I'm Really Just Curious

I used this on my student ministry blog today. It's rare that I "cross over" in blogs, but I'm really curious on this one.

See, I was reading a book by Stavesacre's lead singer, Mark Salomon, entitled "Simplicity." He described his upbringing in a church youth group this way:

"I guess I just wish someone would've told me how to take the information I had been given and then make it work (Or that someone would have nailed my feet to the ground until I understood on my own). I felt like a mechanic who'd been given all the tools to fix a car--without being shown how to use any of them. If something was broken, I could have been holding the tool to fix the problem and still not have known where to start. I didn't know how to sort through what mattered to me and what mattered to God. I was too busy most of the time trying to not do the wrong thing. I knew how not to have premarital sex. How not to get drunk. I knew how not to embarrass my parents in front of other people at church. I just didn't know how to apply the teachings regarding spiritual maturity that I had heard in church to my life: How does one actively 'set (one's) mind on the things of God?" (Colossians 3:2) How does one take hold of the 'mind of Christ?' (1 Corinthians 2:16) I was too busy not cussing, not doing drugs, not hanging out with the wrong people, etc."

And, I'm wondering how many people relate to this passage in some way...and if they do, what can the church be doing to prevent it. Becuase, as I see it, if he's correct and this is going on in a rather large scale, it'd be wise to proactively go after it.

If it's not all that widespread, then we could simply chalk it up to one person in an isolated type of case and let it go at that.

But I think it's more widespread than we know. Your thoughts?