Recently, for a youth ministry course I am taking this semester at Campbell University Divinity School, I was asked to give my opinion on how I felt culture was being presented today by society at large, and then the way churches present it today. Below are my thoughts on the matter.
In looking at the way culture is
presented by society in comparison to the way it is presented by churches and
ministries today, you will see that there are both stark contrasts, as well as
shocking similarities. First, there are considerable differences in the way the
two parties go about viewing youth culture today. Recently, I watched a movie
called “Project X,” in which a group of unpopular teenage boys decide to throw
the “party of all parties” when one of the group members’ parents are away for
a weekend. The majority of the movie is just that, one big party, that
continues to grow and escalate to the point that there are so many people
attending, that police SWAT and riots teams are called in, and the aftermath
leaves much of the houses in the surrounding community destroyed by fire,
water, and general mayhem. Though this movie is obviously exaggerating the
story for entertainment purposes, one cannot help but to see elements of
society’s message today for teenagers coming off the screen. For example, the
only way to be accepted is to stand out by doing something that no one else has
done, usually something others would see as “cool”, which in this case is
throwing a massive rave. Or how about that the only way to achieve a
relationship with the opposite sex is through the degrading of others and
yourself, and then if that is completed, the next logical step is a
relationship based on sex.
This movie is not by itself in the
type of images our students are hearing today. Social networking, which encompasses
not only internet access on a computer but applications that are used through
smartphones, tablets, and mp3 players, allow for constant communications with
peers as well as constant bombardment from advertisers. Ads through these sites
are generated based on specifically calculated statistics which list the
activities of the user from all of the websites they visit, to then produce ads
that would be deemed appealing to that person. So even as they attempt to talk
with peers, students have a constant flow of images of what they should or
should not be dressing like, or what accessory they should or should not be
sporting for all their friends to see. Not to mention the use of games and apps
through Facebook specifically, which allow you to create an avatar, or a
computer generated persona of yourself, to interact with others through role
playing sequences. All of these, movies, music, social media, etc., convey a
message to students today of, “don’t worry about being who you are when you can
be like this.” It provides teenagers with an escape from the natural struggles
that life presents each of us every single day, and allows them the opportunity
to avoid them.
In opposition to that, churches and
ministries today aim to tell students that you don’t have to be like what the
world and society says you have to be. The church’s voice is growing in its
opposition to the world with its message of “anti-conformity,” but for me
personally, despite the good intentions of churches and faith-based companies,
I am not so sure how well we are presenting a “different lifestyle.” For
instance, I think of the Kerusso brand t-shirts, who spoof current popular
trends or slogans of society, such as one I saw recently where instead of the
new Hobbit movie, which was released back in late 2012, the shirt, in
strikingly similar font to the blockbuster film’s logo, said “The Habit,”
followed by a verse about letting praise become a habit. As cute as this may seem
what kind of message is it sending? That we have to take everything the world
throws at us, slap scripture on it and send it back, and expect things to
change? Whatever happened to being different from society altogether?
Kerusso, who I am not attacking here,
just using as an example, does have genuinely good products for customers, but
I just question their strategy. Would Christian ministries, companies, and
churches today be as successful without borrowing catchy slogans from secular
enterprises? I think they could be if they committed themselves to being who
they are. Believers in Jesus Christ who though are in the world, choose to not
be a part of it and its lifestyle. I think we can encourage our students to be
who they are, but allow their idea of who they are to be based on whose they
are in Jesus Christ. When we are able to effectively do that, I think we will
start to see a culture of students who are able to withstand pressures from
outside entities because they are confident in who they are, and security of
whose they are in God through Jesus.
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