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May 19, 2009

Youth Culture Lesson
Carrie Prejean: Not So Good To Be the Queen

When she was asked about homosexuality during the televised April 19, 2009, Miss USA Pageant, the California contestant spoke openly about her Christian convictions. For weeks, Christians said she had been persecuted for her faith and values.

Then things got more complicated as a number of sexy photos of Prejean were circulated online and in news stories. Prejean had not revealed that she had been in such photos, which seemed to violate the Miss USA Pageant regulations.

Our Youth Culture Lesson examines the growing phenomenon of risqué photos. Today, many teens have been captured in candid photos that are then circulated via cell phones and the Internet. Click here to get this lesson.

Youth Culture Lesson
Green Day’s ‘Know Your Enemy’
from 21st Century Breakdown

Green Day has emerged as one of the most popular bands of the last two decades, and its two latest albums (American Idiot and the brand new 21st Century Breakdown) explore issues that are important to young people.

We asked Steve Case to create a group activity and Bible study based around “Know Your Enemy,” the album’s first single, which explores issues of war and violence. Click here to get this lesson.

A Canadian study found that teens are getting along better with their parents these days–thanks, researchers believe, to the parents’ ability to better balance work with home.

About 90 percent of Canadian teens say their mothers have a high degree of influence in their lives, according to research from the University of Lethbridge, while about 80 percent say the same of their fathers. Both measures are up 10 percent since the 1980s.

“The enjoyment of parents is correlated with a number of things, including the influence parents have on teens’ lives,” says Lethbridge sociologist Reginald Bibby. “As enjoyment increases, so does influence.”

More telling stats: about 42 percent of teens say they argue weekly with their parents–significant, but down 10 percentage points from a decade ago. Less than 4 in 10 say they’re misunderstood, nearly 20 percent lower than the 58 percent who felt that way in 1992. (Canwest News Service)

YouthWorker Journal TOOLS Review
GOSPEL Journey–Maui
Greg Stier
Dare2Share Ministries, 2008, $149.99
www.dare2share.org

The July/August issue of YouthWorker Journal will feature reviews of more than 100 new resources, curricula, books, DVDs and CDs. Here’s a recent review of a new youth ministry programming product.

Sometimes it’s hard to answer your students’ tough questions, but it’s surely even harder to equip them to be able to answer their friends’ questions.

Here is a new video reality series designed as evangelism curriculum for youth ministries. The nine episodes follow seven strangers from different religious backgrounds and their host, Greg Stier, as they travel around the island of Maui and try to tackle life’s biggest questions. The accompanying leader’s guide provides discussion questions and activities to help you and your students wade through the on-video conversations of the cast members whose beliefs range from Muslim to Mormon and from Buddhist to agnostic.

This is a great peek into real-life spiritual conversations. Even if you don’t agree with all the methods or doctrine that Greg and Zane (the evangelical Christian cast member) use, this is more than enough to get you and your students talking about evangelism.

Reviewer Adam Griffin is a Young Life partner and Director of Youth Ministry, Lamb of God Lutheran Church, Flower Mound, Texas.

You can find more at http://www.dare2share.org/gospeljouorneymaui.

To get your own copy of Youth WorkerJournal, all you need to do is subscribe. then you will get all our articles, columns, reviews of all the best books, curriculum and other materials. [click here]

Thanks for joining us for this issue of the YouthWorker eJournal. See you next time.

Sincerely, Steve Rabey, YouthWorker Journal editor, and our entire crew