As far as student ministry is concerned, this should inform how we lead small groups, coach leaders, & interact with students when we see them!

It’s no myth that a large percentage of people who lead students (teachers, youth pastors, etc.) default to “giving special privileges” to students thinking that will help them see their value but this research proves just “listening” to them is 41% more effective.

It stated “Nearly a third of children on the social networking site are ready to unfriend their parents for nagging chats and clueless comments, according to an AOL survey.” I wonder what that percentage would look like for students in our student ministry.

I thought the analogy was clever and kinda funny (at this stage in life):

“Mothers have found a even better way to humiliate their children than showing baby pictures: becoming a friend on Facebook.  Like the cyber version of being picked up in an uncool car, teens are now mortified by nagging chats and clueless comments left by their mothers on their online profiles.”

Just to save you a click of your mouse I’ll post the rest of the article here for you to read.

“The moms like to overshare about things like menopause that their kids want nothing to do with or know anything about,” said Jeanne Leitenberg, 27, who with a friend, Erika Brooks Adickman, 28, launched a site last year called “Oh Crap! My Parents Joined Facebook.”

The site, http://www.myparentsjoinedfacebook.com, gets at least 20 embarrassing submissions a day from despondent teens, such as these from moms commenting on their children’s Facebook page: “be my friend pleez even if I am your mom” and “dad thinks you look like Cher … please change photo fast.”

“They join out of the mentality that they’re the cool mom, and they just want to be part of the gang,” Leitenberg said. “They don’t realize how horrifying or how intrusive they actually are.”

Youngsters are blanketing the Web with protests. Scores of complaints about mothers posting annoying messages and embarrassing photos have been posted on Twitter, often crammed between adoring tweets about pop singers Justin Bieber and the Jonas Brothers.

It has even spawned a YouTube video that has had nearly 1.2 million views. The video, “My Mom’s on Facebookbemoans the loss of the “sanctuary in cyberspace” to news feed-stalking mothers.

Maybe that’s why some teens are getting “Facebook fatigue.” Nearly 1 in 5 are losing interest, according to a survey of 600 teens this spring by online gaming site Roiworld.

Of those teens, 16% said they’re leaving Facebook now that their parents have joined, while 14% said there are just “too many adults and older people.”

More than three-fourths of parents on Facebook are connected to their children’s profiles, according to the report from AOL, which teamed with research firm the Nielsen Co. to survey 1,000 parents and 500 teens.

A June report from Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions found that many more mothers had set up profiles than fathers.

Mothers tend to use Facebook “as a way to reattach the umbilical cord,” Brooks Adickman said. “But then they nag and get offended if they feel neglected.”

tiffany.hsu@latimes.com

First read my Personal Disclaimer: I wrote this post for people who merely want to have as a part of their core mission to attract this younger generation to their church.  What I’m personally thinking is that I believe this will be a BOTH/”AND” effort as the church in the west moves forward.  Here is where we as a church will be engaging this discussion on a LARGE scale!

TO FIND OUT MORE INFO ABOUT THIS “AND” DISCUSSION CLICK HERE.

Here are my thoughts on how to get this gen into your church:

1.  WE HAVE TO BE MULTI-CULTURAL: If I can make a generality, most of our students like multi-cultural things whether they know it’s multi-cultural or not.  (Examples – Music, clothing, language.)  Also every time I talk to my parents or think about my grandparents life-story I have to remind myself that younger generations are growing up POST-Civil Rights Movement.  Without US History classes in school most would have NO concept of pre-civil rights way of living.  This gen isn’t afraid of other cultures and as a whole, they embrace it.

2.  The approach HAS to be rooted in your mission, vision, & values: You can talk all-day about what you care about but you live on a mission, striving towards the vision you find most compelling, & do that through the lens of the things you value MOST highly.

3.  We have to be authentic: This Gen can sniff a fake a MILE away!  They want you to “be real” about your relationship with God and not some “idea” of what following Christ should be like.  If it’s hard, just say that.

What else needs to be done?

I read this and thought i’d love to ask what people think about when they hear camp. I talk about “camp” a lot but I know my view of camp is limited to the experiences I’ve had.

YPulse wrote: “Ohh, summer camp. My personal experience was pretty limited, but “Huge” reinforces everything pop culture and camp fanatics like Anastasia have led me to believe I missed out on: Insta-best friends. Cute counselors. Covert operations with dire (but not really) consequences. And LOTS of emoting. In short, a petri dish of adolescence. For better or worse. Of course, in this case, with weight-loss as the underlying goal of the summer, that stage does also double as a platform for the struggles that come with teen obesity and body image in general. Not that feeling uncomfortable in your own skin, overweight or no, isn’t also a pretty universal trial of teendom.”

So what comes to your mind when you hear “camp” or “summer camp”? I’ll go first: leadership development!

(I keep hearing, “She’ll be grown-up before you know it“.  My internal response, “shut it, let me enjoy every moment until then“.  In case your wondering, my outward response, I just smile.)

Everyone knows that students are “growing older younger” but not everyone knows  this is called “Age Compression”.  Not that it really matters what it’s called but the phrase helps me understand what’s actually happening.  The age gap is being compressed…by culture, parenting, & social norms (in my opinion).  Students in 6th grade are thinking & interacting like 8th graders were 2 years ago.  8 graders are living like 10th & 11th graders lived 2 years ago, etc.

I feel like I hear SO many people saying “I can’t believe what these kids are into at such a young age” or “it amazes me how fast kids are growing up these days”…and I think to myself “You can’t believe it, look around!”  EVERYTHING we see is feeding this and sometime ‘we’ feed this.  We expect students to ‘act‘ like adults, or more mature, in certain areas of their life (i.e. the spiritual journey) YET when they do it in other areas (ie. their social life) ‘we’re shocked’.  Seems odd to me.

Besides that, why does it surprise us that we have an Enemy (the Devil) who wants to derail our children at a younger age?  As parents, teachers, and church leaders step our game up, the Devil is stepping his game up too…that shouldn’t surprise us!  Every opponent prepares to defeat their competition…even if our opponent can NEVER win unless we let him.

Let me also say, I’m not sold on the conservative idea that this “age compression” is an overtly “bad thing” and I also don’t know that it’s a “good thing” either, I just merely accept that it IS the way things are, and do ministry accordingly.  It’s more impactful to do ministry according to what ‘is’, not what ‘was’…then press people and cast a compelling vision for what ‘could be‘. (Just my opinion)

While it may not be important for us to know the actual name of this phenomenon I believe it is important for us Student Ministry folks and Children’s Ministry folks to know what’s happening.  I know it’s been a tradition of the church to deny reality and assume things aren’t the way that they are….but this is something that is worth understanding.  It will really help us move the ball down the field further faster and potentially reach more of this generation.

One of the stigma’s I find in the high schools is that some students ‘feel‘ like the church is out of touch with their reality.  Whether the church they attended/attend is or is not doesn’t matter because students respond to what they ‘feel’ not necessarily what is.

So one of the ways to bust that barrier is find ways to show them we understand their reality and then help them see what God’s Word has to say about that reality.  Proving to them week after week that the Word of God is a Truth that cannot be contained to a certain period of time.  Jesus is just as alive today as he was the days He walked the earth and the day He rose from the dead.  His word is just as powerful as it has always been.

So what are you doing in your ministry to unlock the code on how to reach, speak to, inspire, and empower a generation that is “growing older younger”?

After checking this out you should read the full post HERE and check out Dan HERE.

Hip Hop and the Church

When living in God’s will, the church (like Hip Hop culture) provides relationships, identity, structure, and support in times of trouble. Hip Hop culture was formed in community and has helped give meaning to several generations of young people. The church and Hip Hop share common ground in more ways than one.  How can we build on that ground and dialogue rather than shake our heads and miss out on an opportunity to be where God is at work? It is imperative that we not only begin grappling with these issues, but begin moving out to reach this cultural movement.

There are at least five theological areas that Hip Hop presents as a potential “Gospel” message for this generation.  The first is a theology of the profane, described above.  Here are four other important lenses:

A theology of suffering: This theology actually embraces the concept of suffering and moves beyond the basic three theological responses to suffering: suffering for divine retribution, suffering because of God’s will, and suffering as only a temporary reality.⁵ Hoppers use suffering as life experience and an actual process to draw closer to a God who suffered like us.

A theology of community: For Hip Hoppers, life is done in community. Whether those communities are a few people or one hundred, community is still occurring. For example, many of the concerts I have been to reflect Hip Hop’s deep desire to engage in community. More importantly, Church happens in that community and the presence of God is also experienced.

A theology of the Hip Hop Jesuz: For many Hip Hoppers, Jesus is not the “traditional” form of a savior most of us have been taught to believe in (i.e., the blonde-hair, blue eyed, White embodiment of perfection). Jesus is the multi-racial Jesus. Jesus is the Jesus that can understand the pain and misery of the inner city. Jesus is the one who could relate to the poor, downtrodden, and folks that people set aside. Thus, a theology of the Hip Hop Jesuz is a contextualized “version” of Jesuz (Hence the adding of the letter “z” to the name).

A theology of social action: Hip Hop is about taking action and responsibility for the community. This theology explores the deep social awareness that is not only prevalent throughout the Bible, but also through Hip Hop’s connection to both justice and Jesus. A theology of social action encourages personal responsibility: sometimes we are the true culprit of social injustices. Hip Hoppers, such as Tupac, would challenge pastors and theologians to think deeper about issues such as poverty, social justice, and suffering and urge them to take action.

Regardless of what you think of Hip Hop personally, it does possess many redeeming qualities that should, at the very least, elicit our curiosity.  What can we learn from it?  What can we bring to it? If we want to live out the gospel authentically, we cannot afford to fear things that are unfamiliar or nontraditional.

Who’s Daniel Hodge PhD?

Daniel White Hodge, PhD studied Hip Hop culture at Fuller as an FYI fellow with Dr. Jude Tiersma Watson. His new book, The Soul of Hip Hop: Rims, Timbs and a Cultural Theology will be released this August through InterVarsity Press.  This article is an adaptation from the introduction and chapter 1.

What do you think?

Not gonna lie, I was a little shocked when I read this:

“…it’s a fact that teenagers today seem to be crossing their fingers behind their back more and more. They are cheating and stealing more, too. The latest Report Card on the Ethics of American Youth, by the Josephson Institute of Ethics, shows teens are lying more often and more easily than ever. The report indicates an increase in lying, cheating and stealing among youth since 2006, when the report was first published.

Forty-two percent of those surveyed said they lied recently for financial gain. Sixty-four percent said they cheated on a test during the past year, and 38% had cheated more than once. Eight-three percent said they had recently lied to their parents about something significant.

Concerning theft, 33% of the boys and 25% of the girls in the survey admitted to shoplifting in the past 12 months. Twenty-four percent said they had stolen something from a relative or parent in the same time period, and 20% had stolen something from a friend. Perhaps the most telling bit of data was that 93% said they are “satisfied with their personal ethics and character.”

All teenage behavior, including dishonesty, has a motivating factor. Teens hope to get something out of everything they do. Some will cheat or lie to feel esteemed or to appear perfect at any cost. Some just need to feel that they are never wrong, so they lie to cover it up when they are. Some are untruthful because they fear the consequences from mom or dad for telling the truth. And as far as stealing, kids steal things because they feel entitled to own them, or for the thrill of getting away with it, or just to fit in with their peers.

Let’s not overlook the way our culture glorifies all forms of dishonesty. It’s difficult for one to think of an unimpeachably honest public figure today. Every day we hear of politicians, business leaders, sports figures, police, teachers and judges — people whom we once looked up to as role models — who have been caught in a lie or a cheat or a theft of some kind. And consider the explosion in popularity of so-called “reality” TV shows, whose plot and strategy are usually based on deception and lying in order to gain a monetary prize or fame. It’s a far cry from the most popular TV shows in my teen years, like Bonanza, The Waltons, and Little House on the Prairie. They may have been corny at times, but they had recurring themes of honesty and good character.

The most popular form of entertainment for teens today is the Internet. Due to its anonymity, deception and fantasy are rife on the Internet. Parents should be concerned that such deception, what I call “digital courage,” can spill over and fuel an attitude of deception in other areas of the teen’s life. So, I tell parents to…

Read the rest HERE.

I’m dreaming about an axiom I can use to sum up ALL of the beast known as student/youth culture!

I’m pretty sure that’s an impossible task but it would make our jobs in student ministry a little easier.  I wish there was a concise or condensed way to sum up what we are to understand about this generation as we try to reach and communicate with them.

I think it’s more than just understanding the lingo, and knowing what they like, I think in order for us to REALLY  tap into how to best help them see Jesus clearly, we need to shrink the beast into something more manageable so that we can get “specific and practical” (to use some Granger lingo) instead of being all over the place in our approach.

I feel like most of the music, fashion, and movie industry has student culture pegged…or at least they know how to set trends…how is the church doing?  Seems to me that we’re following whatever trends they set and then we’re trying to make that adaptable to what’s “appropriate” for ministry.

I’m not bashing those industries at all, I actually wish I could sit in a planning meeting with the creative minds of those industries and pic their brains…but I am saying that I’m hoping we find a way to BECOME the trend setters for society again.  (If you’re saying “that’s not possible”, you should probably get out of student ministry because that’s what it’s going to take!)

Anybody got any thoughts or fuel to add to the fire?  Comment below.

A 16-year-old Arkansas boy is taking his mother to court over accusations she broke into his Facebook account and wrote slanderous comments about him.

But Denise New claims she was just concerned about her boy’s behavior, and the case could challenge the rights of parents to monitor their children online.

“If I’m found guilty on this it is going to be open season” on parents, New said Wednesday.

“You’re within your legal rights to monitor your child and to have a conversation with your child on Facebook whether it’s his account, or your account or whoever’s account,” she told KATV.

Read full story here.