Book Review: Beyond the Screen

I am part of a group known as IASYM - International Association for the Study of Youth Ministry. It's an interesting group and I have enjoyed learning more about Youth Ministry from around the world - not just from the North American church. When this book popped up on the Facebook page, I was keen to know more. You see, earlier this year I did a workshop on Social Media at a youth camp. It was fun, and I learned some stuff, but I realised that there is a lot going on that I don't know anything about. And maybe most of it really is bad! So it's always good to read someone else's research on the topic.

And I'm so glad I did.

The full title of the book gives a clue to the writer's purpose:

Beyond the Screen. Youth ministry for the connected but alone generation.

Andrew Zirschky (Ph.D. Princeton Theological Seminary) is Assistant Professor of Practical Theology and Youth Ministry at Memphis Theological Seminary and serves as academic director at the Center for Youth Ministry Training in Brentwood, Tennessee. He has 20 years of youth ministry experience at churches in Idaho, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Tennessee.  (Taken from amazon.com) It's one thing to have 20 years experience. It is another thing to take that experience, put it together with good research and writing, and then to produce a book that is so important right now.

Challenging my view

In eleven chapters, Zirschky has helped to challenge my view of how and why teenagers seem so welded on to their phones and Facebook accounts - and now I have a much better appreciation of why they do. I may not fully comprehend it, but I think I get it. Zirschky has challenged me to see that they are not escaping from friendships, rather they are building friendships; they're not being anti-social, but they are being social in a vastly different way than I was as a teenager.

I know this book will disappoint some people. Those youth ministry teams who are looking for a way to make better use of their social media platforms will not find much guidance here on how to use a better font or a better colour. What you will find, if you take the time to read through it all, is a better reason to use social media at all - to build koinonia, communion; community at its deepest level.

Early in the book, Zirschky introduces some phrases that resonate with me. "Presence-in-absence" is a great phrase that simply describes what is happening for many teenagers - they are 'present' with their friends even though they are physically 'absent' (p14). This isn't a bad thing in a world full of transitory lives and relationships.

Another phrase that I really like is "Disrupting Face-Forward Ministry" (p23). What is 'face-forward ministry'? It's what most of us do every time we meet at church. We all sit down and face-forward. Which means you can be a part of a great group of people, and utterly disconnected from them at the same time. When teenagers are looking for authentic community, they should not be expected to find it staring at the back of someone's head. Nor will they look for it there if they know they can find community with a few taps on their phones.

Why are they always on their phones?

If you want to get your head around why teenagers are on the screens so much, read chapters 1-5. Here you will learn more about why they do this, and importantly you will also learn what they are NOT doing. Turns out our teenagers are doing better than many might first think. Chapter three is a gold mine of information and suggestions on 'why short messages mean more than you think'. Reading these chapters you will also learn about the incredible burden that is placed on teenagers by the society around them. And before you get all high & mighty and say 'they should just be themselves', remember what life was like when you were a teenager, and how much you wanted to fit-in with a crowd. That hasn't changed, but the resources available have. For good and for ill.

For me, there is a turning point in the book at chapter six, "Being Communion". I think this chapter can stand alone, and if you are looking for some good reading on the topic of Communion - Lord's Supper, you will do well to read this chapter. Here Zirschky takes the lead from the Apostle Paul and takes the reader to see Communion as far more than a wafer and a small cup to a shared experience of something deep and sacred - something that is to be treasured together. And the emphasis is on the word together. This chapter also gives a firm theological foundation to the rest of the book as he begins to unpack ways in which the whole church community, not just the teenagers, can begin to see the opportunities that lie before them together.

Confronted and crying

Reading this was a little confronting in many ways. Not the least of these was the realisation that lessons that I learned as a teenager still need to be heard today. This comment has much more context than I will give it here, but read it anyay:

 . . . and teenagers have a lingering fear that if they reveal their full and unfiltered selves, they will fail to attract an audience, fail to convene a network and, consequently, fail to be anybody at all. (p122)

I confess that as I read this paragraph, building on everything that had come before it, (particularly the story of Daisy, Kari & Savannah) I realised I was crying. What's that all about!?! Why am I crying while reading a book? I think the answer is twofold. One, I can't imagine what a burden this must be for teenagers to carry. Two, this means they are missing the message that God loves them completely, and that should mean they can reveal their full and unfiltered selves. Then I'm confronted with the fear that maybe they don't know that because I haven't been clear enough. Lord, forgive me.

This is a worthy and an important book. There are some things that aren't covered here, and maybe that's because Zirschky wasn't aiming to cover everything. In my tribe we are - or at least I am - battling with how to keep in touch with teenagers on social media in a way that is open and responsible. How can I quietly encourage a teenager in a way they most connect with? I have much more to think about on that one.

I expect that this book will not have the impact that it deserves simply because of the main theme - teenagers and screens. I expect that in the years ahead there will be new and different things for teenagers to deal with and other writes will address those. But the deeper issues that Zirschky builds on - the fact that teenagers are looking for deep relationships and use technology to accomplish that; the need and opportunity for true communion to embrace all ages together - these issues will always be relevant.

Get it. Read it. Share it. You won't be sorry you did.

Maybe snapchat is ok after all.