Mike King

Religion and Late Adolescents

The Social Science Resource Council has just released The Religious Engagements of American Undergraduates which is research connected to the SSRC's work on Religion and the Public Sphere.

I have perused it and think there is going to be important data for youth workers.  I think it may also provide insight into some of the conversations we are having around Youthfront about the Spiritual Formation of older adolescents (17 - 24 year olds). 

The first two sentences of the document are "Recent studies of college students' attitudes toward religion suggest that the academy is no longer the bastion of secularism it was once assumed to be. And these studies further reveal that the spiritual landscape on today's college campuses is virtually unrecognizable from what we've seen in the past."

The content is filled with links to additional resources, articles and research. 

North Carolina State University professor Alyssa Bryant coined the expression, “countercultural conservative,” to emphasize the ways in which evangelicals increasingly straddle both liberal and conservative views.

After a quick look at this content, it seems that today's Christian Adolescents are exploring "third ways" other than old categories of "Right vs. Left" or "Conservative vs. Liberal" or even "Republican vs. Democrat." 

Thanks to Bob Carlton for drawing my attention to this.

Interesting Article

The Minneapolis Star Tribune featured an article this week by Columnist Katherine Kersten entitled We're Losing Kids Who Crave Connections.  Kersten used two national studies on adolescents in her article.  One of the studies entitled Hardwired to Connect was a 2003 study released by the "Commission on Children at Risk, a joint project of the Dartmouth Medical School, the YMCA of the USA and the New York-based Institute for American Values." 

The article was interesting in that it spoke of the report attempting to look at moral and values development in adolescents considered brain development research in the study.  "According to the report, recent brain research indicates that children require two kinds of connections to flourish. First, they need strong, stable bonds with family and adults in the larger community. Second, they need a vision of life that offers meaning and purpose."

Kersten concludes the article by declaring, "To rescue our youth, we need to strengthen the groups and institutions -- from Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts to churches and synagogues -- that 'live out the types of connectedness' that today's children increasingly lack.  The most important of these is the family -- the foundational human institution. If we are serious about saving our children, we will start there.

Read the article here.

High School Confidential

Women's Entertainment Television (WE TV) is now airing High School Confidential which is eight one hour episodes shot over a four year period chronicling the lives of 12 girls moving from ninth grade through high school graduation.  The first two episodes have aired.  I am really interested in this series because it was shot here in Kansas City at Blue Valley High School.  My only complaint so far are the buffer shots featuring farmland, cows and buffalo running through fields... come on.  Johnson County is one of the wealthiest counties in the US and is far from rural.  Anyway, so far I have been quite captivated my this look into the life of adolescent girls.  One thought I've had consistently... when we see the reality of life in the adolescent world of today it reminds me of how absurd it seems to listen to the criticism of people who are worried about slippery slopes.  Teenagers need people in their life who love and know Jesus in a real way and who will engage in their lives in ways that are theologically rooted in the Incarnation, Crucifixion and Resurrection.

More info here High School Confidential 

American Youth want love more than sex

There is an interesting article called American Youth Want Love more than Sex posted on the PRNewswire website.  Read it.

High School Confidential

Jeremy Iverson the author of High School Confidential was interviewed today on Good Morning America.  Iverson is a young looking 24-year-old who went back to High School (undercover) posing as a teenager.  He had a lot to say about the behavior of his "fellow classmates."  Iverson claims that he was accepted into the most popular group within 30 days.  He made a lot of comments that should scare the life out of parents who have teenagers.  He even referred to the sexual activity of so called evangelical Christian kids.  As he was talking I had tons of questions about how far he had to go to fit in (what about the Child Protection Act?)  I agree with one of the parents or maybe it was an uninformed school official who stated that Iverson's project is "creepy."  As is my custom, I try to read, watch and listen to bellweathers of the adolescent culture in my attempt to stay attuned.  I am debating if I should read this book...  I'm not one drawn to car wrecks and death scenes.  Reading this book feels a little voyeuristic.  What do you think?

Read the ABC story.

Exposure to Degrading Versus Nondegrading Music Lyrics and Sexual Behavior Among Youth

Article in the official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics -  PEDIATRICS Vol. 118 No. 2 August 2006, pp. e430-e441

Exposure to Degrading Versus Nondegrading Music Lyrics and Sexual Behavior Among Youth  Read

Being 13

The Time Magazine Cover Story for August 8, 2005 is on early adolescents and is entitled,  Being 13 What's on their minds? TIME takes an inside look at an age of mystery and challenge READ 

Scariest thing about teenagers...

Often I see “grownups” act out of a mindset that all young people are bad, treating the adolescent impolitely before even giving them a chance.  I witnessed an adult clerk dish out this kind of behavior to a teenager as they were paying for something at a cash register.  The adult was downright rude.  Finally the teen had all they could take and asked, “Did I do something to make you mad?”  The adult responded by mumbling something under their breath.  After the young person left, the clerk said something to the effect of “damned smart aleck teenagers.”  Well, I had endured enough of this abuse so I replied, “funny I was wondering the same thing the teenager was.  I felt she (the teenager) asked you a very legitimate question.  In fact, if you would’ve treated me like you treated her, I don’t think I would have been as kind as she was.”

"The scariest thing about kids today is how adults feel about them." San Francisco Examiner

Millennials

There are multitudes of dynamics that play a role in the formation of generational tendencies.  Certainly, the parental posture that is driven by social norms plays a key role.  A forming generation is often affected by counter reactions toward the preceding generational values. 

Many assume that generations move in entropy.  The next generation will be worse than the previous one.  However, neither the Bible nor history supports this preconception.  One only has to start reading in the book of Deuteronomy followed by Joshua and end up with Judges to get an excellent education on the fact that generations go in cycles.

Joshua’s generation grew up observing God at work among the people of Israel.  They saw and/or heard about the miraculous deliverance from Egyptian Captivity, the crossing of the Red Sea, the provision of Manna and Quail, and Moses receiving the Commandments from God.  At the same time we cannot underestimate the impact their parents and grandparents constant grumbling, complaining and cynicism had on their formulative years.  It seems that they determined not to follow their elders example.

Many of us in youth ministry were trained to work with GenXers.  The problem is that Millennials are so different.  It is vitally important that we stop, take a deep breath, do a thorough examination of this emerging generation, evaluate our existing models of strategies and programs and then redesign how we do youth ministry with Millennials. 

I believe that God is doing something unique and is at work raising up a new extraordinary generation, maybe even a Joshua Generation.

In fact, Neil Howe (a Yale trained sociologist) who wrote extensively about the GenX Generation and has done phenomenal work on documenting the emergence of the Millennial Generation states emphatically that the last time we saw a generation with the earmarks of the present Millennial Generation was the GI Generation which was a true Hero Generation. 

I pray that God is raising up a new JOSHUA GENERATION. 

Moralistic Therapeutic Deism

The most expansive study of religion and youth ever undertaken in the U.S is now in its final year and is revealing a vast amount of important information. The National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR), conducted by Dr. Christian Smith, a prominent sociologist at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, has thoroughly examined the religious beliefs and practices of American teenagers between the ages of 13-17. Around 50% of adolescents claim that faith is important in their lives, impacting decisions and choices they make. A staggering 40% claim that they practice their faith in meaningful ways on a daily basis. Most of these teenagers who say they are Christians attend church and youth ministry programs/events but are by and large uninformed about orthodox Christian beliefs.

Recently, I attended the International Association for the Study of Youth Ministry in London. A friend of mine, Dr. Kenda Creasy Dean, who is a member of the research team, spoke about the findings of the NSYR. She has been commissioned to write a book based on the study. Kenda spoke about the theme of a "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism" that emerges among the teens studied. She described the beliefs of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, which many "Christian" teens embrace, like this:

1. A God exists who created and orders the world and watches over human life on earth.
2. God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.
3. The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.
4. God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.

     5.   Good people go to heaven when they die.

The NSYR team pulls no punches when they declare that teenagers are embracing this feel good, happy life concept of a nice God because this is what they are being taught and what is being modeled to them by the adults in our churches. Romans 1 speaks of the danger of serving a god that we create in our image instead of the true God of the Scripture. We have created a god who has conveniently chosen our American values. We make ourselves feel like we are really sacrificing to serve this god by making a list of a few cultural taboos that good Christians don’t do, all the while ignoring the God that is calling us to be revolutionary Kingdom people.

Followers of Jesus turned the world upside down by proclaiming the radical message Jesus is risen from the dead! Jesus is LORD, not Caesar, not our nationalism, but Jesus Christ who is instituting an in-breaking Kingdom that is dangerous to the old world older. A Kingdom that will result in the Restoration of All Things… The call to follow this God is not safe or convenient. We have too much Moralistic Therapeutic Deism being practiced in our churches, being modeled to our young people. We have a command from Scripture to impart a dangerous, radical, yet life-giving faith to "the next generation."

According to the NSYR research, some of the things that are producing transformational spiritual results among teenagers are an engagement in external service through youth groups, summer mission trip and camp experiences and extended mission/evangelism opportunities after college. The ministry that I am leading, YouthFront will continue to focus primarily on these types of transformational practices and programs. We will do this in close partnership with local churches. Kenda writes, "By embedding young people in dense relational networks, churches provide youth with many people who pay attention to them, and who are therefore in a position to discourage negative and encourage positive life practices. Finally, churches link young people to denominations, national organizations, international travel, and other "big picture" experiences that extend their social networks, expand their horizons and their hopes, foster developmental maturity, and expose them to cultural "others."

If you haven’t read Kenda’s book Passion (click on the link in the right hand column) do it. It doesn’t matter if you are a youth worker or not. Everyone passionate about Jesus, the church and the Kingdom of God should read this book.