iGens and Nobody's Happy

I was listening to the Net @ Night podcast with Leo Laporte and Sarah Lane (standing in for Amber MacArthur) the other night. Somehow the subject they started talking about was a portion of the Conan O'Brien show from earlier in the week. This was an interesting, because Scot McKnight, a theologian and blogger that I regularly read just got done with a series about the book Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled--and More Miserable Than Ever Before. Both of these hit on the unique subject that with everything we have, people are more miserable. I see this with the youth group kids and the some people in church. Listening to the podcast Money Life with Chuck Bentley, he has been hammering the fact that we have put ourselves into debt to buy things that end up making us miserable. So we keep trying to earn money to buy our happiness, only to be unfulfilled. I won't go into details, but there are people that I am close to that they haven't figured that out yet. In fact, they once told me that the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. I think that in the coming years, that America will realize that we need to change...

The Secret Life of the American Teenager - Thoughts

I'm glad the youth of America want the unvarnished truth:

And research suggests teens do want the awful truth: Three-quarters say they would like the media to talk more about the consequences of sex, according to a 2007 study by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

'Secret Life of the American Teenager' explores teen pregnancy - Los Angeles Times

I just hope that Hollywood would get the message and not send us more unrealistic stuff. I'm middle of the road on the series. It has good moments and statistics, but sometimes falls back on stereotypes for some of the dialog. However, it's not bad.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Chuck Colson's take on Blogojevich

Commentary: I know what Illinois governor feels like now - CNN.com

I like this quote from Mr. Colson:

At the height of Watergate, a dear friend of mine, Tom Phillips, then CEO of Raytheon, invited me to his home. As we sat in his kitchen, Tom read to me a chapter on pride from a little book by C.S. Lewis titled "Mere Christianity."

Lewis wrote, "There is one vice of which no man in the world is free. ... The vice I am talking about is Pride or Self-conceit. .... Pride leads to every other vice. ... A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you. ... Pride is a spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even common sense."

I couldn't agree more. I see it in the mirror in the morning and I see in the kids we work with.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Tyra ‘shocked’ by risky teen sex

Tyra ‘shocked’ by risky teen sex - Parenting & Family - TODAYshow.com

I guess Tyra doesn't get out much. While I don't doubt some of the information, this survey is skewed by who goes and takes it. It doesn't have any scientific validity, so I question the statistics.

But when some of girls surveyed came onto her show and described their sexual activities, “I was shocked again,” she added. "I don’t think they were trying to be sensational. I really do believe that they were telling the truth.”

Well, some of them may be telling the truth, but knowing that people fake stuff just to get on Jerry Springer, then I think that Tyra is really naive.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Students say the darnedest things

This site is hilarious. Some youth workers put the statements of some of their youth on the site.

Students say the darnedest things.

HT: Youth Specialties blog

I would like to rant...

however, I can't. There have been some things that go on with youth pastors and churches that I can't elaborate on at this point. Part of the problem is that I have a heart for the hurting youth pastors, who have been used and abused by churches. I once attended a NYWC in Pittsburgh in 2002. There I saw a seminar entitled "The Church has Fangs," or how some churches don't always act very Christian-like, with Len Evans. My church at the moment is pretty good. We have some typical things, but most of those things seem to have smoothed out as grace has been applied. I need to remember that grace when I get angry about situations where the church has shown its fangs.

Since that seminar, and then later during a guided prayer session in Dallas (2004) at another NYWC, I saw youth workers crying and in my heart, I felt God whispering in my spirit of me being a pastor/spiritual director to youth pastors. In the meantime, I read everything about youth ministry. I talk to kids. I look for ways to speak into their lives. In short as "Tiger" McLuen once said, "Be a Bob." (I won't tell the whole story, but it has to do with building a relationship with kids.)

This has taken my faith into radically new directions at times as I question what the Christian church really wants.

I question those that think that their buildings are more important than their kids.

I question those that don't look at the youth as worth the effort. They question why the need for a youth program.

I question those that seem to stay in their comfortable country club and think that their tradition is the only correct theology. There is a difference, and I have to constantly go back to God to question whether I am letting that interfere with my relationship with Christ.

That last one was a poke at some denominationalism that I have run into as of late.

I like to think that when I get mad at a church that it is a holy anger. I'm just not sure that I always channel it constructively like Christ did when He healed on the sabbath in the book of Mark.

On a twitter post I said something about the Republican party hijacked Christianity. I don't agree with the Republican party because they have some unholy planks that most ignore. The Democrats are no different. I look for who agrees most with me.

Instead of spreading the wealth that Obama would like, if Christians were just generous to the poor and oppressed, Show mercy and do Justice, their wouldn't be a need to spread the wealth.

While I agree with a couple of big issues that the political parties talk about, most ignore the mercy and justice that needs to be done at their own home.

I wrestle with these things.

Someday, I'll write what I am trying to not rant about, but it is too soon for the things to have happened, and I can't even speak in generalities at this point without tipping my hand.

However, as I think about it, all of this has to do with pride, and being self centered. I admit that I struggle with that. I know that I am not always right.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

An Extended Youth

This is an interesting article which I'm not sure what to do with. If this is the case, then the church has some serious work to do in training up its leaders, or place more emphasis on "youth ministry."

The youth market has always been defined as tweens, teens, and sometimes college students, but Viacom's recent "Golden Age of Youth" study reveals that marketers should begin including the 25-34 age group as part of their youth target. Call it the Peter Pan syndrome if you will, but the survey found that contemporary twentysomethings prolong their youth and delay "the onset of adult responsibilities and stay emotionally and physically younger for longer."
Why do you think the "youth market" has expanded? Boomeranging millennials moving back home? Youth culture as pop culture? What's behind this alleged case of arrested development?

View Original Article


HT: ypulse.com

Blogged with the Flock Browser

evangelical teenagers and sex

The hat tip goes to ysmarko with this. Although, I read the article from the youth marketing site called Ypulse. It brings about a good point that behavior doesn't always follow attitude, especially with teens.

interesting article in the new yorker about evangelical teenagers and sex. important reading for youth workers (and parents).

here’s an extremely key sentence:

Regnerus argues that religion is a good indicator of attitudes toward sex, but a poor one of sexual behavior, and that this gap is especially wide among teen-agers who identify themselves as evangelical.

(ht to ypulse)

View Original Article

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Showing mercy...with Rock Band?

I was listening to Brian Zahnd at the Word of Life church podcast from a couple of weeks ago and he was doing a series about showing mercy. Pastor Brian had pointed out any interesting thing, that the Pharisees said to get your act cleaned up and then come to the table to eat.
However, Jesus says come to the table to eat and I will help you get
cleaned up.

I guess I am wondering aloud, how do you reach out to show mercy? If you have read Mary's Rock Band Post then you know that there has been a little thing about Rock Band and using it as an evangelistic tool. The thing I see is that most kids that walk into our church come from families that don't know love and aren't clean in one way or another. So if we can show them that we aren't that different, that a lot of us like to play Rock Band or on the Wii or any other video games, won't that let them open up so that maybe they will see that they can sit at the table and we will help them get clean?

One other point that I need to say as well. One of the objections was that there is a screen that shows skulls with wings coming out of them. I thought about it a bit, and this is what I realized...Didn't God create the skull? wings? How did these things get associated with evil? I think that while God creates, we as humans use them to worship them for other purposes. Well, I remember that God had Ezekiel prophesy over the bones and they came to life. Didn't the apostle Paul use the altar to the "unknown god" and quote poems from Greek poets while preaching at Mars Hill?

So if we can invite some kids to come into our midst, to show them mercy, compassion, and love, then do you think that maybe we can use Rock Band for a good purpose?

Blogged with the Flock Browser

A cool song for the Youth worker

I saw this as a video that a church is using to set up their mission trip to the Dominican Republic, but it has some great thoughts on outreach and youth ministry.



Brandon Heath - Give Me Your Eyes from Brandon Heath on Vimeo.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

A youth worker conference

I like youth worker conferences and conventions. I have been following the NYWC that YS puts on each year. I would love to go back to one. Well, Group publishing and SYM have teamed to put together a conference in Columbus, OH. It sounds like NYWC but on a somewhat smaller scale. It would be cool to go, but funding will be the problem.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

apophenia: teens, dating, friendship, and school dances

apophenia: teens, dating, friendship, and school dances

Danah Boyd starts out with:

When I read the Chicago Tribune's coverage of why teens have eschewed dates for school dances, I wanted to scream.

I did too, well maybe not scream, but the conclusions of the article she writes about to me are wrong. There has been a slow movement toward not coupling in high school for  a long time. The only thing that I would add to Danah's article is that what I notice is that even though there is a movement away from the mating ritual as far as dances are concerned, the pressure to have a significant other in high school is still just as strong as anytime. I see this in the youth at church. I may do security duty, but the main thing with us is to be relational. The kids tell me a lot and most of their dramas is do to trying to find a someone to be boy/girl friend with.

Actually, if there is another reason for the non-couple of school dances it is partly from my previous post about girls self-esteem. However, that is only part of it. The guys have to be more encouraging so that the girls aren't more prone to have low self esteem.  Anyway, read the whole thing.

HT: Ypulse

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Low Self-Esteem of Girls

New National Report Reveals the High Price of Low Self-Esteem

Being an adult youth leader, I am always looking at youth culture articles and studies so that I can get a glimpse of what is going on in the culture. This was an interesting article with some interesting statistics:

-- 67 percent of girls ages 13 - 17 turn to their mother as a resource when feeling badly about themselves compared to 91 percent of girls ages 8 -12

-- Only 27 percent of girls ages 13 - 17 will turn to their father for help when feeling badly about themselves compared to 54 percent of girls ages8-12. Interestingly, at 16, girls become more likely to seek support from male peers than from their own dads.

We are seeing this in the girls in the youth group, and as much as we try to encourage communication with their parents, most still think that their parents don't know what they are experiencing. Read the whole thing.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

HT:Ypulse

Late night thoughts part deux

I posted a late night thought several years ago, but the allergy meds I took tonight are keeping me awake. Anyway, Mary and I have been discussing generational curses. She got a new book that talks about the spiritual root of disease and such.  I have read about generational curses in the Bible, and listened to a sermon on the subject that showed me that as alcoholism can be passed from one generation to the next, that is a generational curse. It wasn't till tonight as I tossed and turned that I put it all together.

From a scientific view, the psychological articles that I have read, show that there are addictions and abuse that are passed to one generation to the next.

From a theological view, these things have a spiritual aspect like in Deuteronomy 5(NIV):

[8]  “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. * [9]  You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers * to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, * [10]  but showing love to a thousand * [ generations] of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Now, the reason I bring this up is because as I have been working with youth and in my own family there are some of these things going on. Recently Mary and some of the other adult leaders were working through the names of the kids and saw problems that they were working through and in a lot of cases they were in families that their parents were working through the same things.

Working from a perspective that God wants you to be whole and your family whole, we work to share one another's burdens to help bear up the strain that these things bring. In so showing love, and since God is love and Christ the manifestation of God's love on earth paying the ultimate sacrifice in his death, we are trying to bring the spirit and body into wholeness.

The problem is, especially with teens, is that once they "get saved," they often fall back into the problems as they aren't necessarily cured from the addiction, yet, but they go against the counsel of others, and try to save their friends. Often falling back into the addiction. We have been encouraging the kids to talk to the adult staff and help us hold them accountable, so that they don't stray, but with recent events with one kid we see that it is a long journey.

Not sure why I had to share this, but I needed to let this out. There is probably more to this that will come to light, but I think that this is a good place to stop.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Small Group Statistics This Year

I read Josh Griffins blog from Saddleback church. I looked at the statistics and they look about the same as we get for our large group. We are trying to do small group, but have had very limited success.

• 52% Female students
• 48% Male students
• 38% Freshman
• 27% Sophomores
• 22% Juniors
• 13% Seniors
• 37% got together 1-3 times outside of normal group
• 34% got together 4-6 times outside of normal group
• 96% of leaders said that email was the best way to communicate with them
• 39% said texting was another good way to communicate with them
• 25% of our small group leaders won’t be returning next year
• 81% read the weekly small group leader email
• 75% canceled 0-3 meeting times during the year
• 15% canceled 4-5 meeting times during the year
• 8% of our leaders are starting over again with freshman

These are the Saddleback stats.

View Original Article

Blogged with the Flock Browser

C. S. Lewis Quote

I saw this on my C. S. Lewis Quote Google gadget the other day:
"In the midst of a world of light and love, of song and feast and dance, [Lucifer] could find nothing to think of more interesting than his own prestige."
--A Preface to Paradise Lost

I think about that with our youth group kids as they struggle with things. A lot of them just want to be popular, when there is so much more to experience. In my experience, you will become popular if you learn, listen, and experience the things that God has for you. Experience life, don't be interested in your own prestige!

How do we adjust to society?

The last couple of days, I have either read or heard some interesting things about Christian teens and their sexuality. The first was this article about sex and evangelical teen. It makes this quote:

And the Bible does offer a direct solution for people who are burning in lust: marriage (1 Corinthians 7:9). Adolescence—that time when a person is physically an adult but socially a child—is a modern invention. In the past, people married much younger, as soon as they were sexually ready. Today's culture postpones marriage while stretching celibacy to the breaking point.

I have read this in the past and makes sense if you follow the history relationships and marriage. Recently, I listened to the YS podcast for August with Ginny Olsen. She recently wrote a book called Teenage Girls, and in the podcast shared her research for the book that shows girls are getting more aggressive and despite their constant social networking are getting emotionally lonely. I have noticed, anecdotally, this same thing as I have had conversations with some of the girls in the youth group.

So the magazine article makes an interesting proposal, that is so counter-cultural, that I think that the church would never go with it.

A counter-cultural church may do well to encourage younger marriages. The young couple may still need the financial support of their parents and the social support of their fellow Christians. But this would be better than the current hypocrisy and guilt. And it would fulfill God's positive purpose for sexuality.

An interesting thought. If you look at the communal living of the past, young marriage is what was done, however, the marriages were also arranged. Considering that we are so me-based instead of relationally based with others, this would be a tall order. You would have to be so involved with your kids lives without controlling them, that they would trust you to help pick out the right spouse and the help you take care of household chores and such so that you could help them financially and get them through high school. Again, this seems tall order considering the selfishness of the society and what has infiltrated the church.

MTV currently has a show on called Engaged & Underage where they follow a couple who is still in high school as they plan their wedding. So it's not like some of this doesn't happen, but it is unlikely that there is any spiritual support through any of this and that usually what is needed for any marriage to work.

Where does 4% come from and does it matter?

I've been reading about this 4% thing about teenagers. I have been involved with a couple of ministries that like to quote this statistic. Knowing statistics, I see in this article how the statistics are being misused. The other thing that I have heard from other blogs, is that most ministries are using this information to scare the rest of us as if Christianity will disappear. I highly doubt that, I serve a God that is so much bigger than that. However, I wonder if we are looking at this wrong. In most cases, all of the groups say that we have to evangelize the teens. Well, that's fine and dandy, but the problem that I have run into, over my 9 years of youth ministry, is that you can't evangelize until they trust you. One reason that I think that our current ministry that Mary and I are involved in is being "successful," is that the core group of kids trust us, and they bring in their friends. However, it doesn't stop there. We have to show concern and an ability to listen. Most of the kids that are in the youth ministry are pretty good, they just have some area of their life that needs to be repaired. They just need someone to listen. I think that this generation will be ok; and I don't worry about the 4% claim.

For those in Youth Ministry

Download this FREE Ebook!

I read a blog about youth ministry and the author has put together an ebook. Follow the link and get your free copy.

Acquire the Fire 2007

This last weekend, we, the McLutz family, went with our church's youth group to Ford Field in Detroit to see the Acquire the Fire/Battlecry Event of 2007. We had a great time, listening to speakers, singing with Hillsong United, and watching concerts of bands like P.O.D., Skillet, and Hawk Nelson.

I will have to say that this one wasn't as good as last year's, in my humble opinion, but the purpose of it was for spiritual renewal with the kids and to get them energized for the upcoming year at church and I believe that from there it hit its target.

Ron Luce, the founder of TeenMania Ministries, the organizer of the events, spoke this year about plugging into the Bible more and what you can do to make a difference in the lives of your friends, family, and community. He brought out people who are doing just that with the likes of Zach Hunter who is now a 15 year old and has been raising money and awareness in the US and overseas about slavery.

Kaleb and Karlie always look forward to this event, not to mention Mary and I. They are a lot of fun.

It looks like they are done with the stadium events here for now as that they are offering 2 dates next year and I hear that we are attending the one in Grand Rapids! Yeah!