It's a new year and the church today faces a generation shifting from the conventional ways of Christianity and exploring more options to live out their faith.
International youth ministry Dare 2 Share has provided a spiritual pulse of today's teens, forecasting the direction Christian teens will head this new year and the challenges they will most likely face. The following list the ministry compiled reflects today’s teens' desires for a cause to rally around, their search for meaning, purpose and authenticity, and their adaptability in responding to the opportunities and constraints facing this generation.
1. “Go Green” will become the rallying cry for this generation
Today’s teens are looking for a cause to believe in and many will be finding their cause in the Green Revolution. As the Civil Rights Movement and Vietnam War became rallying cries for the younger generation in decades past, this generation of teens is stepping up to embrace the “Go Green” Movement. Just as the issue of global warming has begun to enter the social awareness of the mainstream culture, teens are flocking to the Green Revolution. Teens will increasingly channel their passion and idealism toward environmental causes, and their impact will begin to be felt in everything from vegetarian lifestyle choices to influencing their parents to “Live Green” and buy a hybrid.
2. There will be a rising cynicism toward organized religion among teens
While the Millennials do not necessarily harbor negative feelings toward Jesus, they are increasingly disconnecting from the traditional institutions of organized religion. Emancipating themselves from the institutions of their parents, Christian teens will increasingly reject the established, structured churches of their parents’ generation to create newer, more unstructured approaches to living out the spiritual dimension of their lives, exploring options ranging from internet message board communities of faith to gathering with their friends over lattes at their local Starbucks to talk about spiritual things. As evangelistic atheism becomes more prevalent, as evidenced by the number of atheist-authored books recently appearing on the bestsellers list, it will find increasingly fertile ground among teens disillusioned by organized religion.
3. “Starbucks Spirituality” will become more prevalent in the media
The recent rise of the movie sub-genre known as ‘Christian,’ as evidenced by the Christian film label Fox Faith, will increasingly segment movies with a Christian theme or worldview away from the mainstream media into a ‘Christian entertainment ghetto.’ Hollywood will snub mass marketing of movies which strongly depict a Christian worldview, relegating them to a smaller niche market. The ghettoizing of the Christian worldview away from mainstream media will diminish and further distort secular perceptions of Christian beliefs, values and lifestyles. As a result, a “Starbucks Spirituality” will begin to dominate the marketplace of ideas, with individuals picking and choosing religious worldviews that are customized and ‘made to order.’ For example, “Starbucks Spirituality” can be characterized as taking an aspect of Wiccan, adding in a particular tenet from Buddhism and blending it with a few core beliefs of Christianity. This phenomenon will result in broader acceptance of uniquely customized, non-traditional worldviews among teens, because they are heavily influenced by the entertainment industry’s depiction of reality. Teen’s experiences with communal intelligence and ‘Wiki-reality’ will further reinforce the Millennial’s perception that all truth is relative. Continue >>
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I think teens will have a larger voice and say. I just came across an article which said how artists are using the fan band sites to raise funds. I think teens will use more networking tools to get their voice out there and make choices. There are sites like mozes.com which directly connect the bands/artists to the fans and help them have a say in music and direct feedback. So I think yes, teens will utilize technology in spreading the word.
As a college student and youth leader for several years, I think that the whole perception of Christianity in America will change again with this generation. Weekly, I gather with my friends and discuss religion, often at Starbucks :). But as an older person do not go there unless you have a goatee and a pipe. Yes Christianity will sadly become more fractionalized and strong church denominations will probably drop by way side. I am too young to speculate on all of what will happen as a result but I think Lex and Mara need to realize that young people more than anything want to belong and that is what will keep them in a church setting if not necessarily in a denomination.
I appreciate the article, BUT PLEASE tell me what the first half of paragraph 3 means. I suppose I am not as 'hands on' as the Audrey Barrick. Fox Faith, I assume, is not part of the mainstream media. Hollywood is. The rise of a 'Christian entertainment ghetto' seems to present us with a better opportunity to reach younger Christians with the gospel than Hollywood. "Starbucks spirituality" however, may carry the risk of gathering together a religious outlook from all over, and not necessarily from the Bible.
Of course they're going to cut themselves off from mature Christians. Older Christians need to take the warning we've been given, and remember that when we were teenagers we thought we knew everything too.
The point is not to give teenagers a hard time about foresaking the assembling of the saints; the point is for the mature Christians to start hanging out at Starbucks like Jesus hung out at wells.
While these teens are busy gathering at Starbucks, which can be a great thing, I do hope they don't cut themselves off from mature older Christians who have been where they are and can give solid Biblical guidance and counsel. Regardless of who we are or what is our age, we need to remember "not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together" with other believers.