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Confessions of a Youth Group Drop Out

Once upon a time, on a starry night, my girlfriend came to visit me at the Christian youth camp where I was volunteering. One thing led to another, and my first curfew violation became my last. On a sweltering summer night in 1999 I was kicked out and asked not to darken their cabin door again. I'm not sure all these years later why the head of the volunteer staff had it in for me, but he did. You know the feeling, when your best (or you) aren't good enough for the boss. The problem wasn't the camp; it was just that one guy. But at the time, I was a punk kid and couldn't differentiate between the institution and the individual.

All through high school I had been the kid who didn't quite fit in at youth group. The lock-ins, video games, and movie clips didn't appeal to me but the ski trips did. I liked to ski and make out with girls in the mountains. But the fact I liked Fight Club, Twelve Monkeys, and Unforgiven was anathema. By the time I was asked to leave camp the guys only a few years older than me desperately trying to connect with my life and then burning me when I broke the rules had gotten really old. So it was farewell to youth ministry and hello to theatre and film studies in Southern California.

In my heart their earrings and trendy clothes weren't going to lead me any further down the path toward Jesus, I was looking for something more real. I was being sold "pop-culture" religion and being forced to pay with that old time religion, "Thus Saith the Lord." It seemed that I could partake in the Christian version of the large culture's never-ending cycle of self-consuming hedonism as long as I followed all the rules.

Now I find myself in a post 9/11, post evangelical, post-modern world attempting to connect with Generation-Y through film, desperately trying not to become one of "those older guys" with the messenger bags and hip t-shirts from 1999 I so despised. With hindsight and a clearer understanding of my audience perhaps I won't. Maybe I am just moving old furniture around in the tired living room of man-made religion but for the sake of argument let's say there is something to meeting people on their level. The meeting of two people is not religion it is relationship and connection, the kind of connection I didn't have with my Youth Camp Leader. I had Christian pop culture and rules while I saw and experienced stories of relationships and truth in the cinema.

The typical teenager wasn't very patient in 1999. I think that is still true today, maybe more so. We didn't even have text messaging. The minds and bodies of today's teens are a whirlwind of transformation accelerated by the digital pace of the 21st Century. Leaders must deal with an ever-decreasing attention span. Teens are accustomed to viewing web pages for a half a second on average. Insane speed. Connect quickly or lose them. Between Wikipedia and Google there is nothing a teen can't find in 10 seconds, scratch that… 5 seconds flat. Ask the kids in your youth group about Global Warming and you'll have a certifiably Wikified answer in a matter of minutes along with their personal editorial comments about why the whole theory is bogus. Conventional wisdom says that teens demand rapid information transfer and strong opinions with no B.S. If you can't keep up you're left behind. If it is not short and sweet supposedly "pop culture" won't bite. Being that pop culture is driven by the teen market this almost makes sense. This attitude is often carried into the Christian community as well. But before we throw in the towel on presenting anything longer than 3 seconds some advice from my generation is appropriate. The rapper Ice Cube once said, "Life ain't a track meet, it's a marathon." As leaders, our challenge is to train a generation of sprinters for the long-distance nature of life.

Unfortunately youth leaders can't flip on an endurance switch in a teen's brain. The common strategy is to attempt connecting with teens using short content with meaning that looks very similar to the plastic, fluffy nonsense found elsewhere. Trying to flip "plastic" lame-brained content and video games into something meaningful isn't very effective when trying to connect with the bitter, warped, and frustrated teens like I once was. Trust me. So do we throw kids like I was out? My experience told me yes. Regardless, despite short attention spans and quick hit entertainment, the nature of life hasn't changed no matter how rebellious some one is. Something inside me has always raged against the notion summed up in McLullan's work, The Medium is the Message. If so, we are all going to morph into digital humming birds ruled by Google.

The truth is, there is enough "pop culture" to go around. Still, nothing is quite as powerful as humans communicating with great care, craft, and skill through cinema, music, art, dance, etc. In other words, "the fine arts." Before you start thinking, "here's another advocate for the arts and culture" you should know that I don't listen to NPR or go to the Opera. I even enjoy playing video games like "Halo 3" for the sheer adrenaline rush and I am impressed by the hours of human effort and programming put into them. But for me, riding a roller coaster or slalom skiing achieves something more visceral. Many things provide excitement but little in the way of illumination; and illumination is key.

Using video games and other pop culture elements to connect with teens is admittedly a bubble gum approach, nothing more than a fix to keep them coming back for an adrenaline rush or amusement. What happens when you have that one punk kid who doesn't bite? I know from personal experience. After six years in well-meaning youth groups, being wooed with bumble gum in the attempt to make me lovesick for Jesus, I had a great understanding of video clips and video games but only a fuzzy understanding of Jesus' words. It wasn't until I had turned my back on the "church" that I experienced the symphony of cinema and concepts like "Grace" began to set in.

Speaking of Grace, what film would you use to explain its power to a teenager? "The Passion of the Christ," "Lord of the Rings," or perhaps the more recent pop-option "Superbad," where one character forgives another for blowing his chances with a girl? My favorite depiction of "Grace" is found in the Dutch film, "The Son" by Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne. It has everything; mystery, murder, and redemption even though the reviews at Amazon.com make it sound as entertaining as the source code for E*TRADE Financial.

While "The Son" is brilliant, my brain would have exploded had I been forced to watch the film in high school. I had just begun my journey into the arts then and was more accustomed to pop culture. Many teens are not prepared for long-form movies as a teaching tool. Like marathon training youth leaders should start slowly by working bite-sized pieces of the fine arts into their messages. Even though there is great value, artistic merit, lessons to be learned, and cultural relevance in films like "The Son" (grace, fatherhood, loss, redemption), or Kieslowski's "Dekalog" (the value of the Ten Commandments in the modern world), "The New World" (true love, manifest destiny, culture wars), "Munich" (God's chosen people, the cycle of violence) or "There Where Be Blood" (religion, capitalism, ambition); they can be more than the typical teen can or, indeed, wants to grasp.

As a onetime youth-group drop out turned writer/cinematographer I challenge you to create space and time for students to interact with the arts in bite-sized pieces. Play classical music or show some of the growing number of short format Christian films available. Get your kids talking about the arts and how we as Christians can interact with them in the real world. The world is growing smaller by the millisecond. Regardless of the medium, the message is always Jesus.

It will be challenging. Just as discussions about dating, sex, drinking and honoring your parents, talking about the arts may be intimidating at first. Nevertheless, the best way to start is to jump in. Teens need to know they can enjoy a movie like "Children Of Men." Help illuminate your students' understanding and you will all experience the joy that accompanies appreciating the arts for all they add to human existence. As a humble artist of words and light I simply ask you to "Illuminate teens Understanding" with something real rather than hype.

Stewart Redwine is a director of photography, writer, and producer who lives in Prairie Village, Kansas. This year YS/Zondervan tapped Stewart and his long time creative partner, John Schimke, to create 36 Parables: A Collection of Modern Short Films Based on the Parables of Jesus. Besides tending his garden and loving his wife and daughter, he also works with other authors, publishers, and studios to create meaningful content through his production company, www.HeartInitiative.com