Really Radical Youth - Part 1

This is a follow up to my previous post on Radical Youth Ministry. Some questions were posed to me once when I mentioned the example of Mark Dever's youth ministry at his church. Primary among them was : " Is it really possible that these kind of youth exist?"

You see, the problem with youth these days is that we are prepared to accept the lowest common denominator from them in terms of behaviour and attitude. Adults have already inwardly typecasted them as rude, rebellious self-centered individuals with a short attention span. But, so as not to alienate them or make them worse; they obligingly pander to these characteristics by giving them at church the music they want to hear, the topics they think they can relate to and the latitude to dress in the manner that they choose to.

What poppycock.

It is not that I think the youth today do not display all those aforementioned characteristics. They do. I did, when I was young. At times, I stil do. But the answer does not lie in mere capitulation to the mores and ways of the world and admit defeat in the cultural wars. This does not mean locking citadel doors and bringing up the drawbridge over the moat as well. You can't effectively shut out the world, even if you were Amish. But you can engage it from a Christian perspective and win; especially if your base is Biblical

What do I mean? Let's take an example.

Now I can tell you to turn off the TV when hot chicks on MTV in skimpy outfits start prancing around in a Jay Z vid. But that doesn't really work. Nor will browbeating you with Christian alternatives. I've known people who started lusting after singers on the Christian Contemporary Music scene just because that's all they were able to see and listen to. It doesn't make it any holier or rightheous; it's just transference

The key is to apply good, solid biblical teaching on this issue. I would talk about a simple issue; why are those dancers on MTV dressed in hardly anything at all? You mean they can't dress in a full dress and dance? In fact, why do they have to dance like that? And furthermore, what are those lyrics about? Why is it always about ho's and bling? Pardon the street vernacular.

In short, a process of enquiry through the whole issue will reveal certain points.

1) You're being manipulated hook, line and sinker by media companies and a greedy system

2) The singer and dancers don't care two-hoots about your wellbeing or love you. They really don't. They just want you to buy their CD's

3) My weaknesses are being exploited. How do you feel about that?

All this comes about because the Word of God makes one think differently about how the world is viewed. It's not an amazing revelation. It's a Biblical one because somewhere along the line, the Word of God has been used for teaching, exhorting and guidance in it's proper context.

A youth who subscribes to that view is not going to be the same. His or her world will slowly turn upside down, and they will start on the path to be really radical. But more about that in part 2.