Youth Culture

I have to admit that dealing with 'the youth of today' (and that can include young adults in their 2os!!) has become a bit of a struggle for me over the last couple of years. I'm sure when I was growing up my mum and her peers felt the same, 'ooh it wasn't like that in my day', 'when I was a lass...' and all such phrases you've heard a million times from your parents, grandparents etc etc....I find myself saying now.....how scary is that!!!! The old 'Hovis' advert with the lad cycling up a hill in long shorts to the tune of Largo from Dvorak's 'New World Symphony' sums it up really!!

Nostalgia's great but for me it can stop me moving on and embracing change and all the good things it has to offer. As a 47 year old mum of a teenage daughter dealing with youth culture is an everyday occurrence and one I'm finding a challenge!!

I think it was when the youth culture at our church exploded, and the attendance of LiFE, their Friday night meeting/gathering/event (whatever you want to call it) increased from around 50 to 350 plus that I began to really question my attitudes, and how I should try and understand 'the youth of today'.

So it's something I'm trying to address. God has his own idea of how I do that of course, and one such way is by putting me in the worship band I play in, along with two great 'young' guys, Dave and George, to help me understand them and their peers a bit more!!

My feeble way of dealing with it is to pray about it of course but I've also started reading a book Mend the Gap by Jason Gardner, which discusses whether the church can reconnect the generations. I'm only a few chapters in but already it has opened my eyes to many issues which the youngsters of today have to deal with, issues I didn't have to deal when I was growing up:

• How society naturally splits us into generational groups and the church tries to join us all together.


• How kids grow up in a brand culture now, and children even as young as preschool can depict which branded food they would rather eat. Bob the Builder sausage and beans or Tweenies?


• How non uniform days at senior school have higher rates of truancy than normal uniform days because kids are afraid of not fitting in or wearing the wrong clothes.

Add to all of that how the media run the show, and throw materialism at us as a society and our kids just embrace it as the norm. As well as how a large proportion of kids today experience broken family relationships, and I begin to realize how blessed I am to have had the upbringing I had, and how blessed I am to have the faith I have today to keep me on the right path and to keep growing me in my understanding of who I am and who God wants me to be.

The bible also has stuff to say about growing up, and a passage I know Gemma (my 13 year old daughter), is often reminded of at Oakwood Youth Challenge where she rides and helps out whenever possible (!!), is found in 1 Timothy 4:12 'Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.'

These are words we can all learn from however old we are. As a Christian I believe I need to 'train myself to be godly' (1 Timothy 4:7) and in doing so, I'll come to be more accepting of others and how God wants me to behave towards them, whether they're younger, older or the same age as myself. The 21st Century church has a hard job trying to pull us all together, but we as individuals need to embrace the challenge and work towards making it happen. Only then will we experience true community and acceptance of everyone.