholic" bunch
• While Christmas is a very important day, the most important day in Catholicism is Easter Sunday. I feel like a lot of folks assume that since Christmas is the Big Holiday, it's the most important one but it isn't.
• Church socials are a pretty big thing! To build community and stuff at a church, every few Sundays there will be something such as donuts and coffee after mass
• Saturday mass is generally more chill than Sunday mass
• Occasionally a local religious polka or folk group will come to perform during mass
• A lot of churches have festivals to fundraise. Some will have a more fair-like one with games and prizes in the summer (lots of outdoors activities, sometimes a garage/white elephant sale, beer tents and music) and others will have more calm indoors craft fairs in the fall and winter. Some will also have dinners, pancake breakfasts, fish fries (especially during Lent) and such to earn money. Some do all of this.
• Some parents will be really strict with the media their kids consume. I only met three kids whose parents were the "Harry Potter promotes witchcraft!" type, most of my friends were super into it. There's, like, specific websites that rate movies and stuff "through a Christian lens". Alternately, there's books out there that are focused specifically on drawing religious connections from things like Harry Potter. Most parents, even the very anti-Harry Potter and general fantasy types, seem to be fine with Narnia books.
• Church wine either tastes very bad or very good
• The Triduum is the three days leading up to Easter: Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday
• Holy Thursday celebrates the Last Supper, which is when Jesus did the breaking of the bread for the first time. It's generally considered the first mass, and it's the first time the Eucharist was performed. Some churches might have 12 members of the congregation receive the washing of the feet from the priest.
• Good Friday celebrates (for lack of a better word) Jesus's crucifixion. There is no communion that day, and the tabernacle (box where the communion hosts are usually kept) is visibly empty. There's often a reenactment of the leadup to the crucifixion with the priest reading for Jesus, lectors reading for narrators, Pontius Pilate, and other important people, and the congregation as the crowds. It can feel very surreal. You also all either touch or kiss the crucifix.
• Holy Saturday is the day before Easter, and the mass is called the Easter Vigil. It's my personal favorite, clocking it at usually around 2.5+ hours since you start outside. It's candlelit until the Gospel reading, and you call hold little candles lit by the Easter candle or someone else's candle. There are either 7 or 9 readings (I forget which) before the Gospel, and they're almost a "Greatest Hits!" of the Bible, with things such as Genesis, Moses, and the prophet Isaiah making appearances. Anyone who took the RCIA classes to convert to Catholicism is baptized, confirmed, and receives their first communion that night.
• During Lent, the Alleluia/Hallelujah is not sung. Usually it is sung during the transition from the second reading to the Gospel, but not during Lent. Additionally, there is no closing song during Lent, just silence.
• Advent is the leadup to Christmas. It's the start of the new church year and four weeks, each symbolized by a candle, one is lit each week. The first two and the fourth are purple, the third is pink. They symbolize faith, hope, love, and joy, although I'm not sure if I got the order correct. Advent ends on Christmas, some advent wreaths have a fifth candle that's white and lit on Christmas day.
• Lent starts on Ash Wednesday. It is 40 days long and leads up to the Crucifixion. During Fridays in Lent, you are not supposed to eat meat, although fish is fine. Lenten fish fries are common.
• Ash Wednesday is when you receive an ash cross on your forehead. They symbolize death and repentance. The ashes are made of the past year's Palm Sunday palms, which I think is neat. It's a day of fasting for adults, as is Good Friday.
• Palm Sunday is the Sunday before Easter, and celebrates Jesus's arrival to Jerusalem in the week leading up to his death. Everyone receives palms, which are held on to until they die and are then used to make ashes.
• There are fourteen Stations of the Cross, which are the events during and directly after Jesus's crucifixion. A lot of churches will do these a few times during Lent for whoever wants to come, and sometimes the youth group will put it on.

-Pastors kids tend to spend a lot of time at the church, and know a lot of gossip about the people on staff, any changes that are happening, etc.
-Many churches also have a deacon board, which is a group of elected people (mostly men) that oversee the pastoral staff and help make decisions. The members have to be in good standing with the church, and are reelected every two years. It's an unpaid position.
-This may not surprise you, but pastors and people paid by the church don't make a lot of money. Many have second jobs or their spouse works also.
-A lot of Christian teenagers don't even consider private college because it's way too expensive.
-Many churches host a VBS (vacation Bible school) in the summer for 5 days, 4 hours a day. It's for elementary school kids to learn about God. Volunteering at VBS (at least at my church), was something of a rite of passage indicating that you weren't a little kid anymore, and that you were responsible.
-Some teens like to take sermon notes in fancy journals, then keep them once they're full. I have six notebooks of sermon notes over the years.
-Many churches host night classes during the week for adults. They have some for men, women, new believers, and married couples.
-Dave Ramsey teaches a financial class. Lots of Christians take his advice. Look him up.
-There is typically a Youth Group worship band that is separate from the Sunday morning worship band. Singers are plentiful, it's people that play instruments that are hard to find.
-Some churches require you to take a class and sign a statement of beliefs to become an official member in good standing, which means you can vote during annual business meetings and get listed in the directory.
-A church's calendar of events can be wide-ranging and vast, depending on the size of the church. In any given month, there can be several big events happening.
-Lots of Christian teens know of and occasionally visit other churches besides their "home church."
-And adding on to that, once teens get a car, a lot of them choose to visit other youth groups to see if they like it better.
-Opinions on communion and baptizing vary from church to church.
-Getting baptized is a big deal for a lot of families. My grandparents drove two hours to see mine, and then went out for dinner afterward (fun fact, I was baptized in a lake. My sister was baptized in a horse trough).
-There's often a clique of inner-circle moms who are very active or their husbands are very active in the church. They can be just as catty and backhanded as non-Christian moms.
-Some churches host baby dedications, which is when a baby is presented in front of the church, scripture is read aloud, and then the congregation prays for them. Not all churches do this, and not every parent does this.
-Lots of youth groups are very active on social media.
-Some churches hold a special Christmas Eve service, which is one of the few times where it is expected that you will dress up. Childcare usually isn't provided.
-Churches often have a difficult time rustling up people who want to volunteer in kid's ministry (because when you get down to it, it's essentially childcare).

Oh, also married men can become permanent deacons (at least in the Catholic church). I know a guy who did so recently.
Also, at least at my church, VBS repeating basically the same general lessons every year (Adam and Eve, Solomon and the baby, sometimes Ruth and Naomi, David and Goliath, the three guys whose names I can't spell who get put in the furnace, etc.) is sort of a meme.

Shadrack Meshak and Abednago maybe?

Honestly, Velocipede, if I were you I'd go with devout Protestant and take all the info Utonium is spitting.

Yes them! I know their named but can't spell them and autocorrect was not helping >:(
But yeah, VBS is definitely a Thing. I volunteered to help with the snacks one year and got kicked out after the third day since the kids were being super loud so I blew my whistle to shut them up.
In my defense I was like 12.

hey! i didn't say it enough i don't think but i really appreciate everyone spending the time to share their thoughts and experiences. i'm wondering now if someone who is actively religious, at least a little bit, could read over a short passage i've written and confirm for me that it's respectful of the catholic faith and not vastly offensive in some way i missed?

Bruh sure! I’d post it here so the others can see it.

cw for some blood/grotesque stuff

Anthem woke, as she often did, with a start. Nightmares had followed the girl for years– recurring ones, where she was rotting, her skin falling away, bones dropping off at random until she could hardly stumble around, but no one noticed besides her. Teachers got mad at her for being late. Her mother screamed at her for being seemingly unable to wash a dish as Anthem watched her whole pointer finger snap off, bleeding thin, almost brown, rotted blood into the suds as it swirled down the drain. Others were more random, similar to her Encounters during the day.

In still others, she walked beside Joan of Arc. As kids in her church were required to do, Anthem had taken the name of a saint at her confirmation when she was fourteen, and taken on Joan of Arc’s name. They both witnessed things no one else could. You both, a dark voice whispered at the back of Anthem’s mind, will burn. In her dreams, she never saw the saint, only felt her. She would be walking, often in a field of sunflowers or pale, dry grass up to her waist, the blue sky brushed with soft clouds. Skin softly warming, dusty earth between her toes; she could feel all of it. And then the gentle touch of comfort– the saint’s hands on her shoulders, guiding her forward. The saint would never say anything, and something told Anthem that she wouldn’t be able to even if she wanted to, but Anthem would wake up and feel alright. Those were the good nights.

I love it!

If anything else is needed I am Catholic and a teenager. I have served on the alter for five years and have taken semi-advanced religion/morals, and am currently studying apologetics. Feel free to ask me anything if you are in need of any more information regarding the Catholic Church specifically. Although reading through everything else it looks like you've been covered.