The title of this chapter is Is Anybody Out There?: The Growth of Teenage Isolation. This chapter struck me in a funny way. DeVries addresses the crises that he sees as the major contributing factor to why youth aren't becoming the mature Christian adults that we all want them to become. This crisis, is the isolating of the youth from the rest of the church. The image of this that he uses is the "one-eared mickey mouse." The circle that represents the head, is the church. The circle that represents the ear, is the youth group. There is little interaction between the two. DeVries sees this as a crucial mistake of the churches today. It seems as if the church is copying what the current culture is doing. In schools, neighborhoods, social activities, and even families, youth are becoming isolated from adult figures. DeVries concludes this about this isolation trend.
"The obvious limitation of a co-figurative culture, or what Robert Bly calls a 'sibling society,' is that each generation has to relearn (and often incorrectly) a value system that can give them coherence and meaning." (p 37)
When I talk to youth ministers today, often times I hear about their plans to create a new youth service for Sunday mornings, as an alternative to the traditional worship service which they are currently attending. They motivation for this change, is to increase more interest in the youth group and draw in more young individuals from the local schools and community. This is where I am torn. I understand what DeVries is getting at and the importance of having the youth interact with older generations and all, yet I also think that there is value in gearing services in such a way to attract youth in and preach the gospel to them. I'm caught in a predicament on this. What I wonder, is if there is a way in which you can do both. One option that I personally have been wrestling with, is the idea of having the opportunity for the Sunday morning youth service, while either on Sunday night or Wednesday night providing elective classes where youth and adults can attend together, and allow the other night (either Sunday or Wednesday) to be reserved for small groups. This is just a BASIC idea that I'll probably end up thinking through and fleshing out, but what do you think? Is there a way (maybe not even the one I presented) that an arrangement could be reached so that youth could have their own service, yet still have the opportunity to be with adults and learn from that experience? Or would this split the strengths of the church and turn "doing one thing REALLY well" to "doing multiple things MEDIOCRE?"
Oh man, I completely agree with you Pat!! This is an area where I'm really torn too! I know how important it is for students to have their own service, one that really fits them, speaks to them, etc., but I also know the importance of students being attached to "big church" because of the 60-70% drop-out-of-church rate when students "graduate" from the youth group. I'm incredibly torn and want students to go to both services since they're both incredibly valuable. Here's one way that I like, which fixes the issue. One thing OCC did during my internship last summer was that they had 3 services on Sunday morning. During the second service there was a High School service held as well. This was their own service and directed towards them. When this service was over there was still another "big church" service left. Many students and I went to this "big church" service too. I really liked this way because there was a High School Service and regular service as well. Best of both worlds!!
ReplyDeleteYou know, I don't know why I didn't think about this earlier. Of course we need to get the kids to reach upward and be involved in the adult programming. But, why don't we place the burden of maturing younger Christians in the hands of the Mature Christians. Maybe the older ones need to reach down.
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