Coming from the outside. Learning and experiences among youths from non-religious families in Christian youth organisations

The purpose of this article is to examine the learning processes that take place when youths from non-religious homes become active in religious youth organisations. The empirical foundation for the article consists of interviews with Swedish youths who are active in youth organisations belonging to free church denominations. The experiences and reflections of the interviewed youths are analysed in terms of communities of practice, situated learning and conversational learning and discussed in relation to socialisation processes. The results show that more organized learning situations, led by adults or youth leaders within the congregation, are of some importance for the learning within the groups. But that friends and peers also play an imperative role for these youths from non-religious homes, when it comes to learning how to behave and what to believe, as well as knowing what can be said and what shouldn't be mentioned in the context and group they become a part of. The article finally underlines how learning about the values, expectations and practices within a religious group or organisation, is not necessarily the same as actually embracing them.