Mike King

Youth Workers - Refresh, Rejuvenate, Re-Engage

Come Join US - www.youtheology.com/youthworkerskc

youTheology is a Saint Paul School of Theology Pan-Methodist program that is preparing leaders, deepening faith, providing youth ministry resources, and giving opportunities for loving and serving God and others with high school students and youth workers.

The Demise of Guys?

The topic of the demise of guys is being increasingly being discussed.  If a prominant Christian leader, psychologist or sociologist was behind this data it would be dismissed by many as moralizing.  However, the article on CNN's website entitled, "The Demise of Guys: How Video Games and Porn are Ruining a Generation," is from world-renowned Psychologist Dr. Philip Zimbardo is a professor emeritus at Stanford University.

Zimbardo believes the consequences of pornography and excessive gaming "is creating a generation of risk-averse guys who are unable (and unwilling) to navigate the complexities and risks inherent to real-life relationships, school and employment."

Read the full article here.

Zimbardo has also released a book with artist and psychologist Nikita Duncan entitled, "The Demise of Guys: Why Boys Are Struggling and What We Can Do About It."

Zimbardo has also been featured in the following mini-TED talk discussing this same subject.

Bullying! How We Should Respond?

 “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you.” Jesus Christ

One of the most difficult things I’ve ever experienced in my four decades of youth ministry was to serve as a Pallbearer for the funeral of one of a 13-year-old boy in my youth group.  Paul was the victim of repeated bullying by a large group of peers that tragically left Paul with the mistaken conclusion that his reality was too unbearable and he chose to end his own life.  This happened nearly 30 years ago.  Unfortunately, bullying has gotten much worse in the last ten years.

Right now the movie documentary Bully, along with several highly publicized  cases involving tragic results because of bullying among teenagers, has created a heightened awareness of the frightening dynamic of this issue in our culture.

Working with adolescents, we regularly hear stories of young people who everyday have to deal with being bullied.  Everyday, hundreds of thousands of young people have to deal with the fear of attending school where they know they will be bullied.  It’s estimated that an average of more than 150,000 young people stay home from school everyday to avoid being bullied.  Most of the time this occurs without parents being aware that it’s happening to their child. 

Bullying involves acts of repetitive negative behavior of a person or persons toward another person or persons that is aggressive and intimidating in nature.  Bullying can take the forms of emotional, verbal, and/or physical abuse.  Bullying can be a one-on-one issue but most often it involves a collaborative group engaged in peer abuse directed at one or more individuals.

Research reveals that young people who are regularly bullied face an increased risk of mental health issues.  Depression, anxiety, lack of motivation, despair, helplessness, and suicidal thoughts prevail among those who are dealing with being perpetually bullied. In addition to thinking about harming themselves, some begin to fanaticize about hurting their tormenters.  According to a report by the Secret Service, two-thirds of students who participated in school shootings were victims of bullying at school that had reached the level of self-described “torment.”

Mona O’Moore of the Anti-Bullying Centre at Trinity College in Dublin, has written, "There is a growing body of research which indicates that individuals, whether child or adult, who are persistently subjected to abusive behavior are at risk of stress related illness which can sometimes lead to suicide."

In addition to aggressive and physical actions that intimidate and harm the victims of bullying there are new forms of bullying that have emerged through social media.  This type of Cyber-bullying attempts to socially isolate the victim by spreading rumors, name calling, threatening, criticizing, manipulating, ostracizing, etc. through a variety of social medias, including Facebook, Twitter, and whatever new social media tools emerged last week, along with those that will surface this week.

According to the Cyberbullying Research Center, One in five teenagers are harassed regularly online. Almost one-half of all teenagers have experienced some form of online harassment. More than one-third (37%) of teens admit to using social networking sites to victimize and harass their peers.

Before we, as adults, rest in the idea that we have moved beyond the ability to bully, let me suggest that we may not engage in the overt bullying actions of adolescents but we must ask ourselves if we have not just adopted more sophisticated forms of bullying – gossip, character assassination, ostracizing, sabotaging, and exclusionary behavior toward others.

When Jesus was asked what it means to truly be his follower he says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbor as yourself” Luke 10:27.  He then tells one of the best-known stories called the parable of the Good Samaritan in order to explain and explore the heart of what it means to be a genuine follower of Christ.  In this parable Jesus commends the man who comes to the rescue and takes care of a victim of extreme bullying.  We must stand up for those who are being bullied. Christians must speak up.  We have to take action concerning this issue

What is Youthfront doing about this issue?

• Teaching young people to treat all people with respect and the love, grace and mercy of Jesus Christ.
• Teaching young people the Golden Rule taught by Jesus, “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you.” Matthew 7:12
• Teaching and mentoring young people the importance of defending and standing up for the marginalized victims of bullying.

What can parents do?

• Talk to your kids about bullying.
• Go see the movie Bully with your age appropriate kids.
• Educate yourself on your kid’s world, their friends and the social environments they spend time in.
• Be appropriately curious of your kid’s social media world.

I believe that we have a window of opportunity created by this movie Bully and the media’s attention on this issue to double down our effort to radically alter the reality of bullying in our culture.  This, I believe is something that the followers of Jesus and God’s church must passionately engage in.  We must do this for our kids.

Resources                                                                                                                                          The Center for Parent/Youth Understanding, www.cpyu.org                                                          Wikipedia

I Love Youth Ministry

Catie Madderom credits her years at Youthfront for teaching her the power of community. When you listen to her talk, you’ll hear her say that word “community” again and again as she describes her history with the ministry - and how it has impacted her spiritually. Take a look!

No Easy Answers: The Shared Role of Parents and the Church in the Spiritual Formation of Teens

I served as Editor for the Youthfront Book Shorts Series published by Barefoot Publications. The title I'm featuring today is Leslie Snyder's No Easy Answers: The Shared Role of Parents and the Church in the Spiritual Formation of Teens.

I first met Leslie Snyder in Seminary.  I quickly labeled her as the fanatical advocate for parents who have kids in youth ministry.  This turned out to be an accurate label.  Leslie is passionate and deeply committed to help parents in our churches be more involved in the Christian Formation of their children.

Leslie eats, drinks, sleeps and dreams about ways to serve parents of young people.  She insists that youth workers must be more aware of the family context of the young people they minister to.  Leslie’s voice joins the growing chorus of voices articulating the importance of Christian Formation of young people needing the involvement of the entire church community.  She describes ways that youth workers can become guides, facilitators, pastors and leaders for the movement toward creating a broader faith community engaged in passing the faith onto our emerging generations.  For Leslie, investing in parents of teenagers is an essential aspect of nurturing a more holistic faith community for our youth to be spiritually developed.

Leslie gives youth workers practical ideas for helping parents of the youth you minister to and how this will broaden you ability to disciple them.  One of the biggest challenges we face in the church today is to help our churches really live for and love Jesus, and for our congregations to be deeply committed to Christian formation.  It’s no wonder our young people don’t take their faith serious when they haven’t seen this modeled by the adults in our churches.  Leslie makes the case that we have to look at his issue holistically and in doing so we can make a difference.

*The cool thing about this book short series is the fact that they are downloadable and can be reproduced by youth workers to engage in conversation with their volunteer staff for the purpose of training and shaping the ethos of the youth ministry of a church.

ORDER HERE

Generational Changes - 1982 to 2012

From: Best Education Degrees

Extended Adolescent???

The Immerse Journal served as one of the sponsors for The Extended Adolescent Symposium on Monday following the National Youth Workers Convention in Atlanta.  This event was hosted by the Youth Cartel (Mark Oestreicher and Adam McLane) and was moderated by Dr. Kara Powell.  The two presenters were Dr. Jeffrey Arnett and Dr. Robert Epstein.

Dr. Jeffrey Jensen Arnett received his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia, and did three years of postdoctoral work at the University of Chicago. From 1992-1998 he was Associate Professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at the University of Missouri. He has been a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University and the University of Maryland.

Dr. Arnett's primary scholarly interest is in "emerging adulthood," the age period from the late teens to the mid-twenties (mainly ages 18-25). For over a decade he has conducted research on emerging adults concerning a wide variety of topics, involving several different ethnic groups in the United States. He also studied emerging adults in Denmark as a Fulbright Scholar in 2005.

Dr. Robert Epstein is an author, editor, and longtime psychology researcher and professor—a distinguished scientist who is passionate about educating the public about advances in mental health and the behavioral sciences. The former editor-in-chief of Psychology Today, Dr. Epstein is currently a contributing editor for Scientific American Mind and an occasional lecturer at the Rady School of Management at the University of California San Diego. He is also the founder and Director Emeritus of the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies in Massachusetts.

Through 2003, he served as University Research Professor at the California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University. He received his Ph.D. in psychology in 1981 from Harvard University.

Dr. Epstein's positions is that categorizing 18 to 25to? year-olds as "emerging adults" is a socially constructed western concept that serves as a self-fulfilling expectation not to grow up and embrace adult competancies.

While both of these scholars argue passionately for their positions, I found much that I agreed with from both of them and much that I disagreed with.  Overall, this was a great learning event.  Concerning the practical theological application of the content discussed, I found myself resonnating more with Dr. Epstein (although I found Dr. Arnett to be more winsome and likeable, Dr. Epstein has an aura of arrogance that was off-putting).

The biggest take away for me was affirmation (from Dr. Epstein's position) that our (Youthfront's/Immerse) posture toward treating young people as emergingly capable adults is essential in youth ministry and the Christian formation of young people.  We have heard this affirmed over and over again by young people who discover are exposed to a generous and hospitable Christian learning environment that allows them to dream and connect their story to God's mission and are encouraged to unleash their imagination to discover their vocation. 

The following video is a TEDx teen talk by 18-year-old Natalie Warne.  "Natalie was born in an underserved part of downtown Chicago, Natalie and her five siblings had to survive on her mother's humble teacher salary, moving from city to city to find work. No stranger to adversity, Natalie was determined to make something great out of her life.

At 17, Natalie saw the documentary Invisible Children: The Rough Cut, a film exposing Africa's longest running war. Compelled by this story, she applied to be a volunteer or "roadie" for Invisible Children, using her voice to help end this war.

She quickly stood out among the other interns, and was quickly given responsibility to help lead Invisible Children's largest project to date; an event in 100 cities worldwide called "The Rescue." Through her determination, tens of thousands of people came out to the event, sleeping in the streets for up to six days in order to raise the profile of this war.

Her efforts paid off when Oprah Winfrey invited Invisible Children, and Natalie, onto her show to add her voice to the numbers. The event was then highlighted on Larry King Live, CNN, and countless other news outlets. Natalie has natural charisma, astounding leadership qualities, and is now working in Los Angeles as a film editor, to continue to share stories of injustices." 

If you are a youth worker - PLEASE WATCH THIS VIDEO.  Below the video I added the twitter stream from the Symposium and a link to Gavin Richardson's notes from the day.

JOSHUA COOK's Notes

 Twitter notes below (start from the bottom to read chronologically)

immersejournal immerse journal

And now onto Advent! A fantastic weekend with our friends @NYWC & @YouthCartel! We were proud to be a part of both. #nywc11 #xad

ctcummings21 Chris Cummings

#xad it seems we make people sit in "the struggle with identity" until they finish school and then they can continue because they have to.

wloyw_us WeLoveOurYouthWorker

Dr. Epstein says, "The love a 14 year old experiences is the same love a 30 year old experiences." Thoughts? #xad

wloyw_us WeLoveOurYouthWorker

The divorce rate for males who marry in their teens is actually lower than males who marry later. #xad

gavoweb gavin richardson

@lillylewin thinking the need for mentor / apprentice relationships are more critical than ever #xad

YWCircuit YouthWorker Circuit

RT @timothyeldred: The teen brain in not a pulsing organ of misbehavior. -Arnett #xad

bethanystolle Bethany Stolle

Epstein and Arnett both agree that young people are capable of a lot more than we ask of them. #xad 

immersejournal immerse journal

Both Dr. Epstein and Dr. Arnett highly praise Christian Smith's work. Find his work here amzn.to/vmJxxU #xad 

immersejournal immerse journal

A very productive conversation here at the extended adol conf that is giving helpful articulation to our experiences as YWs. #xad

bethanystolle Bethany Stolle

What would Epstein say about the place of people with disabilities when our measure of adulthood is competency? #xad 

YouthCartel YouthCartel

Love that Kenda Dean, Kara Powell, and Jim Hampton have asked questions of Epstein, right alongside youth workers. #cartellife #xad

Moshman Debunk's Teen Brain Myths

David Moshman, Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Nebraska, pushes back on the current groundswell of assumptions being made concerning the development of teenage brains fueled by interpretations of research coming out of neuroscience.

He addresses five assumptions about adolescents and their brains: (1) adolescents are categorically different from adults; (2) adolescents are less rational than adults; (3) adolescent cognition and behavior are explained by their teenage brains; (4) adolescent brain development is a maturational process directed by genes; and (5) the outcome of that process is a state of maturity achieved in adulthood.

He declares each of these assumptions to be blatantly false. Read how he responds to each assumption in the THE HUFFINGTON POST here.

To dig deeper into this subject get Moshman's book Adolescent Rationality and Development: Cognition, Morality and Identity.

Adolescent Guys (12-55 year olds) Guide to Social Media

thanks to Andy Zirschky for pointing me to this.

Who Are Teens Striving to Emulate?

The Barna Group takes a look at the issue of Teen Role Models and who are the people most influencing young people.

"For better and worse, teens are emulating the people they know best. More than two out of three teens identify people they know personally as their primary role model. Many parents and youthworkers fret about the role models of the next generation. Yet, one reason to remain hopeful about the development of young people is their reliance upon the people they know best: friends, relatives, teachers, pastors, and coaches. At the same time, that reality underscores the insistence of many parents that they influence the people with whom their child associates, in order to be sure that their kids are surrounded by people modeling positive values and life choices."

Read full article