Teenage Culture

This past week I went to a seminar on youth culture, which was led by Dr. Chap Clark. (No relation that I know of) Dr. Clark is a professor and director at the Fuller Seminary Youth Institute and has authored dozens of books on youth culture and youth ministry. Needless to say he is a guru on youth culture.

Dr. Clark discussed his research on youth and talked about how teens have been abandoned by adults. He talked about the secret world that lies beneath the surface of teenagers and how most kids are really hurting inside, but don't know it or don't know how to deal with it.

I resonated with a lot of the things that Dr. Clark discussed especially the parts about the ways kids are recognized in society. He said that kids are welcomed into society when and if they:

-perform well enough to be accepted
-conform enough to be accepted, or
-portray an image that is pleasing enough to be accepted.

I thought about this through my lens as a youth minister and high school sports coach and I couldn't agree more. We tell kids that athletics is for character building, but I see parents upset with their son if they make an error or drop a pass. I see kids who live one life at school and another at church. I see kids portray one identity around their parents and a who different identity on facebook. There is something very wrong with the message that we are sending to kids about what it means to be successful and what it means to live life to the fullest. I think that we need to seriously consider what messages we are sending to kids and rethink what we tell kids it means to be a mature follower of Christ.