There’s been a lot of hype over this movie, especially among conservatives who felt like they would finally have a voice on the big screen. Normally I’m not a huge fan of ban-wagon stuff, whether it’s Narnia or even Passion of the Christ, but at the St. Louis National Youth Workers Convention last year my wife won a free screening of the movie for our church and community. Since our church didn’t feel comfortable blindly slapping its stamp of approval on the film (and rightly so), Dana and I drove two hours tonight to see Expelled at the closest movie theater playing it.

The first half of the film was dreadfully boring. Walking into the theater I already knew that Ben Stein’s quest was to expose the “behind the scenes” censorship of Intelligent Design in the academic world, but in the beginning I seriously had a difficult time trying to figure out what his point was and where he was going with it. The arguments were less than compelling, Ben Stein was not funny, and the constant little TV clips from the ’40s started to get on my nerves. If I had been watching it on DVD at home, I probably would’ve turned it off and found something more interesting to do.

It wasn’t until half-way through the film when Ben Stein started making the connection between Darwinism and German Nazis that I started paying attention to the film, mostly because some emotion was finally pricked as Ben Stein, a Jew, toured the concentration camps. From that point on the movie seemed to flow with a sense of direction and interviews that were actually intriguing. Richard Dawkins’ perspective was fascinating as he clearly tied religion and worldview to the position one takes on science, specifically human origin. Religion and science cannot be two different categories.

Dana and I decided that for the price of free, it’s worth bringing to our community for a screening since it’s not playing anywhere close. We’ll target mostly high school and college students in our community while intentionally keeping our church’s name off the event.

For your purposes in youth ministry, don’t expect the movie to convert all your students to Intelligent Design, nor to even turn them off to evolution as a science. It may help spark some discussion in your group, though, so be prepared to respond accordingly.

The Internet is changing the definition of friendship.

Because of my blog, I tend to have a lot of people who I don’t know and have never met request to be my friend on Facebook. Like everyone else, I blindly accept pretty much anyone. My wife gets it, too, on Virb.com. A couple days ago she said, “Look at this person who requested my friendship.” The way she said it sparked something in me I hadn’t thought of before: the Internet is changing our definition of friendship. A person we’ve never met, never talked to and have never heard of instantly becomes a friend just by clicking the “Accept” button. In real life this person would be called a stranger. If you talk a time or two they become an acquaintance and if you intentionally hang out together maybe then they’d be considered a friend. Not so online.

I wonder what kind of ramifications this will have on the “Myspace generation.” We already know that the Internet has completely altered teenagers’ perspective of community and now possibly on the individual level of friendship, too.

I don’t really have any answers here, just something I’ve been thinking about.

[tags]Facebook, Virb[/tags]

In case you missed it, two weeks ago I posted that I will be teaching a parent workshop on November 6 about Facebook, Myspace, YouTube, Instant Messenger, World of Warcraft and various other popular Internet hang-outs for teenagers. There’s been enough response from you guys saying you’d like to participate in something like this that some of my youth staff and myself decided to stream the event LIVE online for anyone in the general public who wishes to participate. Here’s the direct link to where you can watch it on Ustream.tv. You’ll have to register for the site in order to take part in the chat room next to the live feed, which might be worth it since I plan to take a couple questions from Internet viewers. After general questions are answered, we plan to cut the feed in order to give privacy to our parents who may wish to ask more personal questions about their kids.

The workshop starts at 7:00 PM central time on Tuesday, November 6, 2007. If you can’t make time for the live event, Ustream.tv will also archive the video, so you can watch it later at that same address.

Here’s my tentative general outline for the meeting so far. Any input, suggestions, comments or ideas?

Overview

• Teen usage of the Internet
• Misconceptions
• Sexual victimization
• Cyber bullying
• How home life affects Internet life
• Statistics

Introduction to social networking sites

• What is a social networking site?
• MySpace demo
• Facebook demo
• Deviant Art demo

Introduction to media sites

• How broadband has changed the Internet
• YouTube demo
• Flickr demo

Introduction to Instant Messenger

• What is Instant Messenger?
• AIM demo
• MSN demo
• Yahoo! demo
• Trillian demo

Introduction to blogs

• What is a blog?
• Facebook/MySpace
• Live Journal demo
• Xanga demo
• Blogger/Wordpress demo

Introduction to MMORPGs

• What is an MMORPG?
• Why are they so addicting?
• What is the spiritual influence?
• What’s good about them? What’s bad about them?
• How much time is too much?
• World of Warcraft demo

Potential upcoming social sites

• Twitter demo
• Virb demo
• Ustream.tv demo

What happened to email?

• Why kids don’t use email to communicate with each other.
• How kids communicate now and why: PM, SMS, IM

Tips for the home: What should we do with this info?

• Strategic computer placement
• Communicate with your teen
• Learn from your kids
• Search Google
• Learn from their history
• Your relationship makes all the difference
• Shoulder surfing
• A better solution than monitoring software
• Join your kids!

General Q&A for Tim and a panel of students

Specific family Q&A (cut the live feed)

Here’s the promo video I made that will run in church services and be sent around online in various ways. Feel free to share it with others and tell people to watch the event on Ustream.tv on November 6 at 7:00 PM central time.

Dove released another video for their “Campaign for Beauty” addressing the distorted perception our culture pushes of what beauty is all about. See previous videos here and here.

Here’s the video (may not be viewable in RSS readers or email):

Ypulse has a great response to this on what the industry can do to stop this onslaught.

(ht to Ypulse)

I’m a pretty active gamer. I can’t afford to play all the latest video games as they come out nor do I even want to anyway, but I do have a couple favorite games that I’ve played for years. The adrenaline rush, the sense of heroic accomplishment domination and the excitement of out-performing opponents make for a very addicting mix.

A lot of youth workers talk about the media’s influence on culture in reference to music, TV, movies and celebrities and rarely in reference to World of Warcraft, DDR, Guitar Hero and Halo. The reality is that video games are no longer an entertainment genre for overweight geeks in suspenders and thick glasses. They’re mainstream now and have been for at least two generations. Last week Halo 3 broke the world record for the most revenue earned in a single day by any form of entertainment: $170 million in 24 hours! World of Warcraft has over 9 million players and experts say that up to 40% of them are clinically addicted. (I have my own theories about why World of Warcraft and MMORPGs in general are so addictive.) According to the Entertainment Software Association, the average age of video game buyer is 38 years old and 38% of them are women, meaning that video games are not just for young teenage boys with no jobs, as the common perception may be.

Video games are a living and breathing part of our culture and will only continue to grow. As youth workers, some of us make a necessary effort to stay up-to-date on music and fashion, but let’s also not forget to educate ourselves on video games and the fantasy worlds they create. We need to be aware of the messages and values kids are unconsciously swallowing and teach them to consciously filter it all through scripture.

[If you're not familiar with World of Warcraft, check out my blog series on World of Warcraft FAQs for Christians.]

[tags]Halo 3, World of Warcraft, DDR, Guitar Hero[/tags]

For a couple years now I’ve been increasingly disappointed in the direction Ron Luce and Teen Mania are going with this whole Battle Cry thing. I attended one of the first Battle Cry conferences with my youth group in Texas and I was okay with it then, but it just keeps getting more and more extreme, militaristic and almost hateful. I fully support standing against negative influences and dedicating yourself to God, but I don’t support condemning others who are just as sinful as I am. How does protesting homosexuality on a street corner and shouting, “Jesus loves you!” communicate Christ’s love? They made a lot of people very angry that day and then they have the audacity to return to that same spot a year later and do it again. If I was an unbeliever, that shows me that they’re more concerned with exercising civil rights than they are with loving sinners.

And what does that tell the kid in my youth group who quietly struggles with homosexuality? He/she will probably never talk about it with me or any other Christian adult when they see us picketing the very thing that tears them apart inside.

The “4% of evangelical Christians in this next generation” statistic is thrown around creating lots of fear and hype (and selling lots of books). I completely agree that our approach to youth ministry and spiritual formation needs an overhaul, but fear and desperation is not the attitude to approach such matters. The truth is, Christianity has always been one generation away from extinction. A couple thousand years after Christ’s death and we’re still here. What happened to the sovereignty of God? He’s kept His Word 100% inerrant through the ages despite countless attacks to alter its contents and even purge it from existence altogether. Can He not do the same with those who believe in Him? Somehow I don’t think this whole generation leaving the faith is a problem too big for God to handle. Maybe we should spend less time freaking out and reading “guaranteed strategies for doubling and even quadrupling your youth group” and more time in prayer seeking God’s heart for our ministries.

Last year my youth group in Texas ditched the Acquire The Fire tradition and attended Mark Matlock’s Planet Wisdom student conference instead. One of my former youth group students blogged about the experience. Her insights are very interesting as she compares her Acquire The Fire and Battle Cry experiences to her experience at Planet Wisdom. Definitely a thought-provoking journal entry. Her critical evaluation is right on target. This year my new youth group here in Minnesota is making the same switch.

Stuart Delony makes some great observations about the whole Battle Cry movement, too, along with a news video on the movement. I wholeheartedly agree with him. I couldn’t say it any better myself.

[tags]Battle Cry, Planet Wisdom, Acquire the Fire, Teen Mania[/tags]

Bliss magazine, a UK teen publication, is offering an airbrush service for teen girls who want to doctor up their pictures. Either they pay a small fee via text message and have someone do it for them, or they download software with a free trial and do it themselves. What happened to the Dove commercial that was popular just a few months ago?

I wonder what sort of message this sends to our young, impressionable women.

(ht to Ypulse)

I recently read an article by Greg Stier titled, “Why Mormons Do Better Youth Ministry Than We Do.” It really confirms a lot of my struggles about why church and youth group are often at the bottom of the priority list for both students and parents. Greg says this:

• Mormons expect a lot out of their teenagers. We don’t.
• Mormons ordain their young men into the ministry at the age of twelve. We don’t.
• Mormons require their teens to attend seminary every day of high school. We don’t.
• Mormons ask for two years in the field of every graduating senior. We don’t.

Maybe that’s why we don’t meet a lot of ex-Mormons, while there are hundreds of thousands of former church attendees in the true church of Jesus Christ (of everyday saints) who flee the church after graduating from high school.

Mormons set high standards for their students! If I set some of the expectations that are listen above, most students would not commit and parents would not support it because of conflicts with athletics and other extracurricular activities. Why? Because even school athletic teams and musical groups set higher expectations than we do.

I often hear comments like, “I can’t go to camp because I have football practice that week and if I don’t go to practice, I won’t have a starting spot on next year’s team.” Coaches set the standards high and hold students to it. But then at church and at home from parents students hear the exact opposite: “If you can’t come to youth group this week because you haven’t finished your homework yet, that’s fine. Attend when you can, if you want to.” What that communicates to the student is that academic, athletic and musical development are more important than spiritual development. We have such lazy expectations.

I think parents help feed this mentality of church as a last priority by often restricting youth group activities if homework isn’t done or skipping Sunday morning services for an entire soccer season due to the game schedule. My parents raised me with the exact opposite priorities. My brothers and I were selected on a few occasions to join the elite soccer and wrestling teams, but my parents always said no because the games were on Sunday mornings. As a young kid, that taught me a very valuable lesson: God always comes first. The price for this lesson? A couple little league soccer games and wrestling matches. And today we’re all involved in some sort of ministry.

But it’s just not the parents’ fault, youth pastors contribute to this, as well. We work hard to avoid conflicts with school events and, by doing so, possibly reinforce that academic and athletic development are a higher priority than spiritual development. I think we should avoid scheduling conflicts when it’s possible, but neither should we bend over backwards to avoid it. (I bet religion class every day for Mormon teenagers conflicts with a lot.) We need to set the standards high and stick to ‘em. This is spiritual development we’re talking about here. Shouldn’t that be everyone’s #1 priority? Isn’t it much more important than athletic ability?

I think we expect way too little.

An interesting article by ABC News that suggests it’s OK for girls to be overly expressive about their sexuality in their early teens. Some quotes that make me raise my eyebrow:

While young women may express their sexuality more overtly than they have in the past, for the most part, their behavior isn’t cause for alarm. It’s a necessary step in growing up.

“There’s a difference between posting a picture of yourself in virtual space, like Myspace or YouTube or Friendster, and posing in provocative clothing in public,” said John Broughton, Columbia University professor of psychology and education.

According to Hancock, by dressing provocatively, dancing seductively and posting salacious photos on social networking sites, young women are trying to accomplish a time-honored goal of adolescence: establishing their independence.

“Putting up pictures of yourself scantily dressed on MySpace is, in a way, kind of a good sign,” he said. “The good news is that it’s somebody who isn’t horrified by their appearance. Also if they get some positive response, that can be very supportive.”

What’s also interesting is that this article reports that teen sex has declined from 49 percent in 1995 to 46 percent in 2002.

Conversely, another article came out last week of a lady telling her story about how pre-marital sex affected her emotionally, especially as she searches for a husband.

Recent studies are saying that teenagers want to be famous. YPulse breaks it down to what they think young people are really saying:

1. They want to be validated and to receive constant attention and feedback (vs. feeling isolated and ignored)
2. They want to be discovered (not have to stress so hard about getting into good schools, what they will do for a career)
3. They want to be rich (not have to worry about money, be taken care of, possibly have money to take care of their own parents who may be struggling…and yes, to have lots of stuff)
4. They want to perform and entertain people (we all like to grab the karaoke mic once in a while, sing in the shower or fantasize about being Danny or Sandy in the Broadway production of “Grease.” The fact that reality TV is creating “American Idols” like Fantasia and Carrie Underwood who came from nothing, fuels this desire even more.)
5. They want to have fun (The hedonistic lifestyle that is sold to them through pop culture from “Entourage” to MTV looks like fun, does it not?)

The first one we can (and should) do in youth group.

The second we can also do, not in the sense of academics and careers, but in seeking them out from the community. Then go back to item #1.

The third we can’t provide, but we can teach and model lives that find security in Christ instead of money.

The fourth is easy — use them on-stage at youth group events. What’s not so easy, however, is teaching them at the stage is a platform for pointing kids to Jesus, not a place to gain selfish attention.

Hopefully we accomplish the last point, too. Youth group should be fun, not as it’s primary focus, but definitely as a defined core value.