I lectured recently on neuroscience and youth ministry for Kenda Creasy Dean’s Advanced Studies in Youth, Church and Culture. Yes, teenagers and brains. Everybody seems to have a joke about the teenage brain, or the lack thereof. In more than a decade of youth ministry I’ve heard my fair share of snide comments from pastors and laity alike about the mental ineptitude of the youth I work with. You mean they have a brain? The teenagers in my house are brain dead. And the comments keep coming.

Of course, contrary to popular conception, neuroscientists are finding that the teenage brain is a place of incredible activity. There are roughly 100 billion neurons firing away within the human brain, and teenage brains are no exception. In fact, teenagers appear to have more neurons than they will by the time they turn 25. But one difference (among many) between teen and adult brains is that there is an incredible plasticity to the teenage brain. It’s being shaped and moulded in amazing ways. The 100 billion neurons of the teenage brain are still in the process of forming synaptic connections to other neurons. Key areas of the teenage brain have not yet become all that they will be. In light of plasticity and the 100 billion neurons of the teenage brain, it was with interest that I stumbled upon this:

“The number of possible different combinations of synaptic connections among the neurons in a single human brain is larger than the total number of atomic particles that make up the known universe, hence the diversity of the interconnections in a human brain seems almost without limit.”

– Richard Thompson, The Brain: A Neuroscience Primer.

Read it again. To boil it down, there are more ways for the human brain to connect up than there are particles in the universe. It seems to be a fabulous claim at first, but it’s widely corroborated in the neuroscientific community. ¹ What’s amazing, though, is that a great number of these possible synaptic connections will be formed or pruned during the teenage years. And how this happens will largely be a result of experiences, activities and relationships.

This puts a lot in perspective. It’s rather awe-inspiring. And it also means that you, as a youth minister (or parent), are involved in the task of helping to determine which synaptic connections are made and which are not. As a result of teenage neuroplasticity, you have a role in sculpting the brains and being of young lives. Neural structures that become the foundation for a lifetime are developed during the years that teenagers are under your care in youth ministry. It puts a new spin on “just” being a youth minister.

This also brings into view for me the unbelievable worth and potential of every human being. At least in my nerdy little universe, this puts life in a whole new perspective. The idea that the potential for connections inside each human brain exceeds the elementary particles in the universe forces me to look at people in a new light.

The next time someone tells me a joke about brains and teenagers, I’m likely to respond with something about 100 billion neurons looking for connections.

1. see pg. 8 [↩]