March 05, 2008
Every once in a while, when my children face the challenges of telling the truth, I tell them one of my favorite stories – an Asian folktale called, “The Emperor’s Seeds.” It’s a story about a boy named Ling who was given a seed by an aging emperor in search of a worthy successor. Every child in the realm took a seed home to plant. In one year’s time their plants would be judged by the emperor himself to determine the next ruler of the empire. They all anxiously waited for their seeds to sprout. The other children boasted of their flourishing, flowering plants. But Ling’s never grew. Even though he watered it faithfully, his was only a pot of dirt.
When the long-awaited day came for the children to bring their plants to the palace, Ling wanted to stay home. His mother urged him to take his well-watered pot of dirt anyway. As the children gathered in the courtyard Ling felt sick to his stomach. All the other children had lush, colorful plants and his was just an empty pot. He cowered in the corner as the others laughed at him and his pile of dirt.
“Today I will announce the next emperor!” proclaimed the king. His palace guards were sent among the children and their sprawling plants. They cornered Ling and his pot of nothing. As Ling was brought to the front, the courtyard fell silent. Ling thought he was being singled-out as a failure – a laughing stock.
The emperor looked at Ling. Ling was afraid to raise his head. “What is your name?” asked the emperor. “My name is Ling” he said sheepishly.
“Behold your new emperor!” the king announced. “His name is Ling!”
No one could believe it. How could Ling be the new emperor?
“One year ago,” the emperor said. “I gave each of you a special seed. They were all boiled so they would not grow. Only Ling had the honesty and the courage to bring me a pot with my seed in it. Therefore he is your next emperor.”
I use the story of Ling as a counternarrative to the story my children hear all too often in their world. “Lie. Fib. Fudge a little. It works.” I could just say, “Tell the truth.” But a story, like this one, places truth-telling and honesty in the context of life. In a way, it models honesty much more powerfully than any lecture could.
There is power in stories. They teach us as they draw us in. We experience them. We identify with the plot and the characters. And if a story is compelling enough, it begins to rescript our own life story.
So far we’ve spent time focusing on the contemporary adolescent narrative – how influential forces shape the way they answer questions of identity, belonging and autonomy. Now I want to dive into some theology and explore the contours of the kingdom of God as a compelling “counter-story” that’s right for our time.
The central theme of Jesus’ mission and message was the good news of the kingdom of God. Jesus announced the good news of God’s kingdom, urged his followers to give it top priority and taught his disciples to pray for the inbreaking of God’s reign (Mark 1:14; Matt 6:33; 6:10; Luke 11:2). In Jesus’ future vision, God’s kingdom was pivotal. When asked about the end of the age, Jesus answered, “This good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world as a testimony to all the nations; and then the end will come (Matt. 24:14).
The kingdom of God is a new order under God’s rule. It is both a present reality and an unfolding future. With Jesus’ arrival, the kingdom began to unfold. Christ embodied and announced a new realm. He was summoning others to join the remaking of God’s people and their new direction (Wright, The Challenge of Jesus, 47). Jesus’ kingdom inauguration set in motion a way of being, believing and living in the world that still challenges and contrasts our culture today.
Here are a few ways the kingdom of God – functioning as a “counter-story” – can shape youth ministry today.
A Present Culture. In a world of abandonment, it is clear that today’s teens are in great need of a safe place in which they strongly sense of community and belonging. In the realm of God’s reign, there is no place for abandonment. It’s a reality of incarnated presence. Today’s teens are becoming increasingly marginalized – suffering at the hands of self-focused adults and their competing systems. But Jesus taught that the marginalized and oppressed were at the center of his kingdom (Matt. 5:3; 11:5; Luke 4:18) and that true greatness comes by serving them (Matt. 2:26-27; John 13).
Adults in the church have the tremendous opportunity to “live among” their young people, assisting them on the path toward adulthood. The entire faith community has the opportunity to welcome its teens – opening its arms of blessing.
A Real Salvation Story. Our culture, as you’ve read before, feeds us the line that fulfillment and identity is found when we have more stuff. But the kingdom of God tells a different story. The Good Life. The idea of the “good life” in our culture is primarily defined in terms of consumption – which only seems to add stress to life. However, God’s kingdom affirms a more celebrative, giving lifestyle. In God’s realm, the good life is one of celebration and generosity (Sine, Mustard Seed vs. McWorld, 23).
Generosity. Personal accumulation comes at the expense of others. Oppression and injustice rise when material accumulation is an overriding concern. But Jesus taught that our treasure should be stored in heaven, not on earth. Seeking God’s kingdom as our highest aim will ease the anxiousness for things (Matt. 6:19-21, 33). Jesus encouraged his followers to sell all and give to the poor Luke 12:33; 18:22). Surprisingly, acts of generosity can liberate us from greed and anxiety (Craddock, Luke, 164). Self-Sacrifice. Consumer culture champions the idea that “self” matters most. But the quest to meet the needs of self is one of the greatest bondages in our society (Foster, Celebration of Discipline, 11). Jesus, however, affirmed the liberating way of selfless love, self-sacrifice and service (Mark 9:35; 10:31; John 13). Adolescents can finally lay down the enormous burden of always having to get their own way. At many levels, the biblical reality of God’s reign provides a compelling counter-story to the prevailing narrative of consumer culture. To embrace the kingdom means seeing life in a new way. Living the good life of generosity and self-sacrifice can offer teens a kind celebrative fulfillment that our consumer culture could never offer.
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January 08, 2008
Categories: Adventures In More Than Teaching
Remember the circus? Remember the tension you felt watching the tightrope walker inch across the high wire somewhere in the stratosphere? Well, we can use the tightrope image to describe adolescence. Young people hop-up onto the wire at the onset of puberty. Their role in life is changing. They’re leaving the safety of family. They can sense that their world will never be the same. They begin to shuffle across the tightrope asking, “Who am I?” “How do I fit in this world?” and “Do I and my choices really matter?” These are questions of identity, belonging and autonomy. And maybe we could add a fourth question, “How will I know when I get the answers?”
Well, let’s think about the answers our culture is giving them. In our culture of abandonment and consumerism, how do teens understand their sense of identity, belonging and autonomy?
Identity. Our culture of abandonment has protracted the adolescent quest for identity – it’s getting much longer. Without a significant adult presence, identity is hard enough to find, much less form. Consumerism has led young people to believe their identity can be purchased. “You are what you consume.”
Belonging. In the context of abandonment, belonging is most palpable in the peer cluster – tight-knit groups of friends designed to help each other navigate life. The seemingly hostile adult world has driven adolescents underground where they feel they belong – in their own world. Our consumer-driven culture, has branded our teens. They not only wear the brand, they belong to the brand and its community.
Autonomy. In a culture marked by abandonment, adolescents might get the feeling that they are valued only for the ways they contribute to the pursuits of the adults around them – not for the unique creations that they are. And consumer culture has turned our adolescents’ sense of autonomy into a commodity – something that can be bought and sold. Teens are valued as brokers of cool and for their cash.
This is the story of many of today’s teens. This adolescent narrative has contributed to a Christian faith that has become just set of helpful platitudes and beliefs for individual living. It’s a therapeutic orientation to life and faith. Teens tend to operate with a filter of self-protection and self-interest and their spiritual lives function the same way.
So, can we offer teens a competing narrative? I believe so. It’s called the kingdom of God. In the next few weeks we’ll look at the biblical theme of God’s reign as a radical alternative to today’s adolescent narrative. I believe the kingdom of God can re-script the story of today’s teens and offer them a decidedly biblical sense of identity, belonging and autonomy. And those who work closely with youth have an extraordinary opportunity to recapture a sense of narrative, community and mission for this emerging generation of adolescents.
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December 05, 2007
Categories: Adventures In More Than Teaching
Today’s high school age teens increasingly feel abandoned by adult systems. Maybe two definitions are needed here. “Abandonment” refers to the society-wide slide in care and nurture of the young. “Adult systems” include any institution, organization or relationship that is for, and about the adults in charge.
When they get to high school most teens have been subjected to years of adult-driven and adult controlled institutions and relationships. These systems are primarily concerned with achieving adults’ agendas, needs, and dreams. They are for and about the adults in charge.
Consider this scenario . . . Amanda is a straight “A” student and a good soccer player. But she’s got a problem. It’s Thursday and she has a huge chemistry test on Friday. Her parents have told Amanda, in no uncertain terms, that this chemistry test is big. Here’s the argument: If she doesn’t get an “A” on the test, she’ll lose her 4.0 GPA. If she drops below a 4.0, she won’t be valedictorian of her class. If she’s not valedictorian, she won’t get that prime scholarship to the best college. If she doesn’t go to that prestigious school, she won’t get the top job opportunities once she graduates. And if those jobs aren’t available, she won’t make the big money . . . basically her life would be wasted – and everything hinges on tomorrow’s chemistry exam. The trouble is, her life is so busy that she has no time to study. But she has a plan.
Amanda calls the soccer coach. “Coach, I’ve got a huge chemistry test tomorrow and I can’t find any time to study. Would it be okay if I missed today’s practice to study for the test?” You already know what the coach told her. “Amanda, we have a big game on Saturday. If you don’t practice, you won’t play.”
What’s Amanda supposed to do with this? Her parents, teacher, and coach all have their own competing, conflicting agendas and Amanda is caught in the middle.
This story plays itself out if various ways all across the country every day, and our teens are paying the price. They are becoming increasingly stressed out and fragmented. No wonder they feel like they have to survive the adult world. It’s as if we adults have it in for them.
This teen’s comment captures abandonment perfectly, “Everybody’s got an agenda for me!”
Our response, I think, begins with pulling together teachers, parents, coaches, youth pastors, community leaders for face-to-face, heart-to-heart dialogue centered around this question, “How can we work together to nurture the next generation?”
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November 14, 2007
Categories: Adventures In More Than Teaching
When it was released, the movie Napoleon Dynamite was widely embraced by teens. Critics detested the film, but adolescents loved it. Why? One reason was that it portrayed an unpopular misfit finding wider acceptance while staying true to himself. But on a deeper level, you might notice something else. Where are the adults? There is no mention of Napoleon’s parents. He and his brother Kip live with their grandma. But she’s out chasing her own dreams on the sand dunes until she injures herself in a dune buggy accident. The boys’ Uncle Rico, who stays with them, recruits Kip as an accomplice in his own money-making capers. The school’s principal doesn’t want to see Napoleon and his friend Pedro succeed in the school’s election. Notice that in the movie, there are no adults that are really for the teens. Adults are either absent or hostile. Teens embraced the movie because it portrayed their adult-less adolescence so accurately. According to Chap Clark, in his book Hurt: Inside the World of Today’s Teenagers, this type of abandonment is fast becoming the defining issue for today’s adolescents.
Adults, and the systems they create, have forsaken adolescents while the teens are still on the journey of growing up. Increasingly, they must negotiate the perils of adolescence alone. This sort of adult desertion has forced teens to band together and create a separate world all their own – covert and very different from the adult world around them.
I will write more about this important youth ministry issue in the next couple of weeks.
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October 31, 2007
Categories: Adventures In More Than Teaching
Last week I wrote about ways in which our culture’s consuming narrative competes with the story of Christ – one in which we are called to follow Jesus, serve, love and give our lives away.
So, how do we counter this narrative? Here are a few ideas.
Create Sacred Space. On a personal level, the busyness and clutter produced by popular culture’s media onslaught demands too much of our time and offers countless distractions. This competes with identity and faith formation. We are called, however, to follow Jesus in life in order to love and know God personally, but the rush and rhythm of consumer culture makes it very difficult to tune-in to God.
Somehow we need to rediscover sacred “space.” This means not only exposing the destructive nature of the consumer narrative, it involves the practice of what Kenda Creasy Dean and Ron Foster call “dehabituation.” Carve out the time to get to a remote mountain or a quiet lake with no agenda. There you can punctuate the hectic rhythms of everyday life with moments of keen awareness of God. We must make a conscious effort to live differently. Otherwise we might drift aimlessly with the currents of daily life instead of deliberately choosing to live as a follower of Christ.
Practice Discernment. In his book Practicing Discernment with Youth, David White argues for discernment as a powerful youth ministry response. First, youth workers can create a listening space for teens to express their heart themes – their joys, struggles, longings and dreams. Second, we should help adolescents wrestle with seeing the world accurately – as both complex and full of potential. Third, by remembering (in prayer) and dreaming (seeing a future cultivated by the Christian story), teens are better able to live from their “soul” – above our superficial, distorted culture. Finally, take action. Teens must be given the opportunity to do something to express their desire to meaningfully engage the world. When young people practice discernment, they can better find their way toward a biblical understanding of who they’re called to be. Their identity is not found in products or brands – it’s found in the fact that they were created, gifted and called by God to bring hope and healing to the world.
Meaningful Dialogue. Perhaps the most effective way caring Christian adults can become players in the culture-wide contest of teen influence is through intentional and meaningful dialogue. The consumer narrative can tell a very convincing story, but it must be engaged and countered by an equally convincing story of the gospel. Through careful conversation and interpretive dialogue, we can expose the insidious nature of the consuming narrative, replacing it with God’s redemptive story. An example would be to generate conversations with teens concerning the importance of character – contrasting the consumer character of insatiability with the Christian character of generosity and service. In the mall, help teens identify the ways in which retailers entice them to buy. Compare their mall experience with Paul’s notion of contentment (Phil. 4:11-13). Then tell stories that demonstrate how liberating satisfaction and contentment can be.
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October 22, 2007
Categories: Adventures In More Than Teaching
Over the years I’ve begun to wonder if our consumer culture isn’t telling our teens a sort of salvation story – one that competes with the gospel of Christ.
The following story is an excerpt from my upcoming youth ministry book, Out of the Box and Into the Reign: Grounding Youth Ministry in God’s Story.
My family enjoys watching the popular reality series Extreme Makeover: Home Edition in which new homes are built for families in need. It didn’t take Shelly and me too long before we grew weary of the new homeowner’s incessant use of the phrase “Oh my God!” It’s as if this is the only way to express their complete shock at the extravagance in which they were about to live. We grew up learning that God’s people were commanded to “not misuse the name of the LORD” (Exod 20:7). So we winced every time we heard the phrase. Actually we got quite good at anticipating it. Each time we could sense the phrase coming we would mute the sound on the television. After awhile we felt good about our ability to keep our kids from such damage to their spiritual lives.
But after watching a few episodes – successfully muting almost all references to God – I heard something maybe more disturbing. At the end of a particular episode, one of my children muttered, “I wish we had a new house.” At that moment I realized something was going on at a deeper level. Somehow this seemingly harmless show was sowing seeds of discontent in the minds and hearts of my children – and me.
There’s a subtle, but strong underlying message in a show like this. But you have to look and listen carefully. The message is, “Fulfillment comes when you have newer, bigger and better stuff.” In fact, the ad campaign promoting the show’s second season featured a weeping dad thanking the design team for changing his life. “You made me a better husband, a better father and a better man.” At the close of one episode, the tearful mother declared, “You’ve given me my life back.” Listen to what they’re saying. Doesn’t it sound like a form of salvation? These are words we might reserve for Jesus.
In some ways the show tells us a powerful salvation story. You are being saved from a life of insignificance and despair. The storyline might go like this: When you find yourself in a struggle for happiness, dissatisfied with life and who you are, your search will ultimately lead you to a purchase. The climax of the story comes when you finally possess the product that brings you joy. And you will live out your days with a sense of peace and inner harmony. The moral of the story endorses personal acquisition as the way to fulfillment, happiness, identity and meaning in life. But the story doesn’t stop there. The salvation narrative of consumption identifies us as consumers. We are identified by what we buy, not what we produce. And our task is to nurture a new generation of consumers – because that’s who we are.
Now, let’s not be too hard on one television show. The salvation story of consumption is everywhere, and we are unwittingly manipulated to desire what is being produced – advertisers and brand bullies are savvy. This consuming narrative especially influences impressionable teens.
Consumerism’s emphasis on personal fulfillment powerfully shapes the adolescent story. It doesn’t take long for teens touring the landscape of our culture to buy the story that their identity comes with a price take. They are what they purchase and display. This story conveys that their sense of belonging resides in the brand and its community. Think about the loyalty that Mountain Dew or Starbucks have been able to generate. The consumer narrative also tells teens that they are valued for “cool.” Corporate “cool-hunters,” as they’re called, infiltrate teen culture, capture what’s cool and sell it to corporate marketers for a steep fee. Savvy teens soon realize they’re valued for their image and style.
This consuming narrative is in direct competition with the story of Christ – one in which we are called to follow Jesus, serve, love and give our lives away.
So, how do we counter this narrative? I’ll offer a few ideas next week.
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October 15, 2007
Categories: Adventures In More Than Teaching
The following is a story I shared in Chapel at Tabor on October 8, 2007. It’s also an excerpt from my upcoming book, Out of the Box and into the Reign: Grounding Youth Ministry in God’s Story.
Two years ago my Discipleship and Evangelism students spent time in Wichita working with World Impact (an urban ministry organization). We were invited for lunch at Carson Middle School. Over the years the school had become increasingly violent. Students who weren’t involved in gangs were intimidated by them and rising hostility made the lunchroom a dangerous battle zone.
Now we were invited there by the school’s assistant principal to “hang out” with the students – build relationships and have a good time. When we walked into the school with our decks of cards, old-time table games and crafts we must have looked like the fun patrol. All we needed were hats and party blowers.
We were ushered into what used to be the cafegymatorium – now the boys lunchroom. The tile floor, the barred windows and the armed police officer at the door made it feel more like a prison mess hall than a middle school lunchroom. Our lunchroom “monitor,” a retired 15-year police veteran, briefed us on how lunch was “going down.”
I wasn’t prepared for what came next. The moment the students entered the room the atmosphere radically changed. The lunchroom monitor became a drill sergeant at boot camp. Anyone who stepped out of line, or subverted the system in anyway, felt the wrath of this lunchroom intimidator. It was an in-your-face, belittling, insulting tirade – with predictions of future prison time. I was appalled. My students were terrified. But the boys didn’t even flinch – it was business as usual. This place was operating under a culture of terror. Fear and intimidation were the only effective tools for controlling behavior. You can imagine how ill-prepared and unnerved we were. But we naively went ahead with our plan.
With two college student per table we began with some small talk and some games. Napoleon Dynamite was huge at the time. That gave us some common ground.
To our surprise the boys slowly warmed up to us – smiling & cracking jokes. I noticed Brian exchanging email addresses with boys at his table. Jared knew some magic tricks, and before too long, we were all gathered around the table. Teens were laughing and high-fiving each other – there were even a few chest bumps. Brief moments of a giddy innocence lost long ago.
When the lunch period was over, our lunchroom, boot camp, intimidator called us together. With tears in his eyes, he said, “In all my years of doing this, I’ve never seen this lunchroom transformed like it was today. I thought this would never happen.”
What happened that day in a middle school lunch room was a kingdom sighting. The reign of God permeated a world of fear. The genuine love and compassion of our students not only attracted these normally hardened boys, it altered the culture.
This story illustrates the transforming nature of God’s reign. A contrast culture surfaced and the old order was exposed. The dominant realm was affected, and others were invited to participate in the emerging reality.
When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he taught them a prayer that included these words, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). As followers of Christ our prayer, priority and passion is to renovate the world as it is, into a world as it ought to be.
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My heartbeat is empowering a new generation of Christian leaders who are willing to follow Jesus Christ daily, radically, and totally in life. I’ve been teaching at Tabor College in the areas of youth, church and culture since 1997 and I’ve been involved in youth ministry, at various levels for more than 20 years.
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