The perfect storm is a very fitting term for what is going on in our culture. The obsessive service of the individual has led to the abandonment of many groups – youth, elderly, etc. The postmodern mindset no longer allows for others to speak into our lives. Technicism (technology as our savior) has become the means and the end purpose of life. Consumerism is the way to fulfill this purpose. And who we are is defined by our relationship to these things – our profile picture and friend count on MySpace, our rebellion to our parents, our consumption of goods and the group we most closely “relate” to. This context has led to the complete depravation of identity in our culture.
At the basic components of being a human is the need (more than simple desire) to be loved and a part of a community. Seperatist technology – everyone having out own cell phones, computers and social networking profiles in our private rooms – has eliminated the family from our identity. The need for community and love still remains. Thus youth must find their fulfillment in their peers. However, their peers have requirements that must be met as prerequisites to “relationship”. They must be popular, look a certain way, act in a specific fashion, be a part of the correct groups, hold culture’s sexual values, own a plethora of products and so on. This is the setup our culture has placed against the youth: these criteria can never be met. The youth have been predestined by culture for failure. This leads tot eh youth going against their humanity in search of an identity. They seek intimacy, they obtain sex. They seek love, they obtain superficial popularity. The seek beauty, they obtain promiscuity. All along this trail of insufficiencies youth must learn to cope with the inevitable outcome of not being enough. Thus they learn to accept means of escape – cutting, depression, compromised values, loss of humanity.
This is the hope of the church: these criteria never should be met. The church is not to live by the rules and norms culture is regulating. Rather it lives among the weeds in order to produce wheat. The narrator of the gospel provides youth with what they are looking for – purpose, value, mission, acceptance, forgiveness, love and hope. As a community, Christians must call these false idols what they are! We must challenge youth to think critically about the culture rather than mindlessly consuming it (which we must guard ourselves against also). To those too young or incapable of such a task we must be in such a developed, trusting relationship that we have earned the right to speak life and truth into their lives.
We must first believe this gospel that we preach. We are incapable of challenging the culture to new heights if we do not believe them ourselves. Secondly, we must live out these holistic laws. By prayer and fighting temptation we discover our own identity and sureness of our message. Lastly, we must create a new culture in the midst of our present cultures. We do not have to follow or play by the rules culture has set up. Instead, we develop new just, true laws by which to live. Our culture will gain legitimacy as we live out and see the fruit of our faithfulness. We do so by living prophetically regardless of the consequences, success or view others have of us. We live so for the favor of God and by the strength of His Spirit. We live so for the fullness and restoration of the broken and those oppressed by our culture.
