Archive for the ‘Youth Culture’ Category

A new study shows that teens aren’t necessarily obsessed with technology. What they do love is how technology keeps them connected to their friends, all the time.

They love staying hyper-connected with their peers, via text messages, Facebook, emails, etc.

And one device or one screen isn’t enough. With as many as twelve digital gadgets at home, “Today’s restless young person manages to indulge in 23 cumulative hours of activity in every 24 hour day - engaging in up to five activities simultaneously.”

But in spite of the allure of the online always-connected digital life, teens still prefer real-world, in-person activities with friends and others.

That’s good news! Our challenge is to learn to communicate with teens in this hybrid environment, both face-to-face and through technology.

For discussion: How do you communicate with teens in this hybrid world?

“Christians” in Britain that were baptised as infants have had enough. They saw they were too young to know what was happening and now want out.

Not just out of the church. They want their names removed from the records. Some have even called child baptism “a form of child abuse.”

That’s post-Christian Europe for you. Some say America isn’t far behind.

We must teach–nay, show–our teens that this “church thing” is so much more than religion! People run from a set of religious rules. But I can’t think of anything more attractive than the loving forgiveness and rich life that comes from knowing God.

You can read more about the trend in Britain here.

With recent studies like this one that found 20% of teens have posted or sent nude or semi-nude pictures of themselves, it’s obvious that sexting is no longer just a fringe occurance.

For those that haven’t heard, sexting is the new term for personal cell phone pornography. Several court cases illustrate how more and more teens are sending nude pictures of themselves to a their boyfriend or girlfriend, only to find that their image has spread like wildfire all over their school and town. Many of them find themselves facing jail time on pornography charges.

Considering how prevelant it is, many teens must still consider this as acceptable behavior. Either the potentially severe consequences, such as criminal charges and extreme embarrasment, are not enough to keep them from doing it, or they just don’t know the consequences!

As one youth pastor reports, this problem is already leaking into youth group meetings, so it’s one we can’t ignore much longer. The study I mentioned earlier has some great tips on how to address it along with videos of teens discussing the issue.

For discussion: Has this issue sexting impacted your group? How did you respond? Have you had a frank discussion with your students about sexting?

Just how young do they start “following the crowd”?

A new study found that children as young as three and four know how to recognize majority opinion, and follow it. They will even remember later who was part of the “in” crowd.

Peer pressure plays a huge role in a students’ life. It’s easy to go with the flow, but it takes a lot of motivation and ambition to go against it.

This is especially important to recognize in a culture and society that can be so blatantly anti-God. Without a firm foundation of knowing Christ, its easier and easier to get washed away in the tide of public opinion.

How has this “follow the crowd” affect impacted your youth group?

Does the word “abstinence” truly reflect what we’re trying to teach teens about sexuality? Some suggest the word “postponement” as a substitute–thanks for the tip Joyce!

I like the new term. It suggests that abstinence now is only one piece of the bigger puzzle of human sexuality that God has given us. And it’s less politically-charged.

What do you think?

Never in history has there been a more technology-ridden, hyper-connected, entertained generation. So how in the world do we tell them about Jesus?

You can’t keep up! If you try to compete on the “world’s” level, you’re going to loose. Youth group will never be as entertaining as the latest movie, and your personality will never be as enthralling as the next American Idol. I know that’s hard to hear for some of you, but someone had to say it! ;)

So how do you connect?

Be yourself. Students can smell a fake, and if they see you trying to be something you aren’t, they’ll turn away. At the same time, they thrive on authenticity. Confidence in yourself is the name of the game.

Find that unique personality that God put in you, temper it with Christ’s call to love and sacrifice, and live boldly. Ministry is not striving to be who you aren’t, but learning how to use what God has already given you and letting God use you.

Be a friend. Less and less of our students are sticking with the faith through college. When those that do look back at what made a difference in high school, they never talk about the games. They rarely talk about their youth pastor’s messages. But they always talk about the relationships that made an impact on them.

Make a habit of taking time to connect with your teens personally. If you’re not sure how, just start by asking questions and listening. Then prayerfully (and patiently!) watch for that moment of ministry that could impact the rest of their life.

Go deeper. Studies show that teens are hungry for spiritual meat. Don’t be afraid to open up those cans of worms and deliver. Would you rather be known as the “youth group with the grossest games,” or “the youth group that really has answers”?

Wow! Amen! Check out Lia’s amazing speech on abortion (yup, she’s 12).

She decided to enter a speech contest at her school with this controversial topic. They almost didn’t let her compete. Then she won–but they disqualified her because of the topic she choose. Can you believe it?

Turns out there was a big disagreement between the judges afterwards. One even stepped down and the others soon reversed their decision so now Lia is competing regionally. Read more here. Thanks Lex!

Sorry it’s been so long since the last post. The last month has been incredibly interesting. Long story short, we drove one car from East Texas to Chicago for Christmas, flew back, sold the other car in 1.5 weeks flat, packed, moved to Chicago, my wife jumped through tons of hoops to get as many of her credits as possible to transfer to her new school, and I flew back to Texas to finish my last few weeks here at Teen Mania.

Yup, that’s my excuse.

I hope to take some time this weekend to work out a lot of improvements and write several posts that have been stirring around my head. I’m still putting together a brand new home and brand new look for the blog. You’re gonna love it, but until then, here are a few headlines that have been catching my attention lately:
Fortunately, TV has no idea about teens’ real life
Christianity is no longer America’s default faith
More teens charged for taking inappropriate pictures of themselves
Facebook Whooper Sacrifice gets banned (It was definitely a unique app, but Facebook obviously didn’t like it!)
Even in bad economy, more teens are getting plastic surgery (Why? To improve self-esteem of course! Not surprising considering most tweens and teens think they’re overweight)
Football stardom now starts at 13

Why should that scare us?

Because it’s filled with plenty of content that will tempt our students and kids and taint their mind with sin, and it’s not easy to avoid. According to a recent study from the Parent’s Television Council, even innocent searches on YouTube like “Hannah Montana” quickly leads kids to explicit content.

A group called the Parent’s Television Council just finished a first-of-it’s-kind study of content on YouTube. Personally, I wasn’t surprised at all by what they found! I avoid surfing around YouTube because it’s so easy to stumble into videos that are downright shameful. It’s not a question of intention, but what you might stumble across in spite of your intentions that can pull you down a path of sin and destruction.

I’ll spare you the ridiculous details, but here’s a summary of what they found:

“Children who use YouTube to search for video clips of their favorite stars like Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers are exposed to some of the most offensive profanity in the English language. Video searches for these popular terms showed that YouTube’s gating procedures do not extend to text commentary. 

“And despite YouTube’s policy of not hosting sexually graphic videos, entering any number of popular search terms produced videos linked to ads for triple-X pornography – often without even requiring age verification.

“With nearly half of boys and a third of girls ages 13-17 naming YouTube as one of their top three favorite websites, no parent can afford to ignore these findings.  The results of this study should serve as a wake-up call for any parent concerned about graphic or indecent material on websites they perceive to be ‘safe’ for their children.” PTC President Tim Winter.

Most parents (and some youth pastors too?) still give a blind eye to what teens are doing online. We stop after telling them to not do “bad stuff” on the internet, but little do we realize that even when they surf for perfectly harmless things, the bad stuff finds them.

Is it too far to tell students to stay away from YouTube? Would students do it, even if we taught them to–and how should that affect what we teach them?

It’s a proven fact that teens watch a lot of TV (although they tend to multitask more often now, browsing the web or listening to music while channel surfing). Is anyone concerned about the garbage they’re consuming with all the hours they spend in front of the screen?

A recent Levi’s commercial went farther than most. Two teens, a girl and a boy, undress in front of each other while the camera focuses on the unmentionable areas. There’s a slew of extremely suggestive dialogue, like “You’ve never done this before, right?,” “I’m scared” and “Don’t you trust me?” We learn at the end that they’re really just jumping off a pier into a lake, but by then the damage is done.

This commercial is part of the “Live Unbuttoned” campaign, which you can read more about in the Parent’s Television Council’s newsletter, and it’s not the only one of its kind. The entire campaign is highly provacative and the creator’s intentions is clear–to provoke temptation-laden thoughts and images and connect the Levi’s brand with the concept of an young, sexually active lifestyle.

If you’re not convined that this sort of stuff is all over TV, you can also read a recent article from the Baptist Press highlights a few more “worst of the worst” moments on broadcast TV.

The Levi’s campaign is terrible and enough to convince me to not buy any more jeans from them until they clean up their act. But it raises an even bigger question. How do you protect students from the garbage that’s everywhere on TV? Especially the younger and much more impressionable ones?

I’m starting to teach and encourage students to give up TV. There’s very little good to it, but a whole lot of bad. It’s a high call but there’s nothing but benefits. My wife and I haven’t watched much for several years and our relationship is much richer, with each other and with the Lord. The students I do know that have given it up are not socially akward or maladjusted because of it. In fact, most of them have an even stronger walk with the Lord now.

Why wouldn’t you teach and encourage your students to give up TV? What’s the best way to actually do it?