Youth Specialties Blog
Amish & Adolescent Faith Development
By Adam McLane on December 02 2009 | 10 Comments
“Amish kids have the best parties. We have the wild parties.“
I’ve long been fascinated by the Amish tradition of Rumspringa. Within some Amish circles, teenagers are encouraged to “run around“ (literal translation of Rumspringa) for a while and experience life outside of the Amish. This begins at around 16 years old when they are permitted to enter the “English” world for a while, try everything, and then later are asked to make a decision whether to join the church or not. Surprisingly, 85-90% of Amish teenagers come back and commit to the church after a period of running around.
To my Evangelical worldview this seems like a horrible idea! The church elders encouraging sixteen year olds to leave home, drink all they want, do drugs, go to wild parties, have sex? This seems contradictory to everything we stand for.
Yet the results are compelling, aren’t they? Sixteen year olds who have been raised in the church, permitted to taste forbidden fruit, and then asked to determine if that is the life they would like to live or if they’d like to shun the world and commit themselves to a life of simplicity.
What I appreciate most about this tradition is boiled down into two things:
First, the adult recognition that teenagers need to be given the opportunity to explore their identity. It takes some maturity on behalf of the adult Amish community to recognize that their young people need to make a rational, individual choice to join their community for a lifetime. In my circle of Evangelicalism we are deathly afraid of this! We’re so afraid that our kids may chose not to follow Christ that we do whatever we can to prevent them from figuring out who they are.
Second, the adults acknowledge that teenagers need to make an informed choice at the end of Rumspringa whether to join the church or not. Most churches I’ve been a part of want kids to make this choice before they are ready to make a decision that’ll last a lifetime. I did confirmation at 12 years old… was I really going to chose to not join the church? My daughter was asked to be baptized at 6 years old. Was that really a rational, informed choice that will last a lifetime? (I hope so!) But yet, there seems to be something to allowing a child to reach an age where they can make a choice they are developmentally prepared for in full knowledge of what they are or are not doing.
Certainly, I’m not suggesting that the best way to reach church kids for a lifetime is to kick them out of youth group and encourage them to go have 2-3 years to live it up. (Well, one could argue that Evangelicals practice Rumspringa— we just call it college, but that is besides the point!) But, now that youth workers are looking hard at the causes of losing huge chunks of teens during the college years, maybe Rumspringa is something we need to study and understand a bit more?
If you want to learn more about Rumspringa, the National Geographic Channel is airing Devil’s Playground tonight at 8:00 PM Eastern Time.
By Adam McLane on December 02 2009 | 10 Comments
5 Ways Marko is still a middle schooler
By Adam McLane on August 13 2009 | 2 Comments
This week we are celebrating the release of Marko and Scott Rubin’s new book, Middle School Ministry, with a week of fun we’re calling Middle School Week. Just for a little fun, I asked Marko’s friend and YS publisher Jay Howver, to share a few ways in which Marko still is still a middle schooler. Here’s what he passed along:
- He sings songs about Poo. I’ve spent a bit of time around Marko, suffice it to say that I’ve seen him in a lot of different situations…but my favorites are when he’s around his family. He loves his family. They do some of the most creative things around Easter and other holidays…and they sing songs about Poo. I can’t remember the exact context, but the song is titled “Poo Stew” and over the course of weeks and months was developed into a full blown song with a chorus, bridge and an encore…
- Like a middle school guy going through puberty he occasionally trips over his feet (you can check out the incident here)
- He changes his hair (color/style) about as often as middle school guys change their underwear.
- He rides a skateboard to work… but not as well as middle schooler rides one to school.
- Like a middle school kid he tries on different identities… from kilts to skateboards to nail polish.
By Adam McLane on August 13 2009 | 2 Comments
Have we deified youth?
By Adam McLane on July 22 2009 | 6 Comments
It’s not often you get a moment of clarity from a comedian whose show airs after midnight. But a youth worker, Sara from Iowa, sent this link to me and Craig Ferguson asks a powerfully brilliant question.
Have we deified youth? Have we made it so desirable and fashionable to be, as Craig puts it, “young and stupid?“
It’s an interesting question when we consider how we minister to youth, isn’t it? In my years of working with student I learned that I can always draw students in by glorifying childish behavior. (And few people on this planet enjoy being childish more than I do!) But I’ve always wrestled with this dichotomy of drawing students with silliness but life change happening in maturity stretching moments of seriousness.
Do you think Craig is right in his rant?
By Adam McLane on July 22 2009 | 6 Comments
Prescription Pill Abuse Among Adolescents
By Adam McLane on May 26 2009 | 25 Comments
Smart, beautiful, and the life of the party, Gabby was only 20 years old. She had a permanent smile and whenever she was near; you could not help but be drawn to her. As it turns out Gabby was an opiate addict. In March of 2009, six of her friends carried her casket to her grave site, a life cut short by a prescription drug overdose. Gabby was my cousin.
The good news is that pot, alcohol, cigarettes, meth, ecstasy and LSD are being abused less nowadays by American teenagers compared to the 1990s. However, we are not out of the water. According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, which has surveyed adolescents and young adults from across the country since 1975, misuse of prescription drugs is on the increase.
Vicodin has been particularly popular recently; a study by the University of Michigan in 2005 found that nearly ten percent of 12th-graders had used it in the previous year and more than five percent said they had used OxyContin. These drugs are prescribed regularly by physicians for minor and major pain management. Both drugs are now more popular among high school seniors than ecstasy and cocaine. Ritalin and adderall, used most often to treat attention-deficit-disorder, are also being abused at an alarming rate. Even drugs you might not associate with “getting high,” such as those used to treat anxiety disorders such as Xanax or Valium, are prime targets for teens.
Why are teens switching to prescription drugs nowadays? Teenagers may feel there is less of a stigma about taking pills because they see them as medicine. They’re also just easier to get. Many teens experiment with the prescriptions from their very own parents’ medicine cabinets. Adults often forget about the pills once they have recovered from whatever malady they were prescribed for.
These prescription drugs are also worth serious money. The estimated street value of just one OxyContin pill is about $40. In May 2002 authorities at a high school in Mahomet, Illinois, discovered that 16 students were distributing Ritalin, OxyContin, and hydrocodone to other students. The school principal was alerted to the students’ activities after he received a phone call from a parent who believed his son may have taken OxyContin from the parent’s medicine cabinet to sell at school. According to the school superintendent, the students were selling their own medication or medication belonging to their parents or siblings. (Source: Associated Press, 24 May 2002.)
Even more shocking are the reports of “Pharm Parties” or “Skittles Parties” where young people are encouraged to bring pills to share with the other participants. The pills are allegedly dumped into a bowl or bag and the partiers grab whatever catches their fancy, often mixing drugs that, in combination with each other or with alcohol, can have a lethal effect.
Here are three important things youth workers can do to prevent kids from misusing prescription medication:
EDUCATE: Educate yourself about medications that kids are abusing. Learn about the signs and symptoms of certain drugs. Share this information with others who are in contact with the kids in your ministries such as parents, school administrators, coaches and counselors. Create an expanded network of support for the students in your community.
COMMUNICATE: Talk with teens and find out if they, or their peers, are using medications without doctors’ orders. Make sure they understand the dangers of taking any medication that has not been prescribed specifically for them. They need to understand that they could become addicted, suffer health consequences, or even die. Sadly, many kids simply do not know this.
Need ideas? Here’s what we did at my church. With the help of area experts who agreed to come and speak for us, we developed a “Coping With…” series for our teens, which addressed many heavy issues that are not typically talked about in church. We invited students, parents, and outside youth workers to join us. Topics for discussion included suicide, depression, self-injury, eating disorders, addiction, and other “dark” material. We received such tremendous feedback from all the participants that this event has become a bi-annual series at our church.
SANCTUARY: So much of the drug-abusing culture is communal. It is a bonding experience among friends and students who are often left to fend for themselves. Using drugs may be the easiest way for some teens to connect with other students. In order to combat this problem, make your ministry a safe place for your students and their friends. Cultivate an alternative community that meets the students’ need to belong. They need to feel accepted, regardless of what they believe at that given moment.
When young people seek relief and connection through maladaptive means, it is our job to face that fact and to do something about it. It requires people who are willing to enter the messiness of walking with adolescents regardless of what it cost. It also requires us to model the love of Christ in such a way that they won’t need or settle for anything less.
Chris Schaffner is a Recovery Specialist, a youth worker and founder of Conversations on the Fringe. Conversations on the Fringe (CotF) is an organization seeking creative and innovative ways to bridge the gap between the mental health community and those entities (particularly schools and churches) that serve youth in contemporary society.
By Adam McLane on May 26 2009 | 25 Comments
Articles we’re reading for February 7th through February 16th
By Adam McLane on February 17 2009 | 5 Comments
Fresh research for February 7th through February 16th: to keep you informed on all the latest in youth culture.
- Protestant loyalty: toothpaste vs. denomination 16% of Protestants would only consider a single denomination
22% of Protestants would only use one brand of toothpaste
19% of Protestants would only use one type of toilet paper - The Worship Leader – Tim Hughes shares a bit about leading worship
- From the front board to the student desk – Blair instructors take seats in the classroom to improve teaching
- “Craps” in schools: officials worry about teen gambling – Research indicates as many as 88% of adult Iowans gamble, but state officials have begun to focus on teenage gambling.
- Looking Back … Looking Forward – Brian Eberly says goodbye after 11 years of ministry at his church
- Smashing Retro Icon Set – Killer Icon set for FREE!!!
- Year after gay youth slain, courts still grappling with accused’s fate | ScrippsNews – A year after 15-year-old Larry King was shot to death by a California classmate, the courts are still grappling over the young defendant’s fate in a killing that devastated both boys’ families and spurred a national cry for gay tolerance.
- African views on global news – The adolescence stage is a period of transition from puberty to adulthood, which is accompanied by profound physical, biological, social and psychological changes. During this period, adolescents reach physical and sexual maturity and shift from concrete to more abstract form of reasoning and lay the foundation for important aspects of their adult life.
- Breeding hostility – THIS was a feel-good story — for a short time. Last month, Nadya Suleman became the proud mother of only the second set of live octuplets in US medical history.
- Bebo teen slang terms to appear in Collins dictionary – Publishers HarperCollins thought it would be a piff (good) idea to get teenagers and their co-dees (friends) to come up with a list of words that they use bare (a lot). The publishers are hoping that rivals will not mug (ridicule) them for doing something just to be seen to be seen (cool). The words are among a list of 24 chosen by a panel of 14 to 18-year-old Bebo users. They cover categories such as money, friends, girls and boys, ‘street’ language, and put-downs.
- U.S. Government Dedicates Web Site to Teen Smoking-Cessation Program Created at WVU – Huntington News Network – The most widely used and widely researched teen smoking-cessation program in the nation – developed at West Virginia University by Kimberly Horn, Ed.D., and Geri Dino, Ph.D. – will receive a big blast of publicity in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 23
- Teenage Obesity: Learned Behavior from Parents? – As a parent, you are a role model for your children, whether it is for guidance to walk, talk or to eat.
- Rhode Island Mulls School Bus Ads – Rhode Island is the latest state to consider advertising on school buses, a somewhat controversial practice that critics say is inappropriate but that proponents argue will aid budget shortfalls.
- Saving Souls for Less | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction – Across the nation, the recession is pinching churches and missions agencies—not to mention individual Christians such as Steven Wilkes, who said he lost more than $60,000 in retirement savings when Wall Street crashed last year.
- Don’t Hate The Smartphone, Hate the Farting App | Ypulse –
- Ask Your Students | Fuller Youth Institute – For the month of December, the youth ministry at my church, Lake Avenue Church, did something different. We did small “table groups” every Sunday.
- b416 Skincare Launches Range of Skin Care Products for Teen Girls – The product line aims to educate and market skin care to the youth market beginning from 11 or 12 years old while appealing to the older teenager group.
- Girls Growing Up With Heroin-addicted Parent More Resilient Than Boys – Growing up with a heroin-addicted parent exposes children to a variety of detrimental experiences before the age of 18 and new research indicates that girls are four times more resilient than boys in overcoming such adverse events.
- Opposing Views: RESEARCH: Teens, Sex and Technology, What’s Really Going On – One in five teen girls (22%)—and 11% of teen girls ages 13-16 years old—say they have electronically sent, or posted online, nude or semi-nude images of themselves.
- Parents, protect your daughters from text pressure: Connie Schultz – She’s read recent coverage about girls being humiliated, and sometimes prosecuted, for distributing naked photos of themselves — it’s called “sexting” — to boys’ cell phones.
- Do U Text? – Asking for a date via text messaging is becoming more common as teens begin to text, well, everything. Even relationships are fair game.
- New Factor In Teen Obesity: Parents – There may be a reason teenagers eat more burgers and fries than fruits and vegetables: their parents.
- Slamming the door on teenage kicks – The Irish Times – Tue, Feb 10, 2009 – Teen behaviour is all based on their search for the answer to the question, ‘Who am I?’
- Less is Moore: No logos, no sponsors, no problem – USATODAY.com – In a sea of logos and sponsorship deals that saturate PGA Tour players, Ryan Moore is a man alone.
- Scary job-loss chart comparing previous and current recession – Boing Boing – From the Speaker of the House’s blog — a chart showing the job-losses by month in the past two recessions (red=2001, blue=1991) against the current recession (that suicidal green line plunging to its death).
- Drinking, drugs cast shadow over Vermont’s idyllic image – Call it Vermont’s dirty secret, a seamy flip side to the state’s bucolic image as an outdoor paradise where artists, farmers, and small entrepreneurs live in laid-back harmony.
- Free Fonts Generator – Make Your Own Handwriting Font With Your Fonts – Saw this on Adam Walker Cleaveland’s blog and thought it was fun.
By Adam McLane on February 17 2009 | 5 Comments
Learning to Think Like an Adolescent
By Adam McLane on February 16 2009 | 2 Comments
Youth workers are typically viewed as the experts of adolescence in their local ministries. With good reason, too. Most adults do their best to forget how they thought and acted in middle and high school. Yet youth workers are special! While most adults flee from a group of teenagers youth workers enjoy being around them and want to know more.
But how do you maintain that edge? When I first started in youth ministry it was easy. At 21 I was more adolescent than adult. But now that I’m in my 30s and identifying with students has become something I need to work at.
In some areas, teachers are taking continuing education classes, which reminds them of the daily frustrations of writing papers and homework. That’s a fun concept, I just wish they would take it a step further and spend a week as a student in their school every couple of years.
Here are some strategies I’ve used to keep my mind wrapped around what it means to be an adolescent.
- Get on campus. I’ve always been fortunate to have principals allow me on campus for lunch. Sitting with students at lunch is always an excellent way to observe what’s going on in their minds. But if that’s not possible, go to sporting events, plays, concerts, and other events. Remember that the good stuff at those events isn’t the event, it’s what happens afterward in the hallway.
- Build soft time at youth group. I’ve learned to love that time before and after youth group where I can just engage in conversations with my students. I always learn about a band or a YouTube video or an episode of a TV show that I have to watch as homework!
- Get on another campus. This has been a secret weapon of mine for a long time! I’ll go to another high schools basketball or football game once per year purely to observe student behavior. By just watching, I always notice something I’ve never noticed before.
- Read online. There is tons of research being done on adolescent culture, trends, and physical/mental development.
Tell us how you keep up.
Here are a couple of early replies I got when I asked this on Twitter.
jmgreenhill ask kids what’s up….my current question…How can vampires be good?
alatulippe I subscribe to rolling stone and alternative press. It really does help and that way I don’t have to watch MTV :-]
DougRanck Asking our youth lots of questions,living in the same house with teenagers (my own kids),keeping my eyes open for articles/studies.
jon_mciver be in kids lives! Keeps you young and up to date!
By Adam McLane on February 16 2009 | 2 Comments
Is the Digital Generation a Myth?
By Adam McLane on September 24 2008 | 13 Comments
Many use Facebook and MySpace because they are easy and fun, not because they are powerful (which, of course, they are not). And almost none know how to program or even code text with Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). Only a handful come to college with a sense of how the Internet fundamentally differs from the other major media platforms in daily life. link
This quote recently appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Written by University of Virginia Professor Siva Vaidhyanathan, his opinion is that while there are some early adapters and some late adapters, students are as inept at utilizing technology as students were 10 years ago.
So, while Myspace, Facebook, text messaging may be king in your youth group for communicating it doesn’t mean that your students can help you develop a youth group website nor be expected to do complex tasks on your church or youth groups website.
Question: What about your students? Are they more or less technologically savvy than 10 years ago?
By Adam McLane on September 24 2008 | 13 Comments
