A History of Youth Culture from MPPC on Vimeo.

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 It was the line at the end of the Seattle Times (p A3) article that got my attention: “(Superintendant) Cassell said she couldn’t discuss personnel matters but she wanted students to focus on learning, not activism.”

In this post I am not going to engage in the Martin/Zimmerman case, or even the “personnel matter” of Ms. Harris’ firing. In response to this comment, I have only one question today:

 What, then, is the point of learning?

 In my work and study of thousands of teenagers the last decade and more, culminating in Hurt 2.0: Inside the world of today’s teenagers, one of the more sobering conclusions is that over the years our educational system has shifted from being about inclusive and honoring societal preparation into a data transmission machine. In 1900, 1% of high school aged kids went to what we now know as high school. By the 1930s, high school was mandatory in every state. During that brief period of time we rallied in defense of our kids, teaching them that they were all “gifted and talented,” and each one was a part of us.

For many years now education has morphed from being a community partnership between parents and the rest of us, with the purpose of helping our young become included members of adult society, into factories of “learning” information. This trend has been exponentially increasing, to the point now that the biggest battle over education is finding ways to produce data depositories capable of competing with other nations over facts, figures, spreadsheets and vocabulary. Our “best and brightest” are now so tightly defined that only a small percentage of our kids are offered the label “gifted and talented.”

 What about everybody else? What do we do with those whose “gifts” and “talents” cannot be measured by “data dump” standardized tests? How do they grow up? Where do they connect to the rest of us? What makes them matter?

The bigger issue, of course, and what grabbed my attention, was what do we expect of the data we throw at our kids? Or, to put it more starkly, what is the point of the learning enterprise? When we allow an educational philosophy that leaves our kids with only knowing data, and having no map to navigate or even respond to that information, we deny their human potential, and reduce each one to a being a captive of endless adaptation to the whim of others. Is this our goal? To fill kids with data and information without helping them to know how to connect life with what they’ve received? Is “activism” such a bad thing? Or can there be healthy and productive ways to teach all our kids that healthy and life-giving activism actually contributes to the betterment of community?

The endless cycle of idea and action,

Endless invention, endless experiment,

Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness;

Knowledge of speech, but not of silence;

Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word.

All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance,

All our ignorance brings us nearer to death,

But nearness to death no nearer to GOD.

Where is the Life we have lost in living?

Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?

Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries

Bring us farther from GOD and nearer to the Dust.

- T.S. Eliot, Opening Stanza from Choruses, The Rock

Isms abound. They’re everywhere. According to the website, “Phrontistery” (Gk, a thinking place), there are hundreds of “isms” in the English language. Most of us have probably never heard of most of them, like pyrrhonism (total or radical skepticism), titanism (spirit of revolt or defiance against social conventions), or adamitism (nakedness for religious reasons; I think I would have called this Davidism, but that’s just me).

Often, if not usually, “isms” are defined as a doctrine, belief or practice, like modalism (belief in unity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit) or intuitionism (belief that the perception of truth is by intuition). Sometimes those “isms” describe important historical doctrines of the Church and are good and helpful, like monotheism (belief in only one God). More often, however, they describe a doctrine or belief that is off – sometimes a little (bonism, the doctrine that the world is good but not perfect), sometimes a lot (dualism, doctrine that the universe is controlled by one good and one evil force).

What is common among “isms” is that each was hammered out over time by people. They didn’t pop up out of nowhere. There is a context that drove a new thought, a lengthy conversation that refined that idea, and finally a group that gathered together to protect and proclaim the “truth” of the doctrine or belief.

Because our world is filled with conflicting, screaming voices vying for our kids’s attention, a big part of our role as parents and adults in their lives is to help them to be able to discern between what God has revealed are His “isms” and the many counterfeits (by the way, often many came and come through the teaching in the church; that’s why we at ParenTeen and Project 51 are deeply committed to seminary – some of these “isms” are pretty subtle, and potent).

At Project 51, our prayer for parents and adults is that no matter what role we play in the lives of children and teenagers, we will take seriously to pass on the words of Paul to his “son in the faith,” Timothy: “Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers” (1 Timothy 4:6)

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This is the first in a three-part series on what missional communities are and how they could reshape youth ministry.

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There are more studies of young people and their faith today than at any time in human history.  Despite this wealth of information, our methods have not significantly changed since contemporary youth ministry was birthed in the 1950s and 60s.  That will change in the coming years.

Here is my best shot at how youth ministry will morph by 2020:

1. “Missional Communities” will change youth ministry relationships

A movement is emerging in churches large and small across the U.S.  It started in the U.K. decades ago as the church was forced to learn new strategies in an increasingly post-Christian culture.  “Extended-family” type groups of 20-70 people are emerging in churches that have a very clear outward mission.  Kids are a part of this movement – a future blog post will talk more about how Missional Communities may change youth ministry more than any other movement in the coming decades.

2. Intergenerational education programs for Senior Pastors will emerge

Future senior pastors will increasingly be expected to understand the dynamics of today’s intergenerational movement in churches.  Seminaries and other entities will begin to offer opportunities for senior pastors to be immersed in its complexities.

3. Sunday morning programs will become history

Congregations will become increasingly dissatisfied with the separation between adults and its young people at their weekend services.  Worship services will change to accommodate younger people and those congregations that do not, will continue to disappear.

4. Same sex conversations will reach a fever pitch

Homosexuality, and the church’s view on that topic, will be a lightning rod for middle and high school kids in considering faith in Jesus.  Youth ministries will increasingly need to lovingly converse with kids and the broader culture about its viewpoint – whatever it may be.

5. Professional youth ministry positions will become more rare

Churches will increasingly alter structures so that entire congregations and caring for young people and will rely less on paid staff than in previous decades.  This will also be financially driven as more congregations will be forced to have a leaner staff.

6. Youth workers will be older

The stereotype of the youth worker as someone in their early 20s who views youth work as a stepping stone to another pastoral position will continue to fade away. 

7. Youth workers will learn differently than previous decades

Conferences, books and seminars have been the major way youth workers have learned over the previous decades.  The next decade will mark a continued emergence of youth workers learning together in smaller “cohorts” of up to 30 people.

8. Children’s ministry will emerge as the most strategic opportunity in the church

Youth workers will begin to realize that putting multiple, Jesus-loving adults in kids’ lives means to affect the way the entire family system thinks about their relationships.  The best opportunity to influence those family relationships is when children are young and family relational patterns have not yet been established.  Savvy youth ministries will seek to influence children’s ministry to encourage parents to create extended family relationships.

9. Youth ministries will leverage technology to help kids process Jesus

Young people, elementary school age and up, will increasingly own smart phones and other technologies.  Youth workers and ministries will learn how to leverage technology to help kids integrate Jesus into the different segments of their complex lives.

10. Leading churches will learn new ways to help kids serve

The days where churches create “service projects” for kids to participate in will decrease.  In its place will emerge more thought-out ways that churches come alongside young people who demonstrate a passion for particular causes or issues.  Leading churches will ask teenagers to dream, pray and then support young peoples’ passions rather than create service projects and ask them to participate.

One thing that will never change:  adults who love young people without agenda in the name of Jesus will always be a precious commodity and used by God to help transform their lives.  – Jim Candy

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…when I met Chap Clark.  Someone had suggested I take a class taught by Chap and I slipped a cassette tape into my Walkman – for those of you under 30, you can find out what a cassette tape is here.

It changed my life.  Even though I had already worked in middle school ministry for three years and been a Christ-follower for much longer, I understood for the first time (gulp…) how Jesus’s heart really beats.  What I heard from Chap Clark was – GO.  Go to their world.  Stop relaxing in your adult world and dare to truly know kids on their turf.  Love them there.  No matter what you find.  No matter how sad, frustrating or seemingly hopeless some of their lives may be.  GO.

The word “incarnation” was new to me.  I’d heard it, but I didn’t grasp it.  I’m still trying to.  The idea that Jesus left the comfort of heaven and chose to come to our world says something about his nature.  It says something about how he values us.  It says something about what we ought to do too.  GO.

“As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.”  Dissect that sentence.  Every word means a lot.  “As” means there is a specific way Jesus was sent.  Don’t miss who did the sending.  Now we are being sent.  And it isn’t a one-time deal.  It’s ongoing.  Today.  Tomorrow.  GO.

It’s a real honor to get to blog with Chap over the coming weeks and months.  It’s a bigger honor to hopefully reinvigorate us all to go where kids are, become better youthworkers, parents and volunteers, love them regardless of how they respond and trust that Jesus Christ is actively moving in their hearts and will somehow use us.  Even us…  JC

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