Millennial Mindset and the role of a
Youth Pastor
I was reminded today while researching
teen culture that the Millennial (oftentimes referred to as postmodern)
generation that is “trending” right now starts from people my age (mid 20’s)
and sinks all the way down to current middle and elementary age students. Yet this group of people is not held only in
the US. Instead thanks to the extremely
easy access of Internet and social media the attributes of a millennial
generation extend to Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. This theoretically could be the first world
wide group of people with a similar worldview, mindset, and goals because of the
connectedness that is inherent all around the world.
The repercussions that this worldview has
on ministry are important to look at head on.
In this quote from an MTV sight we can see the heart of what a
Millennial will value.
"In my case, I find inspiration in artists such as Jay-Z,
Mark Rothko and Jean Michel Basquiat. I may not share the same heritage as
those mentioned, but we still share similar life experiences. By forming
parallels it enables me to see myself in those prominent people and be
confident in what I wish to become in the future. In other words, who I want to
be makes up the fabric of who I am."-Joshua Okungbaiye; aged 24; Nigerian/British
This is an incredibly eye opening
statement when examined carefully. This
young man (important to note he is NOT an American) who is my age is stating
that even though he is of a completely different background he still desires
to, and finds a way to attribute who he is with someone completely different
from him. By drawing those parallels he
believes that he can become the people he idolizes. At first glance this does not seem like a big
deal. When I was a kid I thought Cal
Ripken and Brady Anderson where just the coolest people ever and I wanted to
hit like them and to field like them and to be as good a baseball player as
they were. There is nothing wrong with
having an inspiration to be better from another person. However, I do not believe that this young man
sees these artists to be an inspiration but his worldview literally says that
he can be at the same level as the most well known hip hop and rap artist in
history. If the millennial mindset
assumes that reality is relative to the individual then individuals could
literally convince themselves that they are at the same level as somebody
else. In
other words, even though my personality and attributes may be nothing like
other people I can form parallels that make me feel like them and therefore I
can be like them.
Let me try to bring this to
light. I called my mother (an early
boomer child from the modernist movement) whose age I will NOT give away. I asked her some questions about how children
of her time decided what they wanted to do in life. She said that kids today are extremely
goal-oriented. This apparently was not
so back in the day. My mother always
wanted to be a nurse but “When
it came time to sit down and choose my college major in high school I wasn’t
good at any one subject. So I did what I
was good at. We were not brought up to be goal oriented...we were allowed to be
kids, and it was a family concentrated life.
Parents today already have their children’s lives plans for them.” I
should note that my mother was an elementary school teacher for many years and
thus has a great understanding of the parents roll her students lives. It seems that my mother had a great
understanding of who she was, the talents she had (music) and how she could use
those. From there she went to college
and studied sacred music and then became a teacher.
I would argue that my generation has a
very different mindset. We are goal
oriented. There are many reasons for
this. One would be that parents today
seem to already have plans set up for their children from when they are so
little. Children naturally want to live
up to those expectations and thus try to live up to those goals. If a kid shows a little talent in basketball
and the parents pressure the kid to be a star he or she will naturally want to
be like a basketball star. Kids are
taught to make goals starting in the earliest years of school, we see the
mistakes of the generations before us in the news, economy, socially and create
goals to not be that way, and we also have a desire to be the best that we can
be. There is nothing wrong with that.
The trick is that social networking and media allow us to look at others and we
begin to form the idea that we are not as valuable as others and thus desire to
be like them.
Now some may argue that millennial have a
high value for themselves. In fact the
“goal” of having a high “self-esteem” was driven into the millennial head in
their early schooling. But if it were
true that we have a high sense of value then every preteen and teen girl on Facebook
and Instagram would not have to post every day at least three pictures claiming
that they are beautiful no matter what, are important even though the world may
not think so, and have value despite what the boys may think. Every high school boy wouldn’t have to post
shirtless pictures of himself with his arms around three young ladies and he
wouldn’t have to try and convince every girl he see’s that he has enough “swag”
or status to be well liked. If the
average millennial thought that they had value then they wouldn’t have to
declare it. People who know they are
good at something don’t run around saying it they show it in their actions. In
reality these cliché and sickeningly depressing statements seen over and over
are a cry that these kids are desperate to find out who they are and where
their value or hope is.
This desperate cry leads to millennials
looking for role models. The world is
incredibly happy to provide those. Take
a look at any celebrity. Whether they
know it or not what they wear and how they wear it will be exactly the way that
the millennials you see will dress and act.
The words they say, the gestures they make, the way they treat the
opposite sex, the music, the dance moves, the hairstyles, the gifts, the toys,
the sunglasses, everything will be copied.
Why? Because this generation sees
that someone has success, status, and perceived value and therefore if my
reality is defined by what I make it I can be that person even if I am really
nothing like that person.
Now to me this seems silly but that is
simply due to the excellent raising up that my parents provided me (My mom will
probably read this…gotta brown nose a little bit). We didn’t have a ton of TV time (mostly just
Saturday mornings and Jeopardy on weeknights…my mind is filled with useless
facts now). Our Internet usage was also
heavily monitored. The average child
today however is literally surrounded and drowned in media of different types. It’s impossible for them to avoid it. My mom
remarked that when she first started teaching she never used media of any sort
and now iPads are being used in many classrooms. Now don’t get me wrong, I love my iPhone and
use it for many different things, but the constant media means that a child
learns to socialize through media better than they do in person. We see this in several kids in our youth
group. When we read their posts on
Facebook they are far more social and articulate than they are in person. Millennials are great at solving technical/physical
problems (such as cooperate resolution of problems) but when it comes to social
and moral problems they seem to struggle at resolving those.
So what does all this have to do with the
church? Does the church play a roll in
the area of a student’s worldview. My
answer is YES! First I should start by
saying that I am not a proponent of trying to “fix” a worldview. This is because a worldview is just that, a
worldview. It is the way people will
process thought and work through things in their lives whether you agree with
it or not. I choose not to battle them
because the gospel has worked in every worldview for over 2000 years. Who am I to try and force someone to
understand the gospel in a modernistic mindset?
Instead I would argue that if the gospel
can be clear and understood in any worldview then we the church have the
responsibility to teach the gospel in such a way that students hear it,
understand it, and are drawn to Christ.
If children today are going to desire to find their value in someone
else then the greatest possible person for them to try and mimic is
Christ. However, there is a danger in
just mimicking Christ if the student never comes to a realization of what
Christ did for them. If a student’s life
if shaped by what they see in others and can parallel to themselves then it is
the responsibility of church leaders to teach the gospel in such a way that the
postmodern congregation of that church is drawn to that reality. In the early 20th century logic
and reason would have been an effective way of sharing Christ. Today logic is slowly dying (much to my chagrin)
and instead you must make the truth of the gospel personal to the
individual. That is a wonderful thing
because the gospel is just that, extremely and abundantly personal. God died for me. Why?
Because He loves me with everlasting love. Which means God must find some value in
me. Is that not a WONDERFUL thing that
we can share with our students?
The trickiest part I have found is
helping students understand that they are, well, bad. See in the millennials mind they are not bad.
They fail to see the need for Christ to
die. We love to claim that we are who we are and thus have to comfort ourselves
against the reality of our badness. How
many times do you hear on the news of a kid being punished and the parent
saying, “well he is a good kid he just
made mistakes”? If we are to be speaking
truth into our students we cannot hide the fact that they are ultimately
bad. Helping them understand this will
probably vary on the individual but until we can crush the pride (oh so sorry
“self esteem”) that is in all of us we cannot show how valuable a student is to
God. In today’s day we can truly
understand what Paul was trying to communicate when he said in Romans 1:24-25 “Therefore
God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring
of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God
for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is
blessed forever! Amen.” Today’s culture
glorifies the individual (creature) rather than the individual who gives us
true value the (creator).
From here we have the privilege of
showing our students how wonderful, awesome, great, dare I say…even COOL Jesus
is. Yes, if our students crave to be
like someone then we can show them the greatest example they can have! Students don’t need to try and find him to
follow on twitter or instagram (although I believe Jesus has a Facebook account
so many followers you have to “like” him).
No! They can have a relationship
with the one they can desire to be most like!
And not only can they find value in Jesus but when they learn that Jesus
values them, well then their worldview will be wonderfully complete. That’s way better than Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj,
Justin Beiber, and even…even ONE DIRECTION!!! Once you have a relationship with
the God of the universe than life change just happens to come along with
teaching.
I pray these thoughts are helpful to
anyone who reads as jarbled and unorganized they may be.
Love in Christ,
Nathaniel
Love in Christ,
Nathaniel
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