YWJ: One of your conclusions in Almost Christian is that "When it comes to vapid Christianity, teenagers are not the problem—the church is the problem. The church has the solution." What's the solution?

Kenda: The story of God's unconditional love and grace in Jesus, which demonstrates a kind of love that's more significant than doing good deeds or filling personal needs. There's nothing more consequential than love worth dying for. That kind of love is only possible through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. That's the church's story if we'll just tell it. When I say, "tell," don't tell it to while away the time. Tell it because it's our family's story. We enter the world in a particular way because of it. It's who we are. The church tells this story to young people for the same reason we tell stories of grandparents around the dinner table—so our children will know whose blood courses through their veins, so they'll know who they are, why we live as we do and why these things matter.

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YWJ: What else do you want to tell youth workers?

Kenda: What you do matters. The ministry you have, the life you live, the kids you come into contact with—these things matter in ways that are not always evident. What you do matters—not just to young people—but to parents, too. It matters to the church if we're ever going to be more than we've become. When teens see the church acting like less than envoys of Christ's love in the world, they rightly call us out for being frauds. We should listen. If the church can get beyond self-preservation and model a way of life that embodies God's self-giving love for others, then we might be a church that matters again. If anyone is going to lead the way in becoming that kind of church, it will be young people. This makes youth ministry the place to start.

Kenda Creasy Dean's Almost Christian is published by Oxford University Press (OUP.com).