I’m no futurist. Some are, and I think there’s something valuable about trying to anticipate the future if for no other reason than to step back to critically reflect on our assumptions. Regardless, futurists and non-futurists alike must critically reflect on their assumptions lest they be lulled into autopilot, youth ministry programming (and living) filled with tremendous busyness but little direction. In other words, the future of culture isn’t going anywhere that we don’t send it.
That said, the future is coming, ready or not. Attempts to resist the future or preserve the familiar past are as productive as stopping gravity. We are being propelled into the future, and the horizon is filled with both the beauty and the ugliness we are creating in the present.
Therefore, if we are to critically reflect on our assumptions and if the future is coming (ready or not), maybe adolescents can serve as oracles for the future of culture.
Adolescents as Mirrors
Research from the National Study of Youth and Religion and Fuller Youth Institute (along with others) points toward the idea that adolescents are not the problem in our society/culture but are a reflection of it. Often, criticism of adolescents fixates on how we need to change them, get them back into church, or change their deviant behavior. What if we were to view adolescents as merely reflecting what has been taught and modeled to them from their own cultures? Is it possible that they have adapted pluralism from us; consumerism from us; survival of the fittest from us; or prejudice from us?
The answer points to yes, and this challenges adults to reconsider what needs to change in ourselves before we seek to change adolescents. The future of culture is being written on adolescents’ lives right now, by us. What we see is an unfiltered reflection of us and a preview of where we’re sending it.
Adolescents as Prophets
Detweiler and Taylor’s book, The Matrix of Meanings: Finding God in Pop Culture, offers a helpful thesis that pop culture may be doing a better job of articulating the drama of human existence and therefore, the gospel narrative, than most faith communities. They suggest that the Christian story must be told in a way that connects with a culture asking different questions as it seeks to understand what good news really means.
Adolescents are steeped in pop culture. They live in it, breathe it, create it, respond to it. We can judge whether that is good or bad, or we can discipline ourselves to watch and listen closely to what adolescents are resonating with as they adapt certain styles, listen to a vast array of music, see certain movies multiple times, or how they use their disposable money and time. This is more than trying to be hip and trendy youth workers. It’s about actively seeking to understand what adolescents are saying through the language of pop culture before we dismiss it.
If we do this, we may discover that adolescents are the prophets of our age, pointing to the ways in which the church is connecting or disconnecting gospel with good news. In Matthew 25, Jesus frames the gospel not in theoretical terms but in ways defined by those who long for it (hungry being fed, naked being clothed, homeless being welcomed). Maybe prophetic adolescents are asking through pop culture language, “Does your gospel reach all the way to what is good news for me?” The future of culture for the gospel must express tangible good news. This challenges faith communities to consider whether they are willing to get close enough to neighbor or adolescent for them to understand gospel and good news as synonymous.
Christians/Culture
We cannot look at culture separate from it. The Scriptures are embedded in culture. Faith communities live in culture. All of us, the faithful included, swim in culture. Therefore, when we ask where culture is going, we must assume that we’re going with it. As a result, youth ministry must live with the tension of faithfully embodying the gospel narrative passed onto us while thoughtfully interpreting/improvising what gospel and good news looks like for each future generation and culture(s). This is where adolescents can help us. They are our windows, our mirrors, and our prophets, who help us critically reflect on our own assumptions, helping us remain true to a resurrection-fueled gospel that perpetuates a future of hope over a future of fear. And this is indeed good news for the future of each of our cultural contexts.
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I’m not a futurist. I, like most of the general public, have guesses about the future direction of our culture based on the intuitions I feel when I watch the news, read social media, listen to NPR, chat with strangers or engage in conversations with close family and friends.
Actually, all of that leads me to ask, does anyone really know where culture is going? Here are some uncalculated and unscientific thoughts on where culture is going (or not going).
1. Cultures will continue to grow more diverse.
Even though some of the large corporations are trying their best to place homogenized entities (Pizza Hut, McDonald’s, Wal-Mart) in every city, there are certain things that make every culture different from the next. For instance, the methods of communication, the pace of life, family structures, religion, environmentalism, biology, plus a plethora of other factors that all contribute to the uniqueness of a particular culture.
This uniqueness adds to the ever increasing diversity of our world. This is especially seen in global youth culture. With the quickening pace of globalization via such avenues as the Internet, youth are able to surf the multitude of options out there to find their niche—even though that niche might be the localized community of a Japanese break-dancing team and that youth might be a Hispanic teenager living in Denver, Colorado. Our world is becoming smaller and smaller and more and more fractioned with each rotation.
2. There are certain elements of culture that never change.
Every culture has knowledge, language, norms, values, beliefs, social dynamics and status. Yes, these parts might look different from one culture to another, but nevertheless, they are components of every culture. So it seems to me that a historical view reveals culture never straying too far from where it has always been. People will continue to acquire culture, become members of certain cultures and contribute to the whole of their cultures. As Solomon said, there is nothing new under the sun.
3. There are certain elements of culture that always change.
The specific expressions of cultures change overnight. Music, movies, food, clothes, political leaders, innovations, catastrophic events, war, etc.
So now when Ashton Kutcher has a big weekend, we’ve got it on our phones through Twitter. And that big fundraiser your youth group wants to raise awareness for is only a few clicks away on Facebook. Bands are constantly found and rising to success through MySpace. Pandora widens our musical knowledge. Netflix’s instant watch keeps us entertained at night. And in five years, this same list will house a new host of options.
We have never seen a more rapid change of pace in our culture than there is today, which only seems to imply that culture will continue to evolve and transition as it has been doing since the beginning of time.
4. Culture is a big word that can take on many angles of thought.
When we use the word culture, we often don’t take time to think about its immensity. Culture is an all-encompassing word that is really used to mean a way of life. Whether simple or complex, the word culture ultimately refers to the way people live. In other words, culture is what people make of the creation that is in front of them. That’s why we need a big definition of the gospel. A small gospel doesn’t reach the masses. We need a simple gospel and a complex gospel, one that accounts and gives credence to the way people live in any one particular culture.
5. The elements of your culture will most definitely rub off on you.
We become people who are shaped by the cultures in which we live. This is why the make-up of our culture is so important. If we are made to be what others cooperatively make us to be, then we must insist on making our cultures into societies that resemble kingdom living. I realize this isn’t a new way of thinking, but take a moment to think hard about (1) the culture making you, (2) the culture making those around you and (3) your contribution to making the culture resemble kingdom living—a society of salvation and justice, hope and healing and peace and blessing.
So where is culture going? It is going nowhere and everywhere, just like it has done since the beginning. The church needs to be culturally sensitive to the diversities, to the elements that change and don’t change, to the “bigness” of culture and to our contribution to making a culture that produces the kind of people God intended would participate with him in his mission to restore the world to its intended wholeness.
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By now, you’ve probably heard the name Phoebe Prince. USA Today carried an interesting online article that put the case, her suicide, and the issues surrounding it in context. The article is titled “A ‘Watershed’ Case in School Bullying?” It is troubling, to say the least. Fifteen-year-old Phoebe Prince is one too many. Any teenage suicide, particularly one that is the result of the behavior of peers, is one too many. So, it is troubling.
As one reads this article, there are some behaviors of some of her fellow students that emerge. Note that some of these overlap:
· Name calling.
· Fear and ostracism of the stranger.
· Adults’ denial of the potential harm of the students’ behavior.
· The inability of officials to connect the dots and see beyond their own individual sphere to the larger picture and the good of all.
· The ubiquitous and relatively anonymous nature of the Internet.
· The willingness to throw physical objects at another human being.
· A callous approach to life and lack of remorse.
· The propensity toward the extreme.
· Lack of accountability and collective responsibility.
· Lack of culpability and sense of moral responsibility.
· The gang/mob mentality.
Does this sound familiar? Are there other places where we have seen this happening recently? Have you heard of these in any other context?
In opposition to this, we hear the words of Scripture as Jesus speaks in Matthew 7:12: “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.” Throughout the Bible, we are encouraged to care for, to look out for the weak, yet in case after case in our time this is not happening enough and happening too late. Think about it: Where would the young people in your student ministry have been in this situation (not where you think they should be)?
The list I put above is too long, but it is real. The behaviors are harmful and destructive, not just to the individuals who die, but also to the unnamed others who are affected by it, including the perpetrators. It is a clear and strong signal that there are fundamental questions that need to be addressed about our self-understanding, our view and value of life, our understanding of community, and the inter-relatedness of the human family and the need for respect, accountability, and humility to admit wrongdoing.
After writing this blog, I came across an article by John E. Mitchell titled “Bullying is Everyone’s Fault,” in which he talks of the intimidation that is prevalent and the need for responsible adult behavior. It’s worth a read.
I firmly believe that the behavior of youth is a mirror of our societies. Youth neither create nor rear themselves. Where is the future of our culture going? Take a look in the mirror at what’s happening with our youth. You tell me.
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