youth vs. student

At AYME last weekend Rick Lawrence was giving out free copies of GROUP magazine. I've been an on again off again reader for years. I usually turn off when there is a bad issue and then later on read something interesting. This one opened up with what I thought was a great editorial.

Student vs Youth: Is There a difference?

In the two decades I’ve been editor of group, I’ve only given over my column space one time. Make this #2. I’ve known Christian Smith a long time—he’s the brilliant director of the National Study of Youth and Religion, and is now a professor of sociology at Notre Dame...Today, out of the blue, Chris sent me what you’re about to read—he does a better job explaining my eccentric, totally unreasonable anti-student ravings than I could.

Not sure if you checked out the comments but I was left speechless. Folks think that this is political correctness? That names don't matter? That Smith is wrong?

I could go through and refute each argument but I don't feel like Smith needs help here. A lot of young people aren't students (and no, some BS line about how all Christians should be students doesn't take this one away) and therefore calling this age students doesn't cover all of the people we would like to. When Men's Ministry becomes Gainfully Employed Male Tax Payer group, then we can call it Student Ministry. When we start letting the state develop our theological anthropology for us, let me know so that I can join the Old Order Mennonites who seem to be one of the only groups who understands the subtle dangers of letting the state exercise total control over society.

I'm so not in touch with a good chunk of the youth ministry world. Next post will prove that even more.

New Book

My friend and colleague Jason Santos has a new book out today. Here is what Publisher's Weekly said about it. Haven't got a copy yet so more later.

A Community Called Taizé: A Story of Prayer, Worship and Reconciliation
Jason Brian Santos. IVP Academic, $15 paper (180p) ISBN 978-0-8308-3525-6

When he first visited the Taizé ecumenical community in France's Burgundy region, author Santos, now a doctoral candidate at Princeton University, had no plans to write a book. By his second trip, however, the idea for one had taken root. Geared to an English-speaking, North American audience and said to be a first-of-its-kind account, this lovely and instructive book mingles the community's history with descriptions of day-to-day life and practical information about making a pilgrimage to Taizé. Although many American Christians are familiar with Taizé's chants, few may know the details Santos imparts. Most compelling among them is the author's witnessing Taizé founder Brother Roger's violent death in 2005 at the hands of a disturbed woman during evening prayers. Santos insists that this did not lead him to write the book, but it provides a remarkable context for writing about the community that has attracted so many with its message of reconciliation, trust and freedom. Besides Santos's careful research, readers will appreciate his thoughtful ideas about how to take Taizé's spirit beyond the community. (Nov.)

Changes in University/College

I'm working on a project at the moment that is trying to take a big picture look at youth ministry. I've been trying to get the scope of the project pushed wider than we normally use in youth ministry. We often look at individuals or specific churches, maybe even readily apparent trends that impinge on our ministry efforts, when we want to diagnose what is going on with youth ministry. We'll talk about how sports and sports culture means that young people can't come to church because they have to go to practice. Good but not complete.

Admittedly we don't all have time to do massive amounts of research but some of us should push back to get a 30,000 foot view. Our sense of history seems truncated. For instance, how can we do youth ministry without understanding how the education system in North America has changed through history? I get a campus update email and this little piece was in it the other day:

How Higher Ed Has Changed: The greatest boost to higher education came with the GI Bill following World War II. With government funding, college enrollment increased from 160,000 two years before the war to nearly 500,000 in 1950. In 1952, veterans made up 49% of all students. By the time the Baby Boom Generation graduated from high school, college was no longer just for the elite, but had become more accessible to all. Between 1960 and 1980 the number o professors in the US rose from 235,000 to 685,000. America had created a large educated class of people. In the last 15 years, much attention has been given to the lack of interest and spirit of entitlement among many today's college students. Parents are over-involved and students want to be entertained. The quality of college education has been lamented with many students scoring little better than high school graduates of 50 years ago. According to the US Department of Education, nearly half of college students need remedial courses in math and reading. Tuition costs have outpaced inflation and even health care. Thirty years ago, the annual cost of attending a private university equaled 21 weeks of pay for the average US worker. Now that figure is more than 53 weeks, more than a year of work to pay for a private college. (Salvo Magazine Autumn 08)

Now, Salvo magazine might not be the best source for some of these things (as the comments to the article indicate) and they are clearly polemical but Ivyjungle has done a good job representing the salient facts. Those facts should cause us pause when we think about our young people and helping them figure out what they want to do in the world. Larger educational trends through history seem to impinge significantly on our current practice but we may be unaware of how because we don't ever look.

I keep saying "our" and "we" but maybe it is just me. I'm pushing myself to look bigger, to see bigger trends than we normally look at.

Free book

Not sure of the quality but it is worth the minute it will take for you to download a free book in .pdf. Thanks to Tim for finding this.

Obay

I love this campaign because vocation and young people's decisions about their lives are so near and dear to me. Definitely will be making an appearance in any vocation PowerPoint I make.

Co-habitation: Once ok but twice is bad

Goodstein also points to this USA Today article on co-habitation.

As a minister I often see people who come into my office wanting to get married who share the same address. This stresses me out and I mention it to them because the data I've seen before indicates higher divorce rates for co habitaters. According to the article my stress is only partly founded. It depends on what kind of co habitater you are that matters. Women who live only with their eventual husband have a better chance of not divorcing than those who have serially co habitated and those who don't co habitate at all. Those who serially co habitate don't do well so the question I should ask is, "How many times have you co habitated" not "Have you co habitated."

I will need to get the study because I've got to wonder why this is true. I'm assuming it has to do with commitment levels. Those who are engaged are just starting their marriage early by co habitating. This has some historical precedent where marriage was a two step process that involved the marital bed and some sort of public recognition. Engaged co habitaters are simply consummating their marriage privately before making the public pronouncement. Serial co habitaters on the other hand, could be "testing" each other out with the option of either leaving or staying. When it doesn't "work" the first time they leave and go on to the next "test" until someone finally passes. Then, a few years later, it isn't working and so with a clearly established pattern, they leave the relationship to find one more fulfilling elsewhere. That's my guess but I'll have to find out.

The Trojan Horse

Anastasia Goodstein noted this little gem the other day. NPR has basically an op-ed saying that tossing the Trojan is the new engagement ring. Perhaps but I'm not sure that there is a lot of data to support what the young man is contending.

Regardless, it seems to me that the very idea of Trojan or not seems to miss the point of what Pendarvis Harshaw calls "healthy sexuality." Regardless of how Trojans actually got their name, I think there is a least an allusion to the infamous Trojan horse. Trojans protect the "city" from the little "soldiers" inside. Absent the Horse and the little soldiers run amok. The sign of healthy sexuality, at least for most time and places, is not that pregnancy doesn't occur but that it can occur because the partners are in a life long committed relationship that can support the birth of a new person. So I agree with Harshaw that couples should ditch the Trojans but they shouldn't do it because they are sure their partner doesn't have STD. They should do it because they are serious about committing to children in their future. I know that sounds old fashioned and naive but I think that to not hold couples to a standard based on the potential children rather than their own pleasure is to denigrate the challenge and hope of children while raising people with a self centered ethic.

Facebook growing up

I'm not a fan of MySpace because of the chaos. I can't read people's pages. I know some like creative anarchy but not me. That's why I'm a Facebook guy. I'm also a fan of new changes that are apparently coming regarding the spamming of apps and the amount of information that goes out on my feeds. Seems like it isn't real yet but you can preview here.

This should be a boon for folks like me who want to be friendly with my students and youth in my congregation but who also want to be an adult. Controlling these features will allow me, and them, to protect themselves while still interacting.

Christians and Torture

My friend Phil recently sent me a link to a documentary that appeared on CBC. Perhaps because I'm moving back to the States, I was interested enough to listen. I"m glad that I did.

We arrived in Princeton the first time in September 2000. I stayed up all night to experience my first presidential election with real live Americans. That didn't work out so well. A year later Vivian was in Manhattan on 9/11. Still somewhat shell shocked by being aliens and newly alienated by our host country, the invasions started. First Afghanistan then Iraq. I remember arguing passionately that this was a mistake, that America shouldn't do it. We loved our time in America but it was a difficult time for us. We struggled to reconcile our great Christian friends with a country that could allow and perpetrate atrocities like Abu Ghraib.

This documentary is about a young man who is both an intensely devoted (and orthodox) Christian and an interrogator at Abu Ghraib. I won't spoil it but listen to it. This is especially important for youth pastors as they are the ones who should be having these kinds of conversations with young people. This guy entered the reserves at 17 and wore his dress uniform to his prom. That sounds like youth ministry to me.