Five Adolescent Trends to Watch
Dare 2 Share is a ministry that exists to equip teens to know, live, share, and own their faith, and they have already impacted over 250,000 teens nationwide. Dare 2 Share's expertise about today's teens is evident in the conferences they do, the resources they provide, and the training tools they use to equip teens across the country. They believe the below listed predictions speak strongly to the need for the teens of today to know what they believe and why they believe it.
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There will be an increase of teen volunteers or new programs for community involvement managed entirely online.
Teens will continue to be a generation that is a study in contradictions, i.e. being involved in the community while isolated in their bedroom. You will see them exhibit unapologetic self-righteousness, then flip the switch and be a paragon of tolerance. Teens today are moving in a direction that is comfortable with conflicting worldviews. For example, they will spend time and resources on 'me' items (ipods, downloads, games, etc.), and at the same time spend time and resources giving back to the community and others around them. They exhibit strong individualism AND communal-ism (Everything today is customized, but teens want to be part of a community too).
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Major media production houses will follow the lead of Christian production companies and begin to include spiritual elements to their releases.
This is a generation that increasingly responds to faith based marketing like the Christian productions of Amazing Grace, Left Behind video games, etc. Sales and stats are showing a rising popularity among teens to explore spiritual themes. Companies and businesses are responding to this with a variety of options for this generation and in 2007; more movies, TV shows, and video games will be released with spiritual or faith based elements in them; specifically targeted to the teen audience.
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Teens will increasingly individualize their beliefs.
This is a generation that embraces a 'Starbucks' spirituality. Teens today are used to customizing every aspect of their life, so why wouldn't this spill over into the area of spiritual beliefs? When forming their opinions about faith based matters, picture most 13-18 year olds ordering up a Grande Carmel-Kabbalah latte with a dash of Buddhism and a Hindu Krishna cookie on the side.
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Student led campaigns will be created to raise awareness of social justice issues...
This generation is already known as a generation that is drawn to community relationships and activism. From the Gap/Bono iPod for Aids relief, to the uber success of myspace.com, it is obvious that teens today are tribal and feel a strong need to make a difference in the world. They really do exhibit a "think globally - act locally" attitude - with the addition of global concerns as well. It wouldn't surprise us to see students create campaigns that raise awareness of child prostitution in Asia or orphaned kid soldiers in Sierra Leone .
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Students will no longer see value in formal education as much as street education.
This is a generation of 'what have you done for me lately?' teens. Much like the young people of the 1960's, these adolescents do not have an inherent respect for titles and/or positions. Yet unlike the Woodstock folks, they generally aren't actively anti-establishment. What registers with them is personal authenticity and passion about life regardless of background, education, or societal 'rank'. Formal universities and seminaries are going to have their work cut out for them to keep teens engaged in pursuing a formal degree.
Conversation
I agree that their beliefs
I agree that their beliefs are getting 'muddy' with other religions and busy schedules and excuses as to why they don't need to live completely by the Bible. But I think it is our job as youth workers to tell them they are wrong. To teach them the truth of God, His standards, and why they are unchanging. This is nothing new. Have you not noticed that much of Paul's letters, and John's epistles, and many others in the New Testament are correcting the wrong ideals that were associated with Gnosticism? The only difference now is that we are dealing with Budhism and Mormonism and New Age and... They still need to hear the truth of God and his standards. God has not changed, and neither should our convictions. Paul stood up against the popular beliefs of his time, John stood up against the popular beliefs of his time, and so should we.
Instead of trying to
Instead of trying to accomodate and "fit into" their busy lifestyles, what if we simply introduce them to Christ through His word and let the Holy Spirit do the "impacting" instead of our methodologies and technological props?
Why do we feel that we need to continually re-invent our mission and methods?
Ecclesiastes 1:9
"That which has been is that which will be, And that which has been done is that which will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun."
We're not dealing with anything new here.
Just like Paul was 2,000 years ago in Romans chapter 1, we are dealing with sinful, wretched, and rebellious mankind opposed to a Holy God.
What was his "methodology"? We find it in 2 Timothy 4:1-2 "Preach the word . . ."
We spend so much time and energy taking and studying polls and trends trying to find out where todays youth are at. Slow down guys, the work has already been done. The mission has been established, the methodology has been demonstrated, and we have the only playbook that we need.
Simplify!
All this is true.
All this is true. Basically, as has been for all humans (not just youth), they want conflicting things all the time, and since youth (who go to school, a majority in wealthy countries) basically seem to "live by and for school" where peer press-ure rules and self conscientiousness to self or others are the determining factors, we really have our work cut out for us, as at school EVERY opinion in one way or another counts (then your family and social life mixed in, and you have a lots more opinions).
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