In Search of Adolescence

While doing some reading for some youth ministry stuff I'm teaching soon, I came across this book "In Search of Adolescence" by Crystal Kirgiss. Having read an article which summarised the book I was keen enough to buy the book and wait for it to arrive. (Kudos to Amazon - it was here in less than a week!)

The premise of the book is simple enough. Most contemporary youth leaders have learned that 'adolescence' as a social construct is around 100 years old. Some writers have even gone so far as to blame this interpretation for all kinds of current social ills (p18), but Kirgiss carefully and methodically shows that such an interpretation is just that - an interpretation. It is not the reality.

Kirgiss has a PhD in medieval language and literature, so I'm confident she has done much more than enter "adolescence" into Google and plagiarise the results. Her research and writing take her readers into a journey through time with thinkers, creators, and preachers on the search for adolescence through the ages.

The Thinkers

Throughout the centuries, the thinkers - philosophers, astronomers, doctors - have been dealing with and have been writing about adolescence. Some of them would divide life into various stages ranging from three stages to twelve. All would include an age that bridged childhood and adulthood, sometimes called 'youth' and other times 'adolescence'. (48) This would be seen to begin with puberty and end, depending on the writer, at eighteen, or twenty-one, or twenty-four. Perhaps extended adolescence isn't just a contemporary issue.

My favourite quote in this chapter comes from Aristotle in the fourth century BC. He describes youth as those who . . .
are always eager and ready to carry out their desires
lack the discipleing and self-control to rein in their sensual desires
hate being slighted or mocked
hope and expect to do great things
are extremely close to their friends and want to be with them as much as possible
think they know everything.

It sounds like it could have been written anytime in the last fifty years, doesn't it.

The Creators

In the first chapter, she refers to "The Squire" from Chaucer's book "The Canterbury Tales" as a depiction of adolescence of the time. (I tried reading that book a couple of years ago. Might have another go.)

In this chapter, she refers to two pieces of art work that wonderfully and visually show that what adolescents were like in medieval times is so much the same to what they are today. One of these is the cover of her book, and comes from Omne Bonum (All Good Things) a fourteenth century encyclopaedia. The picture associated with the word 'adolescence' shows a young woman staring into a mirror while raising her skirt. The young man has no beard, has his hand on his heart showing he is smitten, and is he reaching for a sword or . . .?

The second one comes from De Proprietatibus Rerum (On The Properties of Things). The entry for "the seven ages of man" includes this picture. Guess which one represents youth. (Hint - the one dressed differently and looking away from the adults and looking down on the younger ones.)


Kirgiss comments "We are often told that before the nineteenth century, youth as a rule followed in their parents' footsteps. But in both literature and life, there are many examples of just the opposite." (77)

Maybe we should read some old books and see what we can learn about teenagers from centuries past. It might be an encouragement for the youth in your church now to know that the struggles they deal with aren't completely unfamiliar to youth in ages past.

The Preachers

What did old-time medieval preachers say about youth?

Look abroad into the world: consider the generality of our youth in this age, what they are, what manner of lives they lead, how vain, lewd, and debauched the most are in their conversation; how rare it is to find one amongst many that is solid, sober, and religious, that makes real conscience of avoiding all known sin, and of performing holy duties, or of exercising himself to godliness, as becomes his Christian profession. Nay, do not many of them walk, and act, and talk more like atheists, or infidels, than Christians … ~ Samuel Peck 1686, 

From A New-Years Gift for Youth. Being the Substance of a Sermon, Preached at the Funeral of M. Elizabeth Bell, Aged Sixteen Years, Odd Months

There's a fair bit of this kind of language in sermons that Kirgiss refers to, BUT it would be a travesty for us to believe this was the whole message of preaching to youth in past ages. She notes that even the most damnably vitriolic statements about adolescentce are embedded in sermons that were not ultimately vitriolic deep down at their cores (90). Preachers were infinitely more concerned about the state of the souls of the youth of their parish.

Keep in mind, that preachers believed that a life of genuine devotion was in fact possible for adolescents. Do you believe that?

This is stunningly significant: Those adults who were the most vocal about the sins, weaknesses, and failings of adolescents were also the most hopeful about the potential of those adolescents to experience true and lasting inner transformation, not just modified outward behavior. (103)

For those of us involved in preaching, this is a chapter well worth reading through. Point people to Jesus knowing that youth can be faithful disciples of Jesus Christ.

Does it matter?

It's a fair question to ask. Does our view of the history of 'adolescence' really matter? Does it affect what we do today? Well, for a number of people it probably doesn't. But I reckon it actually does, and in ways we may not first realise. Primarily for this reason - we tend to romanticize or villify the past. You know the statements "Youth today have never had it so good." or "Things have never been so difficult for youth as they are now." Neither of these statements is wholly true, but we won't know that if we don't know any history.   

Finally

Youth ministers of all shape and manner are today standing on the shoulders of faithful followers of Christ from every previous era, and a new generation of youth ministers will someday be standing on our shoulders. Our shoulders— which are really just the hands and feet of Jesus. But still. It’s quite astounding to consider. (127)

Is it really up to me?

Many of you who read this won't know the song "History Maker" by Delirious? but it was a song that I really liked singing about ten years ago. (If you don't know it, here's a link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loyq_JCjZJY) And why wouldn't people want to sing a song like this?

"I'm gonna be a history maker in this world.
I'm gonna be a speaker of truth to all mankind.
I'm gonna stand; I'm gonna run
Into your arms, Into your arms again."

I would sing this, and would lead others singing it, in the belief and desire that I could be a history maker; that I could be used by God to change lives in incredible ways and so I would make history. But is it really up to me? And is it all about me?

Today I have watched a youtube clip about motorbikes and one of the blokes in this was leading a company that makes motorbikes that are cheap enough to buy and simple enough to work on. He made this comment, "You go to College to learn how to change the world, but you can barely change a door handle." And then I was reading an article from a website I discovered today and there I read this:

‘When I was younger, I was part of a youth group and went along to the big events. I don’t know how many times I got told, “You can change the world for Jesus” or “You can be a history maker.” And because I was a really keen Christian, I believed it. I really believed it.
What’s interesting is that I’m nearly 30, and I haven’t changed the world yet. I don’t know how many of us who preached that mes­sage have. A couple of years ago I had to go through a process of realising that I’d actually been really damaged by that, because I felt like a failure. I believed what I was told. I thought I was going to be a history maker and change the world for Jesus. I gave myself to Jesus whole­heartedly, and don’t get me wrong, I made plenty of mistakes, but I was sold out for God, through school and through college. I called out to God in prayer for my friends and for the nations, and I still haven’t changed the world yet. We have to face the fact that as soon as we stand up on stage and say, ‘You can change the world’, to a group of 100 young people – we are creating 99/100 if not 100/100 failures. And I’ve done it, I’ve been the person on stage preaching, because it sounds great in a sermon.
(http://www.premieryouthwork.com/Past-Issues/2014/October-2014/Youth-work-in-the-age-of-the-selfie)

I understand exactly what this writer is saying because he has put into words my own thoughts and feelings. I heard that message when I was a teenager. I heard that message when I was training for Ministry. I preached that message 'because it sounds great in a sermon'. And if I feel like I've failed, then how many others do too?

And how many have doubted their faith because they haven't been able to do anything of great significance, anything that will go down in history? And how many have walked away from God thinking that He wouldn't be interested in someone who couldn't be a history maker?

I don't have an answer to these questions. But there is a reason that we can roll off the names of some of the great men and women of church history - because they stand out. And maybe, just maybe, they stand out from the rest of us not because of what they are but because of what God has gifted them to be! We can't all be Paul. We can't all be John Calvin. We can't all be William Booth. We can't all be Mother Theresa. And nor should we be.

I can be me. And, by God's great grace, I can be me in a group of people called the Church. Here I find that there is a group of people with whom I can worship, and encourage, and serve. Here I find that my weaknesses become strengths, and my strengths become weaknesses as I realise I cannot rely on myself.

Can I be a history maker? I've decided to leave that with God.

I'd rather people see Jesus.

Seventh Session

Relational and Incarnational Youth Ministry 07

Session 7

The idea of place sharing is helpful not just in youth ministry, but in ministry across the church. 

Changing metaphor of the Pastor

Book: The Relational Pastor - Andrew Root.

Pastors continue to be told 'everything has changed' (as if we needed to be told). In the 90s it was a move to post-modernism. We know we are in a post-christendom era.

Book: "The Empathic Civilization" - Jeremy Rifkin. Rifkin looks at three things that bring change. New energy, which leads to New Communication which leads to New Consciousness. There is a connecting change in ministry.

Journey through history

Pre-agricultural

Energy was Hunting / gathering. The earth was a living thing we responded to. We lived in small groups. Communication was oral, which was needed to help know what was safe or dangerous etc. Consciousness is mystical consciousness.  The spiritual leader would be a cosmic story-teller. Telling people why and what the world actually was. (Youth in our groups don't assume we would know what and what the world is - they expect science classes will teach them that.)

Agricultural

Energy was Agriculture. Earth was no longer a 'person', but something that could be managed and organised more than responding to it. Now resources began to move - trading grain, diverting water, etc. Communication now becomes script - writing. When people learned how to use agriculture, they developed script to work the trade across localities. Now, God was no longer seen to be a local deity, but much more transcendent. Consciousness moves from blood ties to religious ties. Now humanity begins to connect with people of faith. The pastor /minister is the rise of priesthood."The priest is the manager of divine things. Offering sacrifices or sacraments as text demands. He is also the one who reads the text to the people - the sacred reader" Max Weber

Industrial Revolution

First Industrial revolution - energy is the machine. Communication is the printing press. Consciousness is now ideological. Now that coal and steel become important, boundaries become important to protect these resources. The earth is no longer seen as a living thing but a container of resources that can be taken out. (The earth is no longer an enchanted thing). Now we fight along ideological lines. (WW1 shows nations who believe the same text and even singing the same songs of faith fighting each other.) Something else happens along this too: it starts the arrival of the 'self', the individual. You are now the individual that reads, that thinks, that votes, etc. Religion is in the nation state - so we talk about countries as 'Christian countries'. Ministry becomes about protecting a certain way of life. So Eisenhower, in the time of the Cold War, wants people to go to church. He wants his country to be different to the communistic state. Minister is pushing people to be moral and upstanding. he was the upstanding man in the community. He held cultural esteem. 

Evangelism - moving the message - started to become global, especially in the UK. The steamboat will take you to people who are not in the same energy regime that you are. (A dark side of this is the view that because they are in a different energy time they must be less than us - the heathen.)

As we come into the next phase, there is a significant change in attitude to church. 

Second Industrial Revolution

Second Industrial Revolution - now has Oil / Electric as the energy. (Churches built from this time on need a car park, but earlier churches didn't). The car becomes significant. It now makes people feel even more an individual - the car will take you to what you are interested in. We are free from needing others to get our interests met. This leads to a change and confusion between want and need. (Barth on Lord's Prayer: "This is the invitation to pray our need, not our want.")

Communication becomes the wave. It began with receiving the wave as sound - the radio, and eventually with vision - the TV. At this time, you could travel alone to get home to watch TV alone. Now with more tv and radio, you are what you are interested in. You should be able to watch what you're interested in. 

Rifken says there is now a therapeutic consciousness - we are individuals with interests that must be met. Technology is meeting our needs, so we can chase our own fulfilment. (He also comments that the periods of energy have a shrinking period of time.)

How does all this impact ministry? Ministry becomes about programs of intervention. For the first time we become obsessed with programs because programs cause people to make the choice between my church or another church. So, if parents are interested in helping their kids connect to other kids, they'll go to the church that has the best youth program. 

This is exhausting for pastors who see people come to their church for a while and then leave a few years later to go to something 'better'.

What happens to the pastor through these times? He moves from the moral exemplar to the creative energetic visionary. He's not the one with the deepest theological understanding, but someone who can manage the programs. He is someone people can identify with - he's no longer the 'holy' one in clerical garb, he's the guy in a Hawaiian shirt. He's not the 'man out there', but now a golf partner.

Ministry now depends on numbers, because programs run on numbers. This is the first era in the history of the church that we are so interested and burdened by numbers. Youth ministry is the lovechild of individualism and program - we were birthed in program. As such, it is really hard for youth ministry and for youth ministers to break out of the mindset of ministry as a program. 

Be careful to remember that neither programs nor numbers are evil. Programs help to organise our ministry, but I hope our ministry is more than just managing programs. Numbers can tell a story. If you had fifteen kids in the youth group, and now have five, there is a story behind that. 

(To be continued)