CHAPTER FIVE: ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT

Adolescent Development

Understanding Youth Today

Generational Insights

Insights on the Millennial Generation

“They are the young navigators.  They doubt that traditional institutions can provide them with the good life and take personal responsibility for their lives.  They do value material goods, but they are not self-absorbed.  They are more knowledgeable than any previous generation, and they care deeply about social issues.  They believe strongly in individual rights such as privacy and rights to information.  But they have no ethos of individualism, thriving, rather, from close interpersonal networks and display a strong sense of social responsibility”

(Growing Up Digital by David Tapscott, p. 9).

Millennial Generation          Previous Generations          

Seekers                                                 vs.                       Receivers

Works the system                               vs.                      How it works

Authority is relational                        vs.                    Authority as position

Information is networked Internet  vs.                   Information is linear line

Implications

  • Relationships are the key.
  • They want to influence their involvement.
  • Living as adventure – they are interesting in the why and the who, not just the what.
  • Take them seriously.

What’s a Millennial?

  • The generation emerging at the end of one millennium and the beginning of another is called the millennial generation.
  • A millennial is generally defined as a young person who was born during 1982 or after.  The first millennials graduated in the high school class of 2000
  • Millennials tend to be optimistic, self-reliant, ambitious and discriminating about the deluge of messages that engulf them.
  • Millennials are called neotraditionalists.  They may look extreme with their haircuts, fashions and penchant for the fringe, but deep inside is a longing for ideals to believe in, a purpose to pursue, and a family or group of friends to accompany them.
  • Millennials are more likely to be bored (57%) than angry (37%), depressed (24%) or lonely (23%).
  • Extreme is a concept that seems to work when trying to describe this generation.  A millennial may look like a wild nonconformist, but underneath the bleached hair and the body piercing is a heat that is likely to be passionate about God, country and family.
  • Millennials and Gen Xers share many common traits:
    • They are comfortable with contradictions.
    • They are highly relational.
    • They harbor feelings of abandonment.
    • They have a great interest in spirituality.
    • They endure massive exposure to media.
    • They seek comfort without having to sell out their values.
    • They highly value family.
    • They are confused regarding the purpose of life.
    • They accept change as a constant in life.
    • Technology is a natural part of their existence.

 

 

Boomers, Gen Xers, and Millennials
 

Boomers

  

Gen Xers

  

Millennials
     
Prefer black and white moral values Value a gray world – no absolutes Comfortable with paradox – prefer black and white

 
Are idealistic Are cynical Are optimistic

 
Value people’s words

 

 Value people’s actions Value people (community)
Value what’s right Value what’s real Value teamwork

 
Make choices based on passion Make choices based on what is real and practical Make choices based on changing criteria

 
Focus on philosophies Focus on results Focus on social change

 
See conformity as unity See diversity as unity Consider conformity outdated

 
Value causes Value relationships Focus on Survival and success of self

 
Finding meaning in abstract thought Find meaning in what they can experience with their senses Find meaning in controlling useful information

 
Live to work Work to live Live to know

 
Returned to faith when they became parents Are “Spiritual Sensors” Are “Spiritual Questers”

 

(Excerpts from “Introduction: What’s Millennial in The Seven Cries of today’s Teens.  Hear Their Hearts, Make the Connection  by Timothy Smith.  Nashville TN:  Integrity publishers, 2003, pp.  7-22.)

The Impact of Developmental Assets

 
This table indicates the percentage of youth who report engaging in patters of high-risk behaviors and in positive behaviors, based on the number of assets they report having *
 
  0-10 11-20 21-30 31-40
  Assets Assets Assets Assets
Patters of Risk-Taking Behavior        
Illicit drugs 42% 49% 6% 1%
Used illicit drugs 3 or more times in the past year
Sexual intercourse 33% 21% 10% 3%
Has had sexual intercourse 3 ore more times in
Lifetime
Violence 61% 35% 16% 6%
Has engaged in 3 or more acts of fighting, hitting,
injuring a person, carrying or using a Weapon, or
threatening physical harm in the past year
Depression / suicide 40% 25% 13% 4%
Is frequently depressed and/or has attempted
Suicide
Positive Behaviors and Attitudes
Helps others 69% 83% 91% 96%
helps friends or neighbors one or more hours
per week
Succeeds in school 7% 19% 35% 53%
Gets mostly A’s on report card
Values diversity 34% 53% 69% 87%
Places high importance on getting to know people
of other racial/ethnic groups
Maintains good health 25% 46% 69% 88%
Pays attention to healthy nutrition and exercise
* Based on survey data from 99,462 6th– to 12th-grade public school students 213 towns and cities in 25 States.

Building Support for Youth

Asset Building in Youth Ministry

 

Opportunities for Asset Building within Parish Youth Ministry

Connect with Individual Youth

  • Invite and involve youth in leadership, ministry and service roles
  • Connect youth with adults through projects, programs and relationship building
  • Help all adults who work with youth to see themselves as “asset builders

Within Youth Ministry

  • Utilize asset approach to re-shape overall efforts
  • Asset building suggests new opportunities for programs and strategies
  • Infuse and include assets within existing programs

Connect with Families of Adolescents

  • Promote asset building at home
  • Asset building provides an opportunity to connect with parents
  • Provide parents with support, resources and training

Parish

  • Become an “asset” building parish community
  • Involve youth in decision making
  • Work towards asset-building involvements for youth in parish-wide events and programs

Wider Community

  • Asset building becomes a starting point for collaboration with other congregations
  • Participate in community-wide efforts that builds assets
  • Connect with others to advocate for youth and their families

Understanding Youth Today

Generational Insights

 

 

Insights on the Millennial Generation

 

“They are the young navigators.  They doubt that traditional institutions can provide them with the good life and take personal responsibility for their lives.  They do value material goods, but they are not self-absorbed.  They are more knowledgeable than any previous generation, and they care deeply about social issues.  They believe strongly in individual rights such as privacy and rights to information.  But they have no ethos of individualism, thriving, rather, from close interpersonal networks and display a strong sense of social responsibility”

(Growing Up Digital by David Tapscott, p. 9).

 

 

Millennial Generation                                                            Previous Generations                                       

Seekers                                                 vs.                                 Receivers

Works the system                                   vs.                                 How it works

Authority is relational                              vs.                                 Authority as position

Information is networked Internet              vs.                                 Information is linear line

 

 

Implications

 

  • Relationships are the key.

 

  • They want to influence their involvement.

 

  • Living as adventure – they are interesting in the why and the who, not just the what.

 

  • Take them seriously.

What’s a Millennial?

 

  • The generation emerging at the end of one millennium and the beginning of another is called the millennial generation.

 

  • A millennial is generally defined as a young person who was born during 1982 or after.  The first millennials graduated in the high school class of 2000

 

  • Millennials tend to be optimistic, self-reliant, ambitious and discriminating about the deluge of messages that engulf them.

 

  • Millennials are called neotraditionalists.  They may look extreme with their haircuts, fashions and penchant for the fringe, but deep inside is a longing for ideals to believe in, a purpose to pursue, and a family or group of friends to accompany them.

 

  • Millennials are more likely to be bored (57%) than angry (37%), depressed (24%) or lonely (23%).

 

  • Extreme is a concept that seems to work when trying to describe this generation.  A millennial may look like a wild nonconformist, but underneath the bleached hair and the body piercing is a heat that is likely to be passionate about God, country and family.

 

  • Millennials and Gen Xers share many common traits:

 

  • They are comfortable with contradictions.
  • They are highly relational.
  • They harbor feelings of abandonment.
  • They have a great interest in spirituality.
  • They endure massive exposure to media.
  • They seek comfort without having to sell out their values.
  • They highly value family.
  • They are confused regarding the purpose of life.
  • They accept change as a constant in life.
  • Technology is a natural part of their existence.

 

 

Boomers, Gen Xers, and Millennials
 

Boomers

  

Gen Xers

  

Millennials
     
Prefer black and white moral values Value a gray world – no absolutes Comfortable with paradox – prefer black and white

 
Are idealistic Are cynical Are optimistic

 
Value people’s words

 

 Value people’s actions Value people (community)
Value what’s right Value what’s real Value teamwork

 
Make choices based on passion Make choices based on what is real and practical Make choices based on changing criteria

 
Focus on philosophies Focus on results Focus on social change

 
See conformity as unity See diversity as unity Consider conformity outdated

 
Value causes Value relationships Focus on Survival and success of self

 
Finding meaning in abstract thought Find meaning in what they can experience with their senses Find meaning in controlling useful information

 
Live to work Work to live Live to know

 
Returned to faith when they became parents Are “Spiritual Sensors” Are “Spiritual Questers”

 

(Excerpts from “Introduction: What’s Millennial in The Seven Cries of today’s Teens.  Hear Their Hearts, Make the Connection  by Timothy Smith.  Nashville TN:  Integrity publishers, 2003, pp.  7-22.)

 

The Impact of Developmental Assets

 
This table indicates the percentage of youth who report engaging in patters of high-risk behaviors and in positive behaviors, based on the number of assets they report having *
 
  0-10 11-20 21-30 31-40
  Assets Assets Assets Assets
Patters of Risk-Taking Behavior        
Illicit drugs 42% 49% 6% 1%
Used illicit drugs 3 or more times in the past year
Sexual intercourse 33% 21% 10% 3%
Has had sexual intercourse 3 ore more times in
Lifetime
Violence 61% 35% 16% 6%
Has engaged in 3 or more acts of fighting, hitting,
injuring a person, carrying or using a Weapon, or
threatening physical harm in the past year
Depression / suicide 40% 25% 13% 4%
Is frequently depressed and/or has attempted
Suicide
Positive Behaviors and Attitudes
Helps others 69% 83% 91% 96%
helps friends or neighbors one or more hours
per week
Succeeds in school 7% 19% 35% 53%
Gets mostly A’s on report card
Values diversity 34% 53% 69% 87%
Places high importance on getting to know people
of other racial/ethnic groups
Maintains good health 25% 46% 69% 88%
Pays attention to healthy nutrition and exercise
* Based on survey data from 99,462 6th– to 12th-grade public school students 213 towns and cities in 25 States.

 

 

Building Support for Youth

Asset Building in Youth Ministry

 

 

Opportunities for Asset Building within Parish Youth Ministry

 

 

Connect with Individual Youth

  • Invite and involve youth in leadership, ministry and service roles
  • Connect youth with adults through projects, programs and relationship building
  • Help all adults who work with youth to see themselves as “asset builders”

 

 

Within Youth Ministry

  • Utilize asset approach to re-shape overall efforts
  • Asset building suggests new opportunities for programs and strategies
  • Infuse and include assets within existing programs

 

 

Connect with Families of Adolescents

  • Promote asset building at home
  • Asset building provides an opportunity to connect with parents
  • Provide parents with support, resources and training

 

 

Parish

  • Become an “asset” building parish community
  • Involve youth in decision making
  • Work towards asset-building involvements for youth in parish-wide events and programs

 

 

Wider Community

  • Asset building becomes a starting point for collaboration with other congregations
  • Participate in community-wide efforts that builds assets
  • Connect with others to advocate for youth and their families

 

An Asset Building Checklist for Parents

 

The following list of statement corresponds with the 40 Assets.  In front each statement place one of the following letters to indicate your assessment of your child for each asset.

 

Y        Yes, my child has this asset.  I agree with this statement wholeheartedly.

D        Developing – This assets is developing for my child – there are “seeds” of this strength that still need reinforcement.

N        Not present – This asset is not present for my child at this time.

 

  1.    I give my child a lot of love and support.
  2.    My child can come to me for advice and support.  We have frequent in-depth conversations
  3.    My child knows three or more other adults that he or she can go to for advice and support.
  4.    Our neighbors encourage and support my child.
  5.    My child’s school provides a caring, encouraging environment.
  6.    I’m actively in helping my child succeed at school.
  7.    My child feels valued by adults in our community.
  8.    My child is given useful roles in our community.
  9.    My child serves in our community once or more hours each week.
  10.    My child feels safe at home, at school and in our neighborhood.
  11.    Our family has clear rules and consequences for behavior.  We monitor each other’s whereabouts.
  12.    My child’s school has clear rules and consequences for behavior.
  13.    Our neighbors take responsibilities for monitoring my child’s behavior.
  14.    I model positive, responsible behavior and so do other adults that my child knows.
  15.    My child’s best friends model responsible behavior.
  16.    I encourage my child to do well, and so do my child’s teachers.
  17.    My child spends three or more hours each week in lessons or practice in music, theatre or other arts.
  18.    My child spends three or more hours each week in school or community sports, clubs or organizations.
  19.    My child spends one or more hours each week in religious services or participating in spiritual activities.
  20.    My child spends two or fewer nights each week out with friends “with nothing special to do.”
  21.    My child wants to do well in school.
  22.    My child likes to learn new things.
  23.    My child does an hour or more of homework each school day.
  24.    My child cares about her or his school.
  25.    My child reads for pleasure three or more hours each week.
  26.    My child believes that it’s really important to help other people.
  27.    My child wants to help promote equality and reduce world poverty and hunger.
  28.    My child acts on his or her convictions.  My child stands up for his or her beliefs.
  29.    My child tells the truth – even when it’s not easy.
  30.    My child accepts and takes personal responsibility for her or his actions and decisions.
  31.    My child believes that it’s important not to be sexually active or to use alcohol or other drugs.
  32.    My child is good at planning ahead and making decisions.
  33.    My child is good at making and keeping friends.
  34.    My child knows and is comfortable with people of different cultural, racial and / or ethnic backgrounds
  35.    My child resists negative peer pressure and avoids dangerous situations.
  36.    My child tries to resolve conflicts nonviolently.
  37.    My child believes that he or she has control over many things that happen to hi or her.
  38.    My child feels good about herself or himself.
  39.    My child believes that his or her life has a purpose
  40.    My child is optimistic about her or his future.

 

 

Tally for Asset Checklist:

     o       Number of Assets (Y answers)                 

     o       Number of Developing Assets (D answers)                  

     o       Number of Assets Not Present (N answers)                

 

 

After completing the assessment, review the asset list to learn more about the strengths and areas to grow that you have identified.

 

 

What assets are especially strong for your child?  Of which assets are you especially proud?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

 

 

Which Assets – not present or developing – would you like to focus on at this time in planning for building assets in your child?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

 

(This checklist adapted from What Kids Need to Succeed – Proven, practical Ways to Raise Good Kids,  by Peter L. Benson, Judy Galbraith and Pamela Espeland, published by Free Spirit Publishing, 1998, Page 24-25)

An Asset Building Checklist for Kids and Teens

 

The following list of statement corresponds with the 40 Assets.  In front each statement place one of the following letters:

 

Y        Yes, I have this asset.

S        Sometimes – I have this asset some of the time

N        Not present – I don’t experience this asset.

 

  1.    I feel loved and supported in my family.
  2.    I can go to my parents or guardians for advice and support.  I have frequent in-dept conversations.
  3.    I know three or more other adults (besides my parents or guardians) that I can go to for advice and support.
  4.    My neighbors encourage and support me.
  5.    My school provides a caring, encouraging environment.
  6.    My parents or guardians help me succeed in school.
  7.    I feel valued by adults in our community.
  8.    I am given useful roles in our community.
  9.    I serve in our community once or more hours each week.
  10.    I feel safe at home, at school and in our neighborhood.
  11.    My family has clear rules and consequences for behavior, and they monitor my whereabouts.
  12.    My school has clear rules and consequences for behavior.
  13.    Neighbors take responsibilities for monitoring my behavior.
  14.    My parents or guardians and other adults in my life model positive, responsible behavior.
  15.    My Best friends model responsible behavior.
  16.    Both my parents or guardians and my teachers encourage me to do well.
  17.    I spend three or more hours each week in lessons or practice in music, theatre or other arts.
  18.    I spend three or more hours each week in school or community sports, clubs or organizations.
  19.    I spend one or more hours each week in religious services or participating in spiritual activities.
  20.    I spend two or fewer nights each week out with friends “with nothing special to do.”
  21.    I want to do well in school.
  22.    I like to learn new things.
  23.    I do an hour or more of homework each school day.
  24.    I care about her or his school.
  25.    I read for pleasure three or more hours each week.
  26.    I believe that it’s really important to help other people.
  27.    I want to help promote equality and reduce world poverty and hunger.
  28.    I act on my own convictions.  I stand up for my beliefs.
  29.    I tell the truth – even when it’s not easy.
  30.    I accept and take personal responsibility for my actions and decisions.
  31.    I believe that it’s important not to be sexually active or to use alcohol or other drugs.
  32.    I am good at planning ahead and making decisions.
  33.    I am good at making and keeping friends.
  34.    I know and am comfortable with people of different cultural, racial and / or ethnic backgrounds
  35.    I resist negative peer pressure and avoid dangerous situations.
  36.    I try to resolve conflicts nonviolently.
  37.    I believe that I have control over many things that happen to hi or her.
  38.    I feel good about myself.
  39.    I believe that my life has a purpose
  40.    I am optimistic about my future.

 

 

Tally for Asset Checklist:

     o       Number of Assets (Y answers)                 

     o       Number of Developing Assets (S answers)                   

     o       Number of Assets Not Present (N answers)                

 

 

After completing the assessment, review the asset list to learn more about the strengths and areas to grow that you have identified.

 

 

What assets are especially strong for you?  Of which assets are you especially proud?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

 

 

 

 

Which Assets – not present or developing – would you like to focus on at this time in planning for building assets in your life?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

 

(This checklist adapted from What Kids Need to Succeed – Proven, practical Ways to Raise Good Kids,  byPeter L. Benson, Judy Galbraith and Pamela Espeland, published by Free Spirit Publishing, 1998, Page 22-23)

 

Search Institute’s 40 Developmental Assets

Search institute has identified the following building blocks of healthy development that help young people grow up healthy, caring and responsible.

EXTERNAL ASSETS INTERNAL ASSETS

 

Support

  1. Family support – family life provides levels of love and support
  2. Positive family communication – Young person and her or his parent(s) communicate positively, and young person is willing to seek advice and counsel from parent(s).
  3. Other adults relationships- young person receives support from three or more non-parent adults.
  4. Caring neighborhood – Young person experiences caring neighbors.
  5. Caring school climate – School provides a caring, encouraging environment.
  6. Parent involvement in schooling – Parent(s) are actively involved in helping young person succeed in school

Empowerment

  1. Community values youth – Young person perceives that adults in the community value youth.
  2. Youth as resources – Young people are given useful rules in the Community
  3. Service to others – Young person serves in the community one hour or more per week.
  4. Safety – Young person feels safe at home, at school and in the neighborhood.

Boundaries and Expectations

  1. Family boundaries – Family has clear rules and consequences and monitors the young person’s whereabouts.
  2. School boundaries – School provides clear rules and consequences.
  3. Neighborhood boundaries – Neighbors take responsibility for monitoring young people’s behavior.
  4. Adult roe models – Parent(s) and other adults model positive, responsible behavior.
  5. positive peer influence – Young person’s best friends model responsible behavior.
  6. High expectation – Parent(s) and teachers encourage the young person to do well.

Constructive use of time

  1. Creative activities – Young person spends three or more hours per week in lessons or practice in music, theater or other arts.
  2. Youth program – Young person spends three or more hours per week in sports, clubs or organizations at school and/or in the community.
  3. Religious community – Young person spends one or more hours in activites in a religious institution.
  4. Time at home – Young person is out with friends ‘with nothing special to do” two or fewer nights per week.

Community to Learning

  1. Achievement motivation – Young person is motivated to do well in school.
  2. School engagement – Young person is actively engaged in learning.
  3. Homework – Young person reports doing at least one hour of homework every school day.
  4. Bonding to school – Young person cares about her or his school.
  5. Reading for pleasure – Young person reads for pleasure three or more hours per week.

Positive Values

  1. Caring – Young person places high value on helping other people.
  2. Equality and social justice – Young person places high value on promoting equality and reducing hunger and poverty.
  3. Integrity – Young person acts on convictions and stands up for her or his beliefs.
  4. Honesty – Young person ‘tells the truth even when it is not easy.”
  5. Responsibility – young person accepts and takes personal responsibility.
  6. Restraint – Young person believes it is important not to be sexually active or to use alcohol or other drugs.

Social Competencies

  1. Planning and decision making – Young person know s how to plan ahead and make choices.
  2. interpersonal competence – Young person as empathy, sensitivity and friendship skills.
  3. Cultural competence – Young person has knowledge of and comfort with people of different cultural/racial/ethnic background.
  4. Resistance skills – Young person can resist negative peer pressure and dangerous situations.
  5. Peaceful conflict resolution – Young person seeks to resolve conflict nonviolently.

Positive Identity

  1. personal power – Young person feels he or she has control over ‘things that happen to me.”
  2. Self-esteem – Young person reports having a high self-esteem.
  3. Sense of purpose – Young person reports that “my life has purpose.”
  4. Positive view of personal future – Young person is optimistic about her or his personal future

 

 

Religious Needs and Hungers of Young People Today

 

 

Six Basic Needs of Young People

(The Religious Life of Young Americans – Gallup International Institute)

 

  1. The need to believe that life is meaningful and has a purpose.

 

  1. The need for a sense of community and deeper relationships.

 

  1. The need to be appreciated and loved.

 

  1. The need to be listened to – to be heard.

 

  1. The need to feel that one is growing in faith.

 

  1. The need for practical help in developing a mature faith.

 

 

Five Hungers of Young People

(From Challenge of Catholic Youth Evangelization, National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry, 1993)

 

  1. The hunger for meaning and purpose.

 

  1. The hunger for connection.

 

  1. The hunger for recognition.

 

  1. The hunger for justice.

 

  1. The hunger for the holy.

 

 Key Themes of Postmodern Culture

 

It’s an EPIC Culture

 

Experiential

“The perpetual openness to experience of postmoderns is such that one can never underestimate the e-factor: experiential.  Postmoderns will do most anything not to lose connection with the experience of life” (Post-Modern Pilgrims, p.32).

 

“The postmodern economy is an “experience economy.”  Some call this “immersion living.”  Others call it “The Emotive Era.”  But, whatever you call it, experience is the currency of postmodern economics.  In the last half century, much of the world has transitioned from an industrial economy (driven by things) to a knowledge economy (driven by bits) to an experience economy (which traffics in experiences)” (Post-Modern Pilgrims, p.33).

 

 

Consider the following examples of “experience centers”…

  • Disney World
  • Children’s museums
  • Mall of America (Bloomington, MN)
  • Home Depot
  • REI (Recreational Equipment, Inc.)
  • Barnes and Noble Mega Bookstores, Borders Mega Bookstores

 

 

“Postmoderns want to experience what life is, especially life for themselves.  Postmoderns are not willing to live an even an arms’-length distance for experience.  They want life to explode all around them.  Postmoderns don’t want their information straight.  They want it laced with experience (hence edutainment).  And the more extreme, the better” (Post-Modern Pilgrims, p.34).

 

“In postmodern culture, there is no interest in a “secondhand” God, a God that someone else defines for us.  Each one of us is a Jacob become Israel: a wrestler with God.  The encounter, the experience is the message.

 

“Postmoderns literally “feel” their way through life.  Want to create change?  Give postmoderns a new experience they haven’t had before.  The experience of a new story, the “feel” of a new consciousness is the key to personal and social change” (Post-Modern Pilgrims, p.43).

 

“The Way is not a method or a map.  The Way is an experience.  Postmodern leaders are experience architects.  Postmoderns come to church to explore: “Is it real?” “Give me an experience and then I’ll see whether I believe it.”  Try-before-you-buy postmoderns will not first find the meaning of faith in Christ and then participate in the life of the church.  Rather, they will participate first and then discern the meaning of faith.  In postmodern culture, the experience is the message” (SoulTsunami, p.215).

 

 

Participation

Postmodern culture is an “age of participation,” an “age of access.”

 

“Postmodern people take cues not from those “above” them but from others “around” them.  There are no more bosses, only clients.  In this radical democracy, vertical authorities like priests and professors have been replaced by peers throughout the world who share common interests.

 

Everything fixed is becoming fluid.  It is not only the center that can’t hold.  The vertical can’t hold either.  It is not just that we’re all priests.  We’re all doctors; we’re all lawyers; we’re all architects; we’re all programmers; we’re all stockbrokers; we’re all gourmets; we’re all philosophers (so says John Paul II in Fides et Ratio); we’re all literary critics.  No, we’re even all actors (who pay to be part of Civil War battle enactments).

 

Postmoderns are thinking and living within an interdependent, interactive ethos.  They perceive, comprehend and interact with the world as much as participants as observers” (Post-Modern Pilgrims, p.53-54).

 

“The postmodern world is a karaoke world.

 

It isn’t “music” unless a person can perform and participate in it personally.  We hear the sounds of a karaoke culture in the phrase “Talk to me.”  We hear the sounds of a karaoke culture in talk radio.  One out of every six US Americans is a regular listener of talk radio.

 

Mouse potatoes and click potatoes don’t become couch potatoes.  The become karaoke mike holders – or scuba divers, in-line skaters, mountain bikers, windsurfers.  The real content of media-like phones is not the information but the interaction.

 

This is the “value” of media that people in the church have yet to understand.  The true content of multimedia is interaction.  The key to all computer games is interactive participation.  And, this interaction is what helps create the experience…

 

That’s why the more digital the culture becomes, the more participatory it gets….Electronic culture pushes postmoderns toward more active and interactive behaviors” (Post-Modern Pilgrims, p.55-56).

 

“Postmoderns exhibit three levels of engagement with media (with life itself?): fascination, exploration, integration.  Postmoderns have to explore (hands-on) before they can integrate.  Of these three stages, only the first is passive (fascination).  Both exploration and integration are active and interactive.

 

In other words, interactivity is wired into the postmodern being itself” (Post-Modern Pilgrims, p.56).

 

“Postmoderns are not simply going to transmit the tradition or culture they’ve been taught.  They won’t take it unless they can transform it and customize it.  Making a culture their own doesn’t mean passing on a treasure that they’ve inherited but rather inventing and engineering their own heirloom out of the treasures of the past.  The Net enables them to do that” (Post-Modern Pilgrims, p.58-59).

 

From Representative to Participatory (Post-Modern Pilgrims, p.59-60):

A representative culture is based on certain beliefs:

  • People want and need to be controlled and to have decisions made for them.
  • The task of leadership is to administer guidance and regulations.
  • People do only the things they are rewarded for doing.
  • People cannot be trusted to use their personal freedom in service of the society or organization.
 A participatory culture is based on just the opposite beliefs:

  • People want to make their own decisions and to have multiple choices.
  • Leadership is emboldening and empowering others to lead.
  • People will make sacrifices for the good of the whole.
  • Human systems are self-organizing and people can be trusted to invest wisely of their resources and time.

 

“Postmodern culture is a choice culture….a choice culture is by definition a participatory culture.

 

Postmoderns don’t give their undivided attention to much of anything without its being interactive.  It is no longer enough to possess things or to enjoy positive events.  One now has to be involved in bringing those events to pass or brokering those things into the home.  People want to participate in the production of content, whatever it is…” (Post-Modern Pilgrims, p.62).

 

“There are three key component strengths (“delights”) to electronic interactivity, according to Janet Murray: (a) immersion, (b) agency, (c) transformation.

  • Immersion: The world of the screen transports you into another world and replicates you there to the nth degree, making it possible for you to do things you never thought you could do.
  • Agency: Your agent does what you do and follows your instructions.  “Agency is the satisfying power to take meaningful action and see the results of our decisions and choices.”
  • Transformation: Experience of fascination and wonder of playing with something that is virtual but in all respects real.

Evaluate your interactive initiative in ministry using these three criteria” (Post-Modern Pilgrims, p.80-81).

 

Image-Driven

“Postmodern culture is image-driven.  The modern world was word-based.  Its theologians tried to crate an intellectual faith, placing reason and order at the heart of religion.  Mystery and metaphor were banished as too fuzzy, too mystical, too illogical.  After forfeiting to the media the role of storyteller, the church now enters a world where story and metaphor are at the heart of spirituality.

 

Images come as close as human beings will get to a universal language….Alter our metaphors and we transform our being in the world.  Alter our metaphors and we are transformed into the image of Christ.

 

Propositions are lost on postmodern ears.  But metaphors they will hear; images they will see and understand.

 

The greatest image in the world, the image to which we draw people into a relationship, is the image of God in Jesus the Christ.  Paul says of Jesus: “He is the image of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15 NRSV).  Jesus says of himself: “If you know me, you will know my Father also…Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:7,9 NRSV)” (Post-Modern Pilgrims, p.86-89).

 

“Cultures are symbol systems, intricate, interwoven webs of metaphors, symbols and stories.  What holds the culture of the church together – the metaphors it offers, the symbols it displays, the stories it tells?  The church seems to have lost the plot to the “stories of Jesus.”  Could it be because the redemption story was told in the modern era more by “creeds” and “laws” than by “parables” – narrative-wrapped images?” (Post-Modern Pilgrims, p.88-89)

 

“The best tool leaders can give people to help them think and live differently is a metaphor or image….To sculpt a metaphor is to transform the world.”

 

Connected

“The paradox is this: the pursuit of individualism has led us to this place of hunger for connectedness, for communities not of blood or nation but communities of choice.  The very prevalence of the world community itself – is there any sector of society that isn’t a community? – betrays the absence of and craving for the real thing” (Post-Modern Pilgrims, p.109-110).

 

“In the midst of a culture of communal anorexia, there is a deepening desire for a life filled with friends, community, service and creative and spiritual growth.  The church must provide its people with a moral code, a vision of what gives life value and an experience of embeddedness in a community to which one makes valuable contributions.  Personal relationships are key in postmodern ministry….The church must help people build a communal life of deep and rich personal relationships” (SoulTsunami, p.221).

 

“Postmoderns want participation in a deeply personal but at the same time communal experience of the divine and the transformation of life that issues from identification with God.

 

Relationship issues stand at the heart of postmodern culture.  Today, it’s all about relationships and partnerships.  In classic and/also fashion, the more digitally enhanced the culture becomes, the more flesh-and-blood human the enchantments.  The more impersonal the transactions (economic, social, etc.), the deeper the hunger for relationships and community” (Post-Modern Pilgrims, p.113).

 

“The church exists to incarnate connectedness and to inculcate great consciousness of connectedness.  At any moment, however ordinary and uneventful, “me” is inextricably connected to “we.”  Even when I am most alone, “I” am connected to and dependent on a global mix of “us” cultures and languages totally foreign to my first-person self” (Post-Modern Pilgrims, p.116).

 

“The church needs to reinvent the concept of “connection” and “connectedness” to fit a postmodern context.  It is not just the extensiveness of connection that counts but the diversity of connections that make a difference.  Postmoderns also need to learn the difference between a life rich in connections and a life rich in contacts or rich in networking.  One Harvard psychiatrist has isolated twelve connections we need to make in life if we are to be “well connected:” our family of origin, our immediate family, our friends and community, our work world, the world of art and beauty, a connection with our heritage, with nature, with pets, with ideas and information, with social groups, with ourselves.  But the greatest connection of all we need to establish is our connection with God.

 

God is the Ultimate Connection: “I will never leave you or forsake you” (Heb. 13:5 NRSV).  Some of the most healing words of Scripture are God’s promises of connectedness: “I will be with you” and “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (cf. Exod. 3:8-12, Matt. 28:30).  The power of connection is a healing power.  Healing connections are here, there and everywhere for the picking if the church can help postmoderns understand what it means to be connected – connected to one another, connected to creation, even connected to the church itself” (Post-Modern Pilgrims, p.119).

 

“Storytelling creates community.  The narrative quality of experience is a deeply religious issue.  We organize our experience through narrative.  We inhabit a storied reality.  Human cognition is based on storytelling.  Or, as one researcher puts it, stories are “the fundamental instrument of thought.

 

The language of the Scriptures is story.  You can tell stories and never use words, much less words that come to a point.  In fact, the story of the Gospels is told most effectively with bread and wine – images and elements of the earth, images and elements you can taste, touch, see, smell and hear.  Postmoderns need to be able to taste, touch, hear, smell and see this story of Jesus.

 

Telling stories in a digital culture may take any number of learning and worship forms – oral, audio, video, TV, films, multimedia, CD-Rom, print, as well as the place where all the above converge into one: www” (Post-Modern Pilgrims, p.124).

 

Conclusion

“Leaders do not strive to replace the “modern consciousness” with a “postmodern consciousness.”  Leaders help replace the “modern consciousness” with a “Christ consciousness” that can live and move and have its being in postmodern culture.  This is a call for the church to recover tradition.  We can become a “traditional” church by nurturing a culture that is identifiably Christian and postmodern at the same time, not one that looks like postmodern culture itself.  The EPIC church carries the brand of the past while being a barometer of the future” (Post-Modern Pilgrims, p.48).

 

(Reflections from the work of Leonard Sweet, excerpted from…

SoulTsunami – Sink or Swim in the New Millennial Culture by Leonard Sweet.  Grand

Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1999.

Post-Modern Pilgrims – First Century Passion for the 21st Century World by Leonard

Sweet.  Nashville, TN: Broadman and Holman Publishers, 2000.

Websites: www.SoulTsunami.com and www.Soulsalsa.com)

 

 

The Challenges of Older Adolescence

 

Intellectual Development

  • Developing the ability to engage in reflective thinking (“What do I think?” “Why do I think that?”), making it possible to develop a personal identity, personal value system and personal faith
  • Thinking about and planning for the future

 

 

Identity Development

  • Beginning the process of establishing a personal identity, which includes an acceptance of one’s sexuality, decision-making regarding the future and a commitment to a personally-held system of values and religious beliefs
  • Shifting from the authority of the family to self-chosen authority (oneself), often by establishing an identity that is shaped by significant others (peers and adults)
  • Experiencing a period of questioning, reevaluation and experimentation
  • Developing increasing autonomy in making personal decisions, assuming responsibility for oneself and regulating one’s own behavior

 

 

Moral Development

  • Exercising moral judgments in matters of much greater complexity as they seek to establish a more personal form of moral reasoning
  • Reevaluating the moral values received from family, church and significant others
  • Searching for a moral code which preserves their personal integrity and provides the basis for developing an internalized moral value system that can guide their behavior

 

 

Interpersonal Development

  • Moving toward greater personal intimacy and adult sexuality
  • Developing the capability for more mutual, trusting, deep and enduring personal friendships with members of the same sex and opposite sex that provide acceptance, love, affirmation and the opportunity to honestly share their deepest selves
  • Expanding their social perspective to encompass the larger world

 

 

 Faith Development

  • Exploring and questioning the faith handed down by family and church as they search for a style of faith and belief that is more personal to oneself
  • Beginning the process of taking responsibility for one’s own faith life, commitments, lifestyle, beliefs and attitudes
  • Exploring a personal relationship with God, who knows, accepts and confirms them, and with Jesus Christ, through his teaching, example and presence in one’s life

An Asset Building Checklist for Parents

The following list of statement corresponds with the 40 Assets.  In front each statement place one of the following letters to indicate your assessment of your child for each asset.

Y        Yes, my child has this asset.  I agree with this statement wholeheartedly.

D        Developing – This assets is developing for my child – there are “seeds” of this strength that still need reinforcement.

N        Not present – This asset is not present for my child at this time.

 

  1.    I give my child a lot of love and support.
  2.    My child can come to me for advice and support.  We have frequent in-depth conversations
  3.    My child knows three or more other adults that he or she can go to for advice and support.
  4.    Our neighbors encourage and support my child.
  5.    My child’s school provides a caring, encouraging environment.
  6.    I’m actively in helping my child succeed at school.
  7.    My child feels valued by adults in our community.
  8.    My child is given useful roles in our community.
  9.    My child serves in our community once or more hours each week.
  10.    My child feels safe at home, at school and in our neighborhood.
  11.    Our family has clear rules and consequences for behavior.  We monitor each other’s whereabouts.
  12.    My child’s school has clear rules and consequences for behavior.
  13.    Our neighbors take responsibilities for monitoring my child’s behavior.
  14.    I model positive, responsible behavior and so do other adults that my child knows.
  15.    My child’s best friends model responsible behavior.
  16.    I encourage my child to do well, and so do my child’s teachers.
  17.    My child spends three or more hours each week in lessons or practice in music, theatre or other arts.
  18.    My child spends three or more hours each week in school or community sports, clubs or organizations.
  19.    My child spends one or more hours each week in religious services or participating in spiritual activities.
  20.    My child spends two or fewer nights each week out with friends “with nothing special to do.”
  21.    My child wants to do well in school.
  22.    My child likes to learn new things.
  23.    My child does an hour or more of homework each school day.
  24.    My child cares about her or his school.
  25.    My child reads for pleasure three or more hours each week.
  26.    My child believes that it’s really important to help other people.
  27.    My child wants to help promote equality and reduce world poverty and hunger.
  28.    My child acts on his or her convictions.  My child stands up for his or her beliefs.
  29.    My child tells the truth – even when it’s not easy.
  30.    My child accepts and takes personal responsibility for her or his actions and decisions.
  31.    My child believes that it’s important not to be sexually active or to use alcohol or other drugs.
  32.    My child is good at planning ahead and making decisions.
  33.    My child is good at making and keeping friends.
  34.    My child knows and is comfortable with people of different cultural, racial and / or ethnic backgrounds
  35.    My child resists negative peer pressure and avoids dangerous situations.
  36.    My child tries to resolve conflicts nonviolently.
  37.    My child believes that he or she has control over many things that happen to hi or her.
  38.    My child feels good about herself or himself.
  39.    My child believes that his or her life has a purpose
  40.    My child is optimistic about her or his future.

 

 

Tally for Asset Checklist:

     o       Number of Assets (Y answers)                 

     o       Number of Developing Assets (D answers)                  

     o       Number of Assets Not Present (N answers)                

After completing the assessment, review the asset list to learn more about the strengths and areas to grow that you have identified.

What assets are especially strong for your child?  Of which assets are you especially proud?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Which Assets – not present or developing – would you like to focus on at this time in planning for building assets in your child?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

 

(This checklist adapted from What Kids Need to Succeed – Proven, practical Ways to Raise Good Kids,  by Peter L. Benson, Judy Galbraith and Pamela Espeland, published by Free Spirit Publishing, 1998, Page 24-25)

An Asset Building Checklist for Kids and Teens

The following list of statement corresponds with the 40 Assets.  In front each statement place one of the following letters:

Y        Yes, I have this asset.

S        Sometimes – I have this asset some of the time

N        Not present – I don’t experience this asset.

  1.    I feel loved and supported in my family.
  2.    I can go to my parents or guardians for advice and support.  I have frequent in-dept conversations.
  3.    I know three or more other adults (besides my parents or guardians) that I can go to for advice and support.
  4.    My neighbors encourage and support me.
  5.    My school provides a caring, encouraging environment.
  6.    My parents or guardians help me succeed in school.
  7.    I feel valued by adults in our community.
  8.    I am given useful roles in our community.
  9.    I serve in our community once or more hours each week.
  10.    I feel safe at home, at school and in our neighborhood.
  11.    My family has clear rules and consequences for behavior, and they monitor my whereabouts.
  12.    My school has clear rules and consequences for behavior.
  13.    Neighbors take responsibilities for monitoring my behavior.
  14.    My parents or guardians and other adults in my life model positive, responsible behavior.
  15.    My Best friends model responsible behavior.
  16.    Both my parents or guardians and my teachers encourage me to do well.
  17.    I spend three or more hours each week in lessons or practice in music, theatre or other arts.
  18.    I spend three or more hours each week in school or community sports, clubs or organizations.
  19.    I spend one or more hours each week in religious services or participating in spiritual activities.
  20.    I spend two or fewer nights each week out with friends “with nothing special to do.”
  21.    I want to do well in school.
  22.    I like to learn new things.
  23.    I do an hour or more of homework each school day.
  24.    I care about her or his school.
  25.    I read for pleasure three or more hours each week.
  26.    I believe that it’s really important to help other people.
  27.    I want to help promote equality and reduce world poverty and hunger.
  28.    I act on my own convictions.  I stand up for my beliefs.
  29.    I tell the truth – even when it’s not easy.
  30.    I accept and take personal responsibility for my actions and decisions.
  31.    I believe that it’s important not to be sexually active or to use alcohol or other drugs.
  32.    I am good at planning ahead and making decisions.
  33.    I am good at making and keeping friends.
  34.    I know and am comfortable with people of different cultural, racial and / or ethnic backgrounds
  35.    I resist negative peer pressure and avoid dangerous situations.
  36.    I try to resolve conflicts nonviolently.
  37.    I believe that I have control over many things that happen to hi or her.
  38.    I feel good about myself.
  39.    I believe that my life has a purpose
  40.    I am optimistic about my future.

 

Tally for Asset Checklist:

     o       Number of Assets (Y answers)                 

     o       Number of Developing Assets (S answers)                   

     o       Number of Assets Not Present (N answers)                

 

 

After completing the assessment, review the asset list to learn more about the strengths and areas to grow that you have identified.

 

 

What assets are especially strong for you?  Of which assets are you especially proud?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

 

 

 

 

Which Assets – not present or developing – would you like to focus on at this time in planning for building assets in your life?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

 

(This checklist adapted from What Kids Need to Succeed – Proven, practical Ways to Raise Good Kids,  byPeter L. Benson, Judy Galbraith and Pamela Espeland, published by Free Spirit Publishing, 1998, Page 22-23)

Search Institute’s 40 Developmental Assets

Search institute has identified the following building blocks of healthy development that help young people grow up healthy, caring and responsible.

EXTERNAL ASSETS

Support

  1. Family support – family life provides levels of love and support
  2. Positive family communication – Young person and her or his parent(s) communicate positively, and young person is willing to seek advice and counsel from parent(s).
  3. Other adults relationships- young person receives support from three or more non-parent adults.
  4. Caring neighborhood – Young person experiences caring neighbors.
  5. Caring school climate – School provides a caring, encouraging environment.
  6. Parent involvement in schooling – Parent(s) are actively involved in helping young person succeed in school

Empowerment

  1. Community values youth – Young person perceives that adults in the community value youth.
  2. Youth as resources – Young people are given useful rules in the Community
  3. Service to others – Young person serves in the community one hour or more per week.
  4. Safety – Young person feels safe at home, at school and in the neighborhood.

Boundaries and Expectations

  1. Family boundaries – Family has clear rules and consequences and monitors the young person’s whereabouts.
  2. School boundaries – School provides clear rules and consequences.
  3. Neighborhood boundaries – Neighbors take responsibility for monitoring young people’s behavior.
  4. Adult roe models – Parent(s) and other adults model positive, responsible behavior.
  5. positive peer influence – Young person’s best friends model responsible behavior.
  6. High expectation – Parent(s) and teachers encourage the young person to do well.

INTERNAL ASSETS

Constructive use of time

  1. Creative activities – Young person spends three or more hours per week in lessons or practice in music, theater or other arts.
  2. Youth program – Young person spends three or more hours per week in sports, clubs or organizations at school and/or in the community.
  3. Religious community – Young person spends one or more hours in activities in a religious institution.
  4. Time at home – Young person is out with friends ‘with nothing special to do” two or fewer nights per week.

Community to Learning

  1. Achievement motivation – Young person is motivated to do well in school.
  2. School engagement – Young person is actively engaged in learning.
  3. Homework – Young person reports doing at least one hour of homework every school day.
  4. Bonding to school – Young person cares about her or his school.
  5. Reading for pleasure – Young person reads for pleasure three or more hours per week.

Positive Values

  1. Caring – Young person places high value on helping other people.
  2. Equality and social justice – Young person places high value on promoting equality and reducing hunger and poverty.
  3. Integrity – Young person acts on convictions and stands up for her or his beliefs.
  4. Honesty – Young person ‘tells the truth even when it is not easy.”
  5. Responsibility – young person accepts and takes personal responsibility.
  6. Restraint – Young person believes it is important not to be sexually active or to use alcohol or other drugs.

Social Competencies

  1. Planning and decision making – Young person know s how to plan ahead and make choices.
  2. interpersonal competence – Young person as empathy, sensitivity and friendship skills.
  3. Cultural competence – Young person has knowledge of and comfort with people of different cultural/racial/ethnic background.
  4. Resistance skills – Young person can resist negative peer pressure and dangerous situations.
  5. Peaceful conflict resolution – Young person seeks to resolve conflict nonviolently.

Positive Identity

  1. personal power – Young person feels he or she has control over ‘things that happen to me.”
  2. Self-esteem – Young person reports having a high self-esteem.
  3. Sense of purpose – Young person reports that “my life has purpose.”
  4. Positive view of personal future – Young person is optimistic about her or his personal future

Religious Needs and Hungers of Young People Today

Six Basic Needs of Young People

(The Religious Life of Young Americans – Gallup International Institute)

 

  1. The need to believe that life is meaningful and has a purpose.
  2. The need for a sense of community and deeper relationships.
  3. The need to be appreciated and loved.
  4. The need to be listened to – to be heard.
  5. The need to feel that one is growing in faith.
  6. The need for practical help in developing a mature faith

Five Hungers of Young People

(From Challenge of Catholic Youth Evangelization, National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry, 1993)

 

  1. The hunger for meaning and purpose.
  2. The hunger for connection.
  3. The hunger for recognition.
  4. The hunger for justice.
  5. The hunger for the holy.

 Key Themes of Postmodern Culture

 

It’s an EPIC Culture

 

Experiential

“The perpetual openness to experience of postmoderns is such that one can never underestimate the e-factor: experiential.  Postmoderns will do most anything not to lose connection with the experience of life” (Post-Modern Pilgrims, p.32).

“The postmodern economy is an “experience economy.”  Some call this “immersion living.”  Others call it “The Emotive Era.”  But, whatever you call it, experience is the currency of postmodern economics.  In the last half century, much of the world has transitioned from an industrial economy (driven by things) to a knowledge economy (driven by bits) to an experience economy (which traffics in experiences)” (Post-Modern Pilgrims, p.33).

Consider the following examples of “experience centers”…

  • Disney World
  • Children’s museums
  • Mall of America (Bloomington, MN)
  • Home Depot
  • REI (Recreational Equipment, Inc.)
  • Barnes and Noble Mega Bookstores, Borders Mega Bookstores

 

 

Consider the following examples of “experience centers”…

  • Disney World
  • Children’s museums
  • Mall of America (Bloomington, MN)
  • Home Depot
  • REI (Recreational Equipment, Inc.)
  • Barnes and Noble Mega Bookstores, Borders Mega Bookstores

“Postmoderns want to experience what life is, especially life for themselves.  Postmoderns are not willing to live an even an arms’-length distance for experience.  They want life to explode all around them.  Postmoderns don’t want their information straight.  They want it laced with experience (hence edutainment).  And the more extreme, the better” (Post-Modern Pilgrims, p.34).

“In postmodern culture, there is no interest in a “secondhand” God, a God that someone else defines for us.  Each one of us is a Jacob become Israel: a wrestler with God.  The encounter, the experience is the message.

“Postmoderns literally “feel” their way through life.  Want to create change?  Give postmoderns a new experience they haven’t had before.  The experience of a new story, the “feel” of a new consciousness is the key to personal and social change” (Post-Modern Pilgrims, p.43).

“The Way is not a method or a map.  The Way is an experience.  Postmodern leaders are experience architects.  Postmoderns come to church to explore: “Is it real?” “Give me an experience and then I’ll see whether I believe it.”  Try-before-you-buy postmoderns will not first find the meaning of faith in Christ and then participate in the life of the church.  Rather, they will participate first and then discern the meaning of faith.  In postmodern culture, the experience is the message” (SoulTsunami, p.215).

Participation

Postmodern culture is an “age of participation,” an “age of access.”

“Postmodern people take cues not from those “above” them but from others “around” them.  There are no more bosses, only clients.  In this radical democracy, vertical authorities like priests and professors have been replaced by peers throughout the world who share common interests.

Everything fixed is becoming fluid.  It is not only the center that can’t hold.  The vertical can’t hold either.  It is not just that we’re all priests.  We’re all doctors; we’re all lawyers; we’re all architects; we’re all programmers; we’re all stockbrokers; we’re all gourmets; we’re all philosophers (so says John Paul II in Fides et Ratio); we’re all literary critics.  No, we’re even all actors (who pay to be part of Civil War battle enactments).

Postmoderns are thinking and living within an interdependent, interactive ethos.  They perceive, comprehend and interact with the world as much as participants as observers” (Post-Modern Pilgrims, p.53-54).

 

“The postmodern world is a karaoke world.

 

It isn’t “music” unless a person can perform and participate in it personally.  We hear the sounds of a karaoke culture in the phrase “Talk to me.”  We hear the sounds of a karaoke culture in talk radio.  One out of every six US Americans is a regular listener of talk radio.

Mouse potatoes and click potatoes don’t become couch potatoes.  The become karaoke mike holders – or scuba divers, in-line skaters, mountain bikers, windsurfers.  The real content of media-like phones is not the information but the interaction.

This is the “value” of media that people in the church have yet to understand.  The true content of multimedia is interaction.  The key to all computer games is interactive participation.  And, this interaction is what helps create the experience…

That’s why the more digital the culture becomes, the more participatory it gets….Electronic culture pushes postmoderns toward more active and interactive behaviors” (Post-Modern Pilgrims, p.55-56).

“Postmoderns exhibit three levels of engagement with media (with life itself?): fascination, exploration, integration.  Postmoderns have to explore (hands-on) before they can integrate.  Of these three stages, only the first is passive (fascination).  Both exploration and integration are active and interactive.

In other words, interactivity is wired into the postmodern being itself” (Post-Modern Pilgrims, p.56).

“Postmoderns are not simply going to transmit the tradition or culture they’ve been taught.  They won’t take it unless they can transform it and customize it.  Making a culture their own doesn’t mean passing on a treasure that they’ve inherited but rather inventing and engineering their own heirloom out of the treasures of the past.  The Net enables them to do that” (Post-Modern Pilgrims, p.58-59).

From Representative to Participatory (Post-Modern Pilgrims, p.59-60):

A represetative culture is based on certain beliefs:

  • People want and need to be controlled and to have decisions made for them.
  • The task of leadership is to administer guidance and regulations.
  • People do only the things they are rewarded for doing.
  • People cannot be trusted to use their personal freedom in service of the society or organization.
 A participatory culture is based on just the opposite beliefs:

  • People want to make their own decisions and to have multiple choices.
  • Leadership is emboldening and empowering others to lead.
  • People will make sacrifices for the good of the whole.
  • Human systems are self-organizing and people can be trusted to invest wisely of their resources and time.

 

“Postmodern culture is a choice culture….a choice culture is by definition a participatory culture.

Postmoderns don’t give their undivided attention to much of anything without its being interactive.  It is no longer enough to possess things or to enjoy positive events.  One now has to be involved in bringing those events to pass or brokering those things into the home.  People want to participate in the production of content, whatever it is…” (Post-Modern Pilgrims, p.62).

“There are three key component strengths (“delights”) to electronic interactivity, according to Janet Murray: (a) immersion, (b) agency, (c) transformation.

  • Immersion: The world of the screen transports you into another world and replicates you there to the nth degree, making it possible for you to do things you never thought you could do.
  • Agency: Your agent does what you do and follows your instructions.  “Agency is the satisfying power to take meaningful action and see the results of our decisions and choices.”
  • Transformation: Experience of fascination and wonder of playing with something that is virtual but in all respects real.

Evaluate your interactive initiative in ministry using these three criteria” (Post-Modern Pilgrims, p.80-81).

Image-Driven

“Postmodern culture is image-driven.  The modern world was word-based.  Its theologians tried to crate an intellectual faith, placing reason and order at the heart of religion.  Mystery and metaphor were banished as too fuzzy, too mystical, too illogical.  After forfeiting to the media the role of storyteller, the church now enters a world where story and metaphor are at the heart of spirituality.

Images come as close as human beings will get to a universal language….Alter our metaphors and we transform our being in the world.  Alter our metaphors and we are transformed into the image of Christ.

Propositions are lost on postmodern ears.  But metaphors they will hear; images they will see and understand.

The greatest image in the world, the image to which we draw people into a relationship, is the image of God in Jesus the Christ.  Paul says of Jesus: “He is the image of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15 NRSV).  Jesus says of himself: “If you know me, you will know my Father also…Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:7,9 NRSV)” (Post-Modern Pilgrims, p.86-89).

“Cultures are symbol systems, intricate, interwoven webs of metaphors, symbols and stories.  What holds the culture of the church together – the metaphors it offers, the symbols it displays, the stories it tells?  The church seems to have lost the plot to the “stories of Jesus.”  Could it be because the redemption story was told in the modern era more by “creeds” and “laws” than by “parables” – narrative-wrapped images?” (Post-Modern Pilgrims, p.88-89)

“The best tool leaders can give people to help them think and live differently is a metaphor or image….To sculpt a metaphor is to transform the world.”

Connected

“The paradox is this: the pursuit of individualism has led us to this place of hunger for connectedness, for communities not of blood or nation but communities of choice.  The very prevalence of the world community itself – is there any sector of society that isn’t a community? – betrays the absence of and craving for the real thing” (Post-Modern Pilgrims, p.109-110).

“In the midst of a culture of communal anorexia, there is a deepening desire for a life filled with friends, community, service and creative and spiritual growth.  The church must provide its people with a moral code, a vision of what gives life value and an experience of embeddedness in a community to which one makes valuable contributions.  Personal relationships are key in postmodern ministry….The church must help people build a communal life of deep and rich personal relationships” (SoulTsunami, p.221).

“Postmoderns want participation in a deeply personal but at the same time communal experience of the divine and the transformation of life that issues from identification with God.

Relationship issues stand at the heart of postmodern culture.  Today, it’s all about relationships and partnerships.  In classic and/also fashion, the more digitally enhanced the culture becomes, the more flesh-and-blood human the enchantments.  The more impersonal the transactions (economic, social, etc.), the deeper the hunger for relationships and community” (Post-Modern Pilgrims, p.113).

“The church exists to incarnate connectedness and to inculcate great consciousness of connectedness.  At any moment, however ordinary and uneventful, “me” is inextricably connected to “we.”  Even when I am most alone, “I” am connected to and dependent on a global mix of “us” cultures and languages totally foreign to my first-person self” (Post-Modern Pilgrims, p.116).

“The church needs to reinvent the concept of “connection” and “connectedness” to fit a postmodern context.  It is not just the extensiveness of connection that counts but the diversity of connections that make a difference.  Postmoderns also need to learn the difference between a life rich in connections and a life rich in contacts or rich in networking.  One Harvard psychiatrist has isolated twelve connections we need to make in life if we are to be “well connected:” our family of origin, our immediate family, our friends and community, our work world, the world of art and beauty, a connection with our heritage, with nature, with pets, with ideas and information, with social groups, with ourselves.  But the greatest connection of all we need to establish is our connection with God.

God is the Ultimate Connection: “I will never leave you or forsake you” (Heb. 13:5 NRSV).  Some of the most healing words of Scripture are God’s promises of connectedness: “I will be with you” and “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (cf. Exod. 3:8-12, Matt. 28:30).  The power of connection is a healing power.  Healing connections are here, there and everywhere for the picking if the church can help postmoderns understand what it means to be connected – connected to one another, connected to creation, even connected to the church itself” (Post-Modern Pilgrims, p.119).

“Storytelling creates community.  The narrative quality of experience is a deeply religious issue.  We organize our experience through narrative.  We inhabit a storied reality.  Human cognition is based on storytelling.  Or, as one researcher puts it, stories are “the fundamental instrument of thought.

The language of the Scriptures is story.  You can tell stories and never use words, much less words that come to a point.  In fact, the story of the Gospels is told most effectively with bread and wine – images and elements of the earth, images and elements you can taste, touch, see, smell and hear.  Postmoderns need to be able to taste, touch, hear, smell and see this story of Jesus.

Telling stories in a digital culture may take any number of learning and worship forms – oral, audio, video, TV, films, multimedia, CD-Rom, print, as well as the place where all the above converge into one: www” (Post-Modern Pilgrims, p.124).

 

Conclusion

“Leaders do not strive to replace the “modern consciousness” with a “postmodern consciousness.”  Leaders help replace the “modern consciousness” with a “Christ consciousness” that can live and move and have its being in postmodern culture.  This is a call for the church to recover tradition.  We can become a “traditional” church by nurturing a culture that is identifiably Christian and postmodern at the same time, not one that looks like postmodern culture itself.  The EPIC church carries the brand of the past while being a barometer of the future” (Post-Modern Pilgrims, p.48).

(Reflections from the work of Leonard Sweet, excerpted from…

SoulTsunami – Sink or Swim in the New Millennial Culture by Leonard Sweet.  Grand

Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1999.

Post-Modern Pilgrims – First Century Passion for the 21st Century World by Leonard

Sweet.  Nashville, TN: Broadman and Holman Publishers, 2000.

Websites: www.SoulTsunami.com and www.Soulsalsa.com)

 

The Challenges of Older Adolescence

Intellectual Development

  • Developing the ability to engage in reflective thinking (“What do I think?” “Why do I think that?”), making it possible to develop a personal identity, personal value system and personal faith
  • Thinking about and planning for the future

Identity Development

  • Beginning the process of establishing a personal identity, which includes an acceptance of one’s sexuality, decision-making regarding the future and a commitment to a personally-held system of values and religious beliefs
  • Shifting from the authority of the family to self-chosen authority (oneself), often by establishing an identity that is shaped by significant others (peers and adults)
  • Experiencing a period of questioning, reevaluation and experimentation
  • Developing increasing autonomy in making personal decisions, assuming responsibility for oneself and regulating one’s own behavior

Moral Development

  • Exercising moral judgments in matters of much greater complexity as they seek to establish a more personal form of moral reasoning
  • Reevaluating the moral values received from family, church and significant others
  • Searching for a moral code which preserves their personal integrity and provides the basis for developing an internalized moral value system that can guide their behavior

Interpersonal Development

  • Moving toward greater personal intimacy and adult sexuality
  • Developing the capability for more mutual, trusting, deep and enduring personal friendships with members of the same sex and opposite sex that provide acceptance, love, affirmation and the opportunity to honestly share their deepest selves
  • Expanding their social perspective to encompass the larger world

 Faith Development

  • Exploring and questioning the faith handed down by family and church as they search for a style of faith and belief that is more personal to oneself
  • Beginning the process of taking responsibility for one’s own faith life, commitments, lifestyle, beliefs and attitudes
  • Exploring a personal relationship with God, who knows, accepts and confirms them, and with Jesus Christ, through his teaching, example and presence in one’s life

Ideas

Increase the number of Catechisrs

Diversify the use of materials, so the same people are not speaking all the time, and utilize technology learning tools.

Allow the teens to mentor one another

Resources

Adolescent Development PowerPoint