Archive for the ‘Youth Culture’ Category
Why believe in a god?
The American Humanist Association launched an aggressive pro-atheism advertising campaign on city buses in Washington, DC last month. The transit agency says that they can’t reject advertising only because one individual or group finds it offensive, even after more than 200 people complained.
The message is simple: “Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness’ sake.”
The struggles between faith in Christ and opposing belief systems are becoming more and more blatant. Students are asking deeper questions about their faith while simple and misleading arguments like this one are catching their attention and driving wedges between them and Jesus’ message of redemption.
Our response must be two-fold. It is important that when we discuss and present faith in Christ and what it means to be a Christian, whether with a group or individually, that we dig deeper. Jesus saved us from the penalty of sin and gave us eternal life in heaven through faith. But He also created the world and put the universe in order. He gives us purpose and meaning. He gives us answers to our deepest questions. We need to study carefully and ask students to find out what those questions are so we give them relevant answers, not just our prepared “Jesus loves you” speech.
We also must pray, and pray fervently. Faith does not happen because of what we say. It is the work of God in students’ hearts. Prayer must be our foundation as we rely on the Lord’s work in our young people’s lives.
You can find out more about the advertising campaign on their official website, www.whybelieveinagod.org.
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It Ain’t Newbies: Spike in Church Attendance will be from Regular Attenders
A new Barna study found that the spike in church attendance most churches expect this holiday season won’t necessarily be coming from brand new visitors.
According to Barna, 27% of regular church attenders plan to attend more services this holiday season, but only 4% of those that usually do not attend plan to come. “In past decades there was an assumption that the holidays were a time when outsiders might explore church life,” adds George Barna, Christian-pollster-extraordinare. “These days, however, churches and other religious institutions are not seen as safe or value-adding places by most outsiders. They see little reason to attend seasonal events, especially since those events often highlight their outsider status.”
Just another sign that we need to get out of the church and into the neighborhood to share our faith and reach our communities. It’s another good reason to carefully coach students in sharing their faith one-on-one , because less and less people are coming to church (or youth group) to hear it from the preacher.
Real Beauty
Youth culture is cramming a lot of messages down the throats of our young people. Because of all the messages of perfect beauty and the perfect body size, a lot of young girls are confused about what real beauty is and what it means to be loved and accepted unconditionally.
How Apple, Others Have Cultivated Religious Followings
An article on AdvertisingAge about brands and religion really startled me. Martin Lindstrom took Christians into an MRI room and found out that the parts of the brain that get excited about faith also get excited about brands. Then he listed nine components that good brands and religion have in common:
- A clear vision
- A sense of belonging
- An enemy
- Sensory appeal
- Storytelling
- Grandeur
- Evangelism
- Symbols
- Rituals
It’s freightening to think that the marketers and brands of the corporate world that are fighting for our student’s attention and money are using the same tools as the church. They would love for as many teens as possible to become their raving fans. The concerning part is that it doesn’t matter how much sex or violence (or anything else) it takes to do it–they will go as far as they can.
The list is helpful though. Each of these components are great tools to use in our own youth groups to encourage greater involvement from students. A clear vision is especially important to unite and inspire your teens.
We’re not the only ones fighting for our students’ attention. There’s a lot of competition out there.
This blows my mind
- More and more Americans agree with the idea that, as President-elect Obama is quoted saying, “there are many paths to the same place,” and that being a Christian is just one of those paths. Now it appears that even our President-elect has not taken heed of Jesus’ words, “No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
- Many put the Word of God on par with quotes from religious experts. Just like we saw in this interview, they put the words of the Pope and Billy Graham on equal footing with the Bible. Now, I don’t expect someone who doesn’t believe in Jesus to put a lot of clout in the Bible, but this is important for us to realize, especially as we engage in intellectual debates with others and train our students to be effective in sharing their faith. The Word is true and powerful, “living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword” (Hebrews 4:12), and when we debate and discuss our faith, we need to go further than quoting scripture verbatum. We must dig in and work hard to understand the worldview behind what people say so that we can bring Biblical principles to life for them in a relevant way, while at the same time continuing to pray for guideance (Ephesians 6:12).
