Here’s a link to a good article I read about the what, why and how of understanding and determining appropriate boundaries for internet time/usage in the lives of your adolescent.
Summer Camp Spots Available
May 28, 2009
Recently I just found out that there ARE some summer camp spots available at YouthFront Camp West. As of a month ago, these weren’t there, so I have no idea how many there are, if they’ve already been filled up, or any of that info.
If your student is wanting to go, here’s what you need to do:
- Check your calendar. The week of camp Shoal Creek students are going is Week 10, Mon Aug 3rd-Sat Aug 8th.
- Go register online: http://youthfrontzone.com/West. AS YOU’RE REGISTERING, make sure you include the info that you are with Shoal Creek Community Church, you are registering for Week 10 at Camp West, and the leader is Justin Talley. There are a bunch of questions you have to fill out, and those 3 are really important to get right, or your student may not end up in the right place during the right week.
- Let me know if you get accepted by sending an email to justin.talley@shoalcreek.org. I need to keep track of how many we send so that our numbers match theirs.
Thanks and let me know how it goes!
Guys and Girls Hangouts – Friday June 5th
May 28, 2009
We wanted to follow up our Vamos! road trip to St. Louis with another opportunity to hangout and build community the following week, so the info you need is below. These separate girls and guys hangouts are happening on Friday, June 5th. This is a 6th-12th grade event. Cost per student is $3 to cover the food that will be provided.
Girls Night- Friday from 6pm-10:30pm. Meet at the church for drop off and pick up of your students. The girls will be driving to Justin Talley’s parents’ house near Plattsburg, MO, for a girls pool party. So bring a suit, towell, and any pool toys that you want. Also, there may be a bonfire, so bring some clothes or shoes that could get dirty or sooty. Students should invite any of their friends that they want. We want to have as much fun as possible!
If your student is wanting to go, please send an email to justin.talley@shoalcreek.org because we’ll need to know how many students are going. Also, if any parent is willing to drive and go also, let us know.
Guys Night- Same Friday night, June 5th, but different time. Please drop your student off at the Underground, in the back parking lot of Shoal Creek, at 7pm and pick them up by 10pm. The guys will just be staying in the Underground, playing video games. We will have Halo 3 available for play, so if your family has chosen to not let your student play that game, please let me know so I can honor your wishes.
If your student is wanting to go, please send an email to justin.talley@shoalcreek.org because we’ll need to know how many students are going. Also, if any parent is willing to drive and go also, let us know.
Thanks everyone, let me know if you have any questions!
the Buzz – Elevate Info
May 28, 2009
Hey Families, here’s what you need to know:
- Vamos! Road Trip to St. Louis this Saturday, leaving at 7:30am getting back at 12:30am (that same night) – 6 Spots left! If your student wants in, call me directly (816-510-3859)
- Parents Meeting Sunday in Underground after both 1st and 2nd Service – We’ll be: Meeting You!, Updating Contact Info, Revisiting Our Mission/Vision for Why We Do What We Do, and talking about the Mission Adelante Kids Camp our student will be running Jun 15th, 16th and 17th. Email me (justin.talley@shoalcreek.org) if your family/student is interested in participating. I’m starting to create my lists as we speak!
“Understanding Culture” – A Map and a Mirror
May 22, 2009
I read chapter four of Walt Mueller’s Engaging the Soul of Youth Culture, and three things stood out. Culture itself is the way we interpret and understand life. Our beliefs, behaviors, attitudes and actions are all formed by the culture we develop in. It’s the external forces that form our internal selves.
1. Culture is a Map. “In today’s world, music and media are stepping in and fulfilling the role of increasingly abandoned by parents who are either physically absent by choice or circumstance from their children’s lives, or emotionally or spiritually detached because they take little or no interest in the emotional or spiritual nurture of their kids.” -Mueller
Contrary to our popular belief, adolescents don’t like wandering around lost and clueless, just letting life happen as it may. That’s what it may seem like to us adults, because their actions and thoughts can seem so random to us. However, they really do want guidance in their lives. The really do want somebody to show them how to move forward. They want a map. If parents aren’t the map-givers, then the dominant cultural influence in their lives become the map-givers. If we want to know what the dominant culture/map is in their lives, we have to pay attention to what they pay attention to.
Culture can predict the future direction of our adolescents’ lives, just like a map show a predetermined destination.
2. Culture is a Mirror. What TV shows do they watch? What’s their favorite band? What are the lyrics of their favorite song (which they know by heart)? What brands of clothes do they like to where? What makes those clothes sell?
Observing, listening, looking into the songs, brands, books, movies, and teams that our adolescents engage can show us what’s going on inside of their hearts. Music is such a tell. There is so much emotion tied into music, lyrics, harmonies, melodies. Adolescents are such emotion-based creatures (physiologically so at this developmental stage in their lives), that it’s natural for music to say a lot about who are teens are, and who they’re going to become. The music and media frenzy that it has become have HUGE influence on our teens identities.
Walt Mueller chose to reprint some writing he did immediately following the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards. In writing out these thoughts six years ago, he was speaking reflectively of what he saw in the current ’03 culture. But he was also speaking prophetically, speaking to parents and other adults about where he predicted youth culture was headed.
Read below. These are his thoughts on culture from six years ago about where youth culture would be today. My thoughts/questions are in italics after each of his statements/quotes.
3. Walt Mueller’s synopsis of the MTV Video Music Awards (VMA’s)
“Tonight I did what I do on MTV’s annual Video Music Awards day–I watched and processed the show. My head is spinning from what I viewed the last three hours. This year, I had to head right to the computer to record my thoughts. The VMAs–like all other popular entertainment–function in our culture as a map and a mirror. As a map the VMAs direct and shape the developing worldview of vulnerable children and teens who look to the music industry for guidance…
…As a mirror the VMAs allow us to gaze at ourselves to see what we look like and what we’ve become. The show is an accurate reflection–altough many of us won’t admit or believe it–of how we’ve changed, what we think, how we live and who we are as a culture…”
- The popular music industry is gasping for air. Sadly, I’m not sure if I can even comment on this. I hardly ever listen to the radio, opting for my ipod or cds. I only know what the most popular music is by checking CPYU’s Top 10 lists.
- Homosexuality and lesbianism are no longer stigmatized or seen as sinful. In fact, they are celebrated in the mainstream. Have you checked out ABC’s new fall lineup?
- The urban hip-hop style and ethos rule. Again, I’m feeling way out of context on this one. I’ve never really listened to hip-hop. I personally feel, however, as music becomes more digitalized and less about radio, that competition is healthier among music genres.
- Freak dancing isn’t freaky anymore. I haven’t chaperoned any junior high or HS dances lately, but I do remember the days when I did watch MTV pretty regularly, and I’m still pretty sure that their music videos aren’t good for my spiritual health.
- When it comes to sex, there are no rules. “…the sex act and all things sexual are the reason for living, boundaryless and sacramental. Our kids are growing up in a world where the hedonistic and unbridled pursuit of pleasure is integral to life.” -Mueller In ads, movies, songs: sex sells. It is the catchiest, most attractive thing to a teenager who is developing biological and psychologically, who is overrun with emotion and longs to feel truly alive. Our current teens also have the potentially to make more money than any previous generation, and marketing companies know that, so advertising becomes more aggressive and more boundaryless. Check this out and scroll down to the Axe image/description. What age group/gender do you think Axe is marketed to?
- Normal looking girls don’t have a chance. “The body-image pressure continues, and we’ll see more and more our girls at younger and younger ages begin to self-destruct over appearance.” -Mueller “Teen suicide, depression, cutting and eating disorder rates are soaring. In 2004-05 suicide rates jumped 76 percent for tweens and 32 percent for teenage girls ages 15-18, according to the Centers for Disease Control. And some experts say the troubling mental health statistics have much to do with the crushing burden society puts on teenage girls.” Taken from this article: Supergirl Epidemic.
- What’s next for the Olsen twins? I remember Full House, but not much after that. I think my sister watched their mystery videos. What year was it that one of them came out with a cocaine addiction? Or was that not true?
- Postmodern self-rule rules. “In today’s world there is no objective, transcendant authority outside of self.” -Mueller
- Woman are ornaments for men.”…so much of the music today depicts women as nothing more or less than urinals that hang on a men’s room wall. As such, they are objects used by male to relieve themselves in.” -Mueller Pretty jagged statement, but not off target. Has that changed at all in the past six years: up, down, the same?
- Pain is mainstream. I think this is why teens will always be heavily drawn to music. I think pain is why I bought Metallica’s “Ride the Lightning” in 7th grade, and “Master of Puppets” in 8th. My favorite song? “Unforgiven.” The lyrics are here. That’s kind of embarrasing and scary as I look back on it. But it is what it is.
I feel like in the next 5-10 years, the culture shifts are going to go over a tipping point of sorts, but oddly enough, will be unnoticeable, if that makes sense. A “can’t see the forest for the trees” type experience. My generation of peers in their mid-twenties (the leading edge of the emerging generations of postmoderns) will be approaching their 40′s. We will be well into raising the next generation of families and will be passing on the world views that we have learned and bought into. We’ll be the majority of the work force in America. I wonder what will be commonplace 10 years from now, and if we’ll consciously notice any differnece from the experience of culture that we have today.
One thing is for sure though: God will still be God. God will still love me, my peers, and everyone on this earth. He will still want to redeem his hurting people, and he will still be calling people to his great love.