Three hundred youth workers, parents and pastors from all over the city had gathered to learn about the culture of teenagers and how to reach them with the gospel. The church where we were gathered sat right across the street from the local high school.
I was the moderator, so I sat in the front of the church, along with four teenagers from the community who each took 15 minutes to tell his or her story to the crowd. When the teens finished, I invited members of the audience to ask questions of them.
The youth pastor from the host church asked the last question, “I have a question for the young man on the right.” The young man, Brian, had openly declared his disinterest in Christianity.
“Every day for the past two years, I have arrived here early in the morning,” began the youth pastor. “I park my car and walk around the building to the front entrance. Because the high school is a smoke-free zone, you and many of your friends congregate on our church sidewalk to smoke before the school day begins. I walk through and around you on the sidewalk and on the steps to the front door. Every morning when I sit down at my desk, I look out my window at you and your peers and ask God what I can do to reach you. It’s so frustrating.”
Then, he looked at Brian and asked: “What can I do to connect with you?”
Brian didn’t have to think about his answer at all. First, he chuckled loudly as if to say, “You’ve got to be kidding! How can you not know the answer to that one?” Then he looked at the youth pastor and answered him.
“That’s easy!” said Brian. “Get out of your office and come out onto the sidewalk with us!”
Duh! His answer was so obvious, yet so many times we miss it.
Through the years, I’ve embraced a practical biblical paradigm for stepping into the world and culture of our kids. This paradigm for understanding and engaging youth culture is found in
I want to encourage you take time on your own to read and really ponder Acts 17:16-34. Here’s what you’ll read:
The apostle Paul found himself in the pagan culture of Athens, a culture not very different from today’s youth culture. Rather than run away and hide when he saw the city full of idols, he walked around the city with his mouth shut and his ears and eyes open. As he walked, Paul absorbed as much as he could about the culture so he might not only find evidence of spiritual hunger, but so that when he did open his mouth to share the gospel with the Athenians, he could communicate in a language and manner that would allow them to hear and understand the good news.
Paul realized he not only had to engage in disciplined study of God’s Word, but also of the culture of those to whom he was called to minister. When we break down Paul’s interaction with the Athenians, we see a model for taking a walk through the Athens of contemporary youth culture. So, here we go…the seven steps we continually should take in our walk through today’s youth culture.
Step 1: Prepare to walk through Athens.
Part of your preparation is choosing where you will take your walk. Your Athens might be found on the streets, in the movies, in the music or where your kids hang out. For the sake of our discussion, let’s assume you choose to walk through the latest hit movie among teenagers. Choose the film based on what is popular with your kids.
The other part is spiritual preparation. You’ll need to pray for God’s promised protection. Bible study will keep you sharp and free from error as you put on the full armor of God. Proper spiritual preparation gives you the ability to discern what’s happening and cause you to be spiritually distressed by the immoral and idolatrous things you encounter.
Step 2: Close your mouth. Open your ears and eyes. Walk around.
You may be tempted to denounce what you see, but remember Paul’s model. Although he grew distressed about the spiritual condition of the Athenians, he continued to observe the culture, wanting to learn as much as he could about the Athenian way of life.
As you walk, look carefully and note of what you’re seeing. Because some of what you see might be confusing, open your mouth only to ask questions about what you encounter or to gain more information. In the case of watching a film, you might want to watch it more than once so as not to miss anything.
Since I started studying youth culture, I take regular walks in the music world. Youth are typically drawn to music that expresses what they are feeling sometimes better than they can express it themselves. When I encounter a student who loves a particular artist or group, I get to know that music. In those cases, it’s particularly helpful to ask a student about his or her favorite video or song, then focus on the lyrical and visual content of that particular piece.
As we walk, we should seek as Paul to see what they see, touch what they touch, hear what they hear, taste what they taste and feel what they feel. Our second step is to listen to them and their world so we might begin to understand them and what makes them tick.
Step 3: Look for cultural characteristics and distinctives, including values, attitudes, beliefs, behaviors and problems.
While observation is a necessary first step, you can’t stop there. Like Paul, you must get under the skin of the visible, objective culture of postmodern kids. Your goal in this step is to understand how observable behavior reflects subjective realities. Your walk should focus not only on the filmmaker’s meaning, but on what the film means to the kids who have embraced it.
Here’s a warning as you take step 3: Misattribution is one of the fastest ways to destroy lines of communication with kids. Misattribution is the blunder we make when we assume or attribute our meaning to someone’s beliefs or behaviors based on our own opinion, cultural categories, worldview or personal preferences.
Responsible cultural analysis is the antidote. With your mouth shut and your eyes and ears open, carefully and prayerfully begin to probe the depths of the subjective culture of the youth you know and love. One of the best questions we can ask if we want to avoid misattribution is: What does this mean to you?
Try to walk away from this step with a list of what you’ve seen to be the beliefs kids have, the behaviors they embrace and the unique problems they face.
Step 4: Look for evidence of a spiritual quest.
Because all humans have been created for a relationship with their Creator, the unredeemed long to fill the God-shaped hole in their soul. Consequently, their lives always will be marked by spiritual hunger pains of some type. G.K. Chesterton said that even “the man who knocks at the door of the brothel is looking for God.”
Paul knew this was the case with the Athenians. During his walk through their city, he went to great lengths to look for evidence of their desire to know the one true God.
Popular culture is filled with examples of music, movies, television and books that overtly address spiritual hunger. We must look for signs of spiritual longing similar to the inscription of “the unknown God” Paul found in Athens.
Step 5: Identify doorways of opportunity for connection, conversation, evangelism and discipleship.
As Paul walked through Athens, he surveyed the culture for things he could use as doorways to dialogue with the Athenians. Athenian idols and philosophy became Paul’s touch points. Although Paul’s message sounded strange to the Greeks, those listening didn’t turn a deaf ear to him. Instead, they invited him to tell them more. Paul did his homework, and it paid off.
The same can happen for us. As you walk through Athens, constantly ask yourself: “How can I use this to open doors of communication with my kids?” Specifically, you want to open four consecutive doorways.
First is the doorway of connection: Find something that offers an initial point of entry that allows you to make a connection. With genuine interest, ask kids about something you saw that you don’t understand. For example, “Tell me about your tattoo. Is there a story behind that?” You might ask someone to explain the lyrics of a favorite song. Doing so says: “You are important to me.”
The doorway to connection leads quickly to the doorway of conversation, a necessary ingredient in healthy dialogue. Because of their deep spiritual need and hunger for relationships, kids are open to conversing with people who are genuinely interested in them.
Next is the doorway of evangelism: Here you’ll use expressions of spiritual hunger to proclaim the gospel. Paul magnificently did this in Athens. Because he was speaking to pagans, he avoided anything that might be irrelevant or confusing. Instead of appealing to the Old Testament, Paul quoted truths from their philosophers and poets as doorways for evangelism. Find a line from a film, a song or popular commercial that can serve as a bridge to presenting the gospel. Scan the landscape of culture for expressions of need that only Christ can meet.
The last doorway is discipleship. Once they’ve accepted Christ, what you’ve found in the culture can spark discussions regarding how to grow in faith and the need to integrate that faith into all of life.
Step 6: Discern cultural elements that can be celebrated and embraced, as well as those that must be challenged and opposed.
Paul neither fell into the error of thoughtlessly accepting every element of the Athenian culture, nor did he condemn everything he encountered in Athens. Instead, Paul understood that Athens—and every other human culture—is marked by the fingerprint of the Creator and the fingerprint of the fall. Paul affirmed the good and denounced the bad.
When you’re fair and balanced, kids will be more open to hearing your message and considering your challenge.
Finally, Step 7: Apply what you have learned to your particular ministry with your particular audience.
Use popular culture to draw your kids’ attention, but then point them to God—in terms they can understand. Always be asking, “In what ways can I use what I’ve found in my ministry setting with my kids?”
At times, what we discover on our walks might raise a particular issue that our proclamation or ministry must address; or there will be times when we can incorporate the culture of our audience into our message and content.
This is what Paul did as he quoted their culture. Some of what he learned found its way into his verbal proclamation of the gospel. Specifically, he used their poetry, philosophy and inscriptions to affirm their thinking where it was right and to challenge their thinking where it was wrong. He carefully took their culture and adapted it for his purposes. In effect, Paul quoted the film, music, books and television of his day in his communication with the Athenians.
Following in Paul’s footsteps through Athens will assure that our method for sharing the gospel will advance rather than impede the life-changing message our kids so desperately need to hear.
