An "IM Generation"

In support of why you should be interested in services like www.mozes.com, check out this article over at about the "IM Generation." Here's a great summary quote for you to chew on in the meantime, "The panelists all agreed on one point: traditional media, from TV stations to advertisers to the print industry, really isn't in touch with the "IM generation" of tech-savvy teenagers and college students."

The 2007 predictions go on....

Along with a handful of other youth focused organizations, international youth ministry Dare 2 Share recently released their top five teen predictions to watch for in 2007. One of the more interesting and notables is that teens are increasingly living a contradictory lifestyle...they're locked up in their rooms while being involved in "community." Obviously they're pointing to MySpace.com, Facebook and others.

We have just one question to ask? Is anyone out there starting to make sense of all these predictions, studies and facts? Sign up for this years SHIFT conference. We're going to hit this kind of stuff head-on together.

A look into 2007

Trendwatching.com released their 2007 trend watch list. We should point out that this is a list that they've compiled from not only their own research, but from the masses of people out there who are making their predictions known. Relatively speaking, to-date, they've been pretty on target. Although you maybe tempted to read through this article and leave it at that, we challenge you to step back and begin asking some deeper questions.

1. If the heart of today's generation is set to become "transsumers" (defined as: An obsession with the here and now, an ever-shorter satisfaction span, and a lust to collect as many experiences and stories as possible, is undermining the perceived value (and thus status) of fixed goods and services.)...
— How does that affect the church? Does that affect the church? Should we care?

2. What is at the true heart of the social network sites? Trendwatching declares "In a post-material world, all that’s left to covet is…. other people? From networking sites to buddy lists to meetup.org to a boom in members-only clubs, social status 2.0 is all about who you connect to and who wants to connect to you, tribal-style."
— Will this change the way you are connecting and communicating with your students?

And finally, we've heard from the older generation that all you need to teach is Jesus and relevancy will line-up. On the flip-side, the younger generation seems to declare that you have to both teach Jesus and find ways to speak to the students that mean something to them. So, we ask the simple question...

Can you disregard "relevancy" and simply focus on the heart, compassion and truth of Jesus? Will that alone, reach our students?

Millennials & the Church

The January/February 2007 issue of Outreach magazine has an article on the millennial generation, targeted towards pastors. Although it's nothing new, their perspective and approach is interesting and challenging. Inside you'll find a handful of statistics, from organizations other than Barna, that will help you understand more about the Millennials and how they think.

What were you thinking?

How many times have you looked at one of your students and wondered, "What the heck were they thinking?" Well, it turns out that they actually were thinking, and in fact, they probably considered the consequences; even to a degree greater than what actually happened. That still begs the question of why? Maybe this will help explain some things.

"A new study finds teens spend more time weighing risk than adults and in fact often overestimate the odds of a bad outcome. But the desire for acceptance among peers wins out in the decision-making process of a young mind." (Yahoo.com) The power of peer pressure is absolutely unbelievable.

Just for fun, I thought we could post comments about some of the funnier things that have happened to one of your students recently. Ready. Set. Go!

Online gaming as addictive as drugs?

The International Gaming Research Unit at Nottingham Trent University (in the UK) recently discovered that teens who participate in online gaming for long periods of time can show the same signs of addiction as drug users and gamblers. — What do you mean? I can quit any time!

A Must-Read

If you want to stay up-to-date on youth culture, there is a recently released book (9/7/06) called Righteous: Dispatches from the Evangelical Youth Movement that is getting rave reviews. It, yet again, talks about the shifts that are happening in youth culture but equally declares that this "Disciple Generation" is powerful and has a significant potential to influence todays culture. Here's a quick teaser for you...

There’s a new youth movement afoot in this country. It’s a counterculture fusion of politics and pop, and it’s taking over a high school near you. Like the waves that came before it, it’s got passion, music, and anti-authority posturing, but more than anything else, this one has God. So what does it mean when today’s youth counterculture has a mindset more akin to Jerry Falwell’s than Abbie Hoffman’s? Read more here

Church, Synagogues, Mosque, Temples...OH MY!

YOUNG IN SPIRIT (OCRegister.com) - An interesting article on how the youth ministry challenges don't just stretch to the Christian church, it includes all religions. Here's a great quote from inside the article:

"When kids can watch TV on their cell phones, when they can watch movies on an iPod, they have certain media expectations in their lives. And they bring that to church..."

A "Complex Shift"

10 IS THE NEW 15 AS KIDS GROW UP FASTER - - (msnbc.com) A recent suggests that what used to be considered teen issues are now tween (8-12) issues. Everywhere we look, there is a shift.

Another Youth Ministry SHIFT!

We're sure that you've noticed, along with us, that youth ministry is changing. In fact, we believe it is changing so much that we've changed the name of our Student Ministry Leadership conference to SHIFT just to prove it. However, the goal here isn't to just dialog about some said change, but to actually show you that there is an urgent need for it. Just like this...

In some recent Time, Christian Post and Barna articles, it was reported that Christian students are no longer okay with shallow religion. In fact, one report says that 88% of teens have given "church" a try and have walked away unsatisfied and disengaged. Why? The Post reports that today's teens are more drawn to Scripture and desire to get a better understanding of what they believe.

The Barna Group found that the top reason that teens attend church was to "understand better what I believe."

However, the most interesting information came from Time. They reported that churches that now focus more on Scripture and less on entertainment are actually growing and in some cases, attendance is doubling because of it.

The days of social cliques, all-nighters and cheesy camp games are long gone. It seems as if the students are looking for the same Jesus we are. S H I F T

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PS. *Alert* Seriously, this is exactly the kind of stuff we're talking about at the conference this year. Register NOW!

Friend or foe?

Tonight at midnight, thousands upon thousands of people all across the country are going to drop $600 for the new PlayStation 3. For those of us who wish we could be there, so sorry. For those of us who value sleep more than the temptation to stare at yet another screen for hours on end, enjoy your sleep. But from our perspective, this highly anticipated release also releases another not-so-highly anticipated problem; our students have yet another reason to disengage from reality and withdrawal from authentic community. Even if you don't agree, the hours spent playing a gaming system, no matter what it's called, is time that we or they will never get back.

So what can you do? Likely nothing. But the worst thing you could do is to ignore it. Our challenge is and will always be, to provide opportunities for these kids to redefine commonalities and community with the people around them. The world offers plenty of opportunity to be isolated and lonely. It's our job to guide our students into community and real communication.

Be proactive, not reactive.

Teens and the Supernatural

Have you noticed that this generation doesn't take what you say at face value? It's almost like it's some kind of suggestion and they won't really believe you until they experience it themselves. Whether that's God's love or the physical boundaries in relationships, it simply doesn't matter. They set their "truth" based on experience. Well, unfortunately that kind of thinking will get them in trouble and as leaders we have to know how to work with it, not against it. Consider this...

"73% of teenagers said they had personally engaged in at least one type of psychic- or witchcraft-related activity during their life, not included mere media exposure." —Barna 2006

Even more interesting is the influence of Harry Potter in the teen culture. In essence, the Harry Potter phenom is teaching our students about the supernatural. Barna reports that only 4% of teens have discussed Harry Potter with their youth pastor.

Awake and arise fellow youth ministry leaders. We have a generation that needs your leadership in this area. Don't believe us, check out this new Barna report here.

Email is so last year!

Email is out. A new survey says only 1 in 5 teens actually uses email to communicate. Hands-down, the preferred medium — at least among friends — is instant messaging. Which leads to the question: How does your ministry communicate with its students? Read more about the survey here...

Generation Y Makes Their Mark

Move over baby boomers. Generation Y has arrived to the tune of 82 million people — more than a fourth of the total U.S. population. Marketers are salivating over the spending habits and opinions of this behemoth. Which means, it’s time to ask: how big was your last tithe collection?

Thou Shalt Not Steal

The lines between the Internet, music, and piracy are getting fuzzier every day. The LA Times reports an alarming increase in the amount of shared — not purchased — “christian” music. And how you feel about the issue pretty much depends on how old you are. No surprise there.