Youth Theology after Google
Wesley Menke
May 14, 2010

Nothing smells like In-N-Out.  Just thinking about the strange encounter takes me back to the bustling fast food franchise and the aroma of a burgers and fries wafting up to me.  I had the afternoon to myself, and as I sat alone at a two-person table I was looking forward to some good people watching.  Just as I was ready to tuck into my meal a stranger approached me. He asked if he could join me.  It was really busy that day, tables were scarce, and the guy did not look threatening so I said it was fine.  For a moment I ate in silence ignoring him, but this was hard to do, since he was staring at me.  I made small talk.  I found out that this person was very young, legally blind, incredibly brilliant, and worked at Clear Channel, a company that owns a lot of radio stations.  His job involved interfacing with Google.  I didn’t quite understand this at first, but he explained it to me.  In a deal made in 2007, Clear Channel guaranteed Google a certain amount of inventory—advertising time on the radio; Google auctions off this time to its customers creating a new outlet for online advertisers.  This guy’s job was to make sure that Clear Channel was as accurate as possible in the amount of airtime it guaranteed and then sold to Google.  He told me that any shortcoming of inventory resulted in penalties for his company and reduced revenue.  I was shocked, and at the same time not surprised by this revelation.  The tentacles of Google were stretched even further than I had imagined.  And its power was such that, as a buyer, it could call the shots to the company it bought from.  It’s no wonder some have called Google the Wal-Mart of the Internet.

The stranger then asked me what I did.  I told him that I was a youth minister. He wasn’t exactly clear what this was, and so I explained about Bible studies, youth groups, youth trips, fundraisers, etc.  He had some basic knowledge about church, but the whole concept seemed pretty foreign to him.  I invited him to our church, and he was definitely interested, but transportation was a serious issue for him.  He couldn’t drive, he depended on a public bus service, and Sunday mornings were not a prime time for utilizing this service.  After we finished our meals, my new acquaintance and I parted ways.  I have never seen him since.  I regret that more did not come from our conversation, but I take some comfort in what Brian McLaren says of post-modern evangelism, “We’d better learn to count not just conversions but conversations.”  That conversation made a difference in my life, and I hope it did for my friend, too.

An unscripted conversation over In-N-Out hamburgers with a total stranger is an example of theology after Google.  This paper, my [previous] blog: Youth Justice Network, and these YouTube videos I made are the beginning of an unscripted conversation about youth ministry and theology (youth theology) after Google.  You are invited into this conversation.  My tools for doing youth theology happen to be technological and Internet based resources, some of which are in fact owned and shaped by Google, so that I can say without hesitation that youth theology is a kind of theology after Google.  My method has been to create short videos on theological topics.  Then, these videos are posted online: YouTube, Facebook, and my blog.  The videos are meant to generate theological conversation both online and offline through comments, possible posts by other individuals, and hopefully personal reflection.  I then organized a youth group Bible study around a video that takes place in a physical time and place.  I posted reflections and highlights from this learning experience on my blog.  The source for most of the theological videos is young people.  I borrow this idea from Mercy Amba Oduyoye who lays out a beautifully articulated methodology in “African Women’s Theology.” Though my context is decidedly different than post-colonial Africa, Youth Theology takes as its inspiration the value and worth of young people as sources of theological reflection.  Sharing personal narratives, and reflecting on their meaning in order to glean life-giving insight, is the methodology of Youth Theology.  What makes it “after Google” is that much of the content and conversation happens online.  Note to reader: in order to make sense of this paper you don’t have to click every hyperlink, but I highly recommend following the links to videos.  That content is essential to the paper.

I’ll start by summarizing the following five observations about youth theology.  Each of which was derived from a video and/or conversation with young people.  Firstly, youth theology has shared authority; each party shares specialized knowledge or perspective, but also admits to ignorance. It is my ignorance and incompleteness that behooves me to listen to you.  Secondly, the context of youth theology is cross-tribal.  The theological conversation extends over and past social boundaries, but in doing so a new group is formed centered on the cross.   This new tribe must be crossed over and through to others again thus extending the conversation.  If matters of faith are only talked about with people of similar backgrounds and interests, then theology and the church will go nowhere.  Thirdly, the methodology of youth theology is listening and speaking.  Too many people’s voices have been marginalized in Christianity.  Social media and online resources open up a unique opportunity to democratize theology and invite young people in particular to share their voice and experience.  Fourthly, God is practically omnipotent.  God’s grace and power are experienced on a practical level, even though it may be hard to believe in theory. Fifthly, sacraments are indelible.  They are permanent marks on the body and soul connecting one to Christ.  I hope you enjoy these launching points of conversation and count them as an invitation to participate.

1.    Youth theology has shared authority.

This is a video on youth theology that I made.  Here it is on YouTube.

I will summarize:  Youth theology is a movement away from telling young people what theology is, to asking young people what it is.  Do you see the difference?  Youth ministry and many youth ministers, myself included, have spent a lot of time trying to make a theology relevant and acceptable to young people.  Youth ministers and youth ministries look cool, act cool, claim to be welcoming, but often stick to a particular interpretation, doctrine, or way of thinking and talking about God.  Departure from this norm is generally unacceptable.  So much energy has been spent trying to make fixed doctrine relevant to young people without ever asking the young people if this doctrine is working for them.  A youth minister might have the ability to present doctrine in a fun way, to weave it into a game, or to use various media as a teaching tool, but do they have the freedom to share authority with youth?

Youth theology holds that young people have the ability within themselves to think theologically and help the church revise and update its theology for today.  If the church wants a relevant theology, then who better to ask than young people?  In order to be relevant to young people, theologians must acknowledge the authority that young people have.  I wanted to ask the youth in my congregation if they had any authority.  So I made a video that I actually hoped they would watch, and not put them to sleep, and put it on my blog and on Facebook.  I called myself the Theology Pirate.  The question that I address is, who has authority when it comes to God and theology (talking about God)?  Do young people?

The online impact was pretty cool and surprising to me.  I had been blogging regularly for almost four months when I posted this video.  A few of my blog posts were noticed, re-tweeted, and gone viral generating hundreds of hits (or visits to my blog).  The video didn’t generate hundreds of hits, however, it did generate by far the highest number of returning visitors, and the longest average visitor length.  I interpret this data to mean that people who already knew my blog or me were willing to invest a few minutes to watch a video.  Other text-based blog posts might have more visitors, but the time spent scanning the material was often just a few seconds.  Conclusion: videos are an affective way of connecting to your followers, and bringing in modest numbers of new people.  On Facebook, many friends and colleagues liked the video and helped it go viral.   But what about the youth?  According to YouTube, the most popular audience was males ages 13 – 17, so that’s good in terms of age.
At our next youth group, the following week, about 1/3 of the youth had watched the video. One of them said it was so corny that he turned it off five seconds into it.  Ouch!  Young people can be so honest.  So I made everyone watch it at youth group.  Once it was clear that I was being corny on purpose, even my one naysayer said it was funny, and that it got him thinking.  We then talked about authority.  What were sources of authority when it came to talking about God?  They said: pastors, youth pastors, the church, the Bible.  I busted out the Wesleyan Quadrilateral to give some broad categories: reason, experience, scripture, and tradition.  I asked them if a person’s experience mattered.  They said yes.  So then I asked if young people’s experience carried any authority or weight.  Some of the youth were excited and immediately empowered to consider themselves authoritative.  Others were skeptical.  They said that if experience matters, then older people have had more experience, and therefore more authority.  Some youth went on to share that they value their parents, pastors, teachers, and other adults in their life.  This was a delightful surprise to me, and possibly for you too.  A group of teenagers were emphatic to make the point that they value and want the perspective of their elders.  This defies common myths about young people, and affirms the findings of Soul Searching by Christian Smith that a whole generation of seekers who are “spiritual but not religious” is meaningless.  Youth openly admit that they want and need the counsel of their elders.  But were they taking their own authority seriously?  We cracked open our Bibles and read about the call of Samuel.  Visions of God were rare in those days, but God spoke to the boy Samuel.  Eli, the old priest, couldn’t hear God, but he was able to tell Samuel that the voice being heard was God.  This is the shared authority of youth theology.  Young people may not have as much life experience, but their experience, knowledge, and abilities are unique.  I emphasize that youth may not have as much experience.  In many cases they in fact do have more experience than adults.  Age itself is not as discriminating as we think it is.  In any case, young people are capable of receiving a word from God that adults may not be able to.  It is because of this fact that the church needs to actively listen to young people and share authority with them.  The word of the Lord that Samuel received was not pleasant or easy.  Eli had allowed corruption in the temple by his own sons, the kind of negative stereotypes often associated with youth, and now there are going to be consequences.  How ironic that this word of judgment is spoken from the lips of one who is young!
Shane Hipps wrote a good book called, Flickering Pixels that I blogged on.  He lays out some critical questions about how technology is shaping faith.  Chapter 13 is titled “Getting Younger.”  He argues that because young people have a capacity for picking up and using newer technologies they are empowered.  Hipps cautions that this can get young people into trouble.  I cringe at the examples he gives of the texting language 1337, or leet, and how it is used for illicit behavior.  Hipps makes a good point.  Empowering youth can be a dangerous thing.  What would a total subversion of authority and power in the generations look like?  Is it already being seen?  The church and the writers of its theology have the difficult, but indispensable task, of sharing authority with the young.  If it doesn’t, then there are plenty of other people and groups that would be happy to empower them in their own entrepreneurial activities be they benign or lethal.  Just a short list of groups willing to offer something that seems like empowerment to young people could be: online games and communities, prostitution, drug dealers, and gangs.  In each of those groups a young person can acquire some authority and leadership, and perhaps even a sense of belonging.  Does the church have the courage to reach across many different groups to connect to youth?  Can theology be written not just for youth, but also by youth, so that they have a vested interest in it?  I set out to answer these very questions, and asked young people to help me make some videos on theological topics.

2.    Youth theology is for a cross-tribal context.
I strongly dislike cliques.  I don’t like it when social groups are closed in around their own interests and exclude others.  In my tenure as a youth minister I have agonized at encouraging cliques to open up and welcome new people.  Sometimes this works, and other times it does not.  But it is an essential feature of youth theology to be cross-tribal.  This means talking about God and faith with people who are not in one’s tribe.   It’s easy to interact with people in your tribe.  Seth Godin recently wrote a book on just how easy it is too lead your own tribe.  Seth makes it clear that one can create a tribe for various reasons, and because consumers have been so desensitized by advertising, forming a tribe and a sense of belonging is the best way to get customers.  He writes,
“New rule: If you want to grow, you need to find customers who are willing to join you or believe in you or donate to you or support you. And guess what? The only customers willing to do that are looking for something new. The growth comes form change and light and noise.”

Godin’s book is all about getting customers—a tribe of customers—and the way to do that is getting people to believe in you.  Youth theology, however, is cross-tribal.  While it might be profitable to capitalize on tribalism, the church is interested in more than just profits.  Rather the church is interested in prophets.  Prophets speak uncomfortable truths to the tribe.  The challenge of ecumenism and religious dialogue are cross-tribal endeavors.  Youth Theology takes seriously this challenge because youth interact in many different “tribes” with people of different religious backgrounds.  A meaningful discussion about theology must have the fluidity to be done with one’s peers.  If not, then it is already relegated to the margins and excluded from the center of youths’ daily existence.  God must reach beyond the comfortable shared interests of a group and be in conversation with even one’s enemies.
Young people feel the pain and pressure of tribes acutely.  I interviewed a young adult from my congregation about the musical scene/genre called: “punk & hard core.” Here’s the video of our interview.

Austin gives a brief history of the genre and describes his own struggle in identifying with a group who at times eschews religion.  Austin, a musician and fan, of this genre of music is being cross-tribal.  He mentions bands that are in the genre and witness to their Christian faith.  Talking with Austin helped me appreciate how young people are subjected to social pressures everyday.  Austin is an example of a young Christian person who crosses tribal boundaries for the sake of the cross.  In our congregation, there are very few other people who relate to this kind of music.  But Austin has consistently been involved and taken on a role of leadership with people of different interests and social “tribes” than his own.  This reality makes youth theology cross-tribal, or a tribe of tribes, or a network of networks.  Pulling this off is a powerful form of witness and evangelism. I hope he doesn’t get hurt in any of those mosh-pits!

3.    The methodology is listening and speaking.

Young people are dying to be heard.  When I invited Katie to be interviewed for this project on youth theology, I didn’t know what we would talk about.  But she was quick to tell me what she wanted to say.  Authority, for her, is found in God.  She said that when she is in anguish about a decision she will eventually remember God, and then turn to God in prayer.  I can relate to this.  When I struggle with something, a good deal of time will pass before the thought crosses my mind to share this concern with God in prayer.  Katie said this is the only thing that gives her peace.  After recording this video I decided to use it at youth group the very same night.   Their attention was rapt.  After we watched the video we did a Biblical practice called Lectio Divina on Mark 1:35-39.  Normally it is difficult for our group to stay focused through a Bible study.  That night we went over time and we would have kept going, if parents, homework, practice, and so many other things were not waiting.  The long periods of silence were powerful.  When it was time to share there was so much they wanted to say.  It was a challenge to keep it to just one word or sentence.  Normally it is like pulling teeth to get many of the youth to talk.  The difference was listening.  Young people seldom have the opportunity to be listened to.
If what Katie says is true, that God is the ultimate authority, and peace is found through prayer, then it is through listening in silence that God spoke through the scripture to our group that night.  It was intense!  To be completely honest, it is much easier to play a game, or to talk to the kids for 30 minutes and lead them to a precise location that I have in mind.  But the difficulty is not in the preparation (the bane of a youth minister’s existence), it is in the weight one has to bear in hearing revelations of the heart from young people.  Silence opens up more profound feelings and emotions.  But it is even more than feelings.  To truly listen is to open up to the reality of the other who bears Christ within them.  The presence of God is a sublime thing indeed.  It is easier for me not to listen.  It is easier to talk.  I admit that this is a function to a large extent of my own social location.  For others it is easier to listen, and more of a challenge to talk.  In this case, one might be amazed at how God can speak through them as they discover their voice.  Both listening, and speaking are essential for youth theology.  Youth are dying to say something, and to be heard.  Youth theology can be done in a quiet room with young people and a Bible.  But the Internet, social media, and Google all affect how it is possible to listen and speak to one another.  Speech and listening are opened up in new and interesting ways.  But not everything about new technology is a blessing.

4.    God is practically omnipotent.
The Earth trembles in Pershing Square.  Earthquakes are not foreign to Los Angeles, but in my experience that urban oasis is particularly susceptible to them.  Each time I have been there with my youth group, I have felt what I thought was the solid concrete and asphalt ground underneath me buckle and give way to instability.  The basic assumptions that I hold about life and meaning have come crashing down there.  This is because when we go to Pershing Square we bring food for the homeless, sit, talk, and listen to the stories of the people who spend their days and nights there.  We discover that poverty, homelessness, drug addictions, prostitution, undocumented immigration are not things that happen to bad people.  They happen to human beings.  When we hear their stories the assumption that the good things of our life are earned begins to unravel.  It is replaced with an existential question: why me?  Why am I the one walking back to a rented 15 passenger van full of gas ready to drive back to the suburbs?  How come I have documents, no mental illness, a college education, never abused, and have a warm place to sleep?  My friend Bryan experienced this recently.  He met a man by the name of Michael.  Their conversation gave Bryan plenty to think about, theologically.  Bryan shared these thoughts in this video. 
In the video Bryan says that he’s never seen, “the hand of God come down and start fixing stuff.”  Instead, God’s grace is made known through people.  The truth that Bryan elucidates is that humanity has a role to play in making God’s Kingdom known on Earth.  In other words, God is practically omnipotent.  That is, it would be absurd to say that God makes everything better without humanity taking some initiative, and yet it is only by God’s grace that people can do the will of God.  Bryan said that he feels God “pushing him” toward something.  God’s omnipotence—God’s universal ability—is hard to believe in theory, but essential in practice.  This position leads to both a sense of dependence on God’s ability and culpability on our own ability.  This mutual dependence opens up the heart to the grace of God.

5.    Sacraments are indelible.
The sacraments have long been a source of comfort and tangible form of God’s grace for Christians.  In this video I chat with Alanna about her understanding of Holy Communion. 
Alanna spent part of her summer serving in New Orleans to help facilitate a youth gathering for over 36,000 Lutheran youth who came to the city to learn and serve.  She helped lead a workshop on people’s scars, and accompanied groups as they served in the city.  While in New Orleans, Alanna got a tattoo with her plane ticket money!  Her tattoo is of wheat and grapes, the raw elements of communion.  She explains that Communion has always meant so much to her because she believes that everyone is welcome to the table.  For Alanna this transcends all barriers even religious ones.  If someone wants to take communion then they are welcome to.  She believes that communion represents how Christians should treat one another and all people.  I asked Alanna if young people had anything important to teach pastors about communion, and at first she said, “no.”  She felt like she didn’t understand it adequately herself (she’s in good company on that one.)  But as she spoke with passion about tattoos and wanting to devote her body and her self to God, it became clear that this was an insight into the sacraments.  In the sacraments, one becomes connected to the body of Christ and the body of Christ is connected to one’s body.  Alanna expresses this with her tattoos, and wants to express it with even more tattoos!  Tattoos are written with indelible ink.  Baptism is an indelible reminder of one’s inclusion into the body of Christ.  When the church gathers for communion, at one table, they are literally re-membering themselves into the one body of Christ.

Conclusion
During this experience I found that each video that was posted created a wave of interactions that spread out across the web that would bounce back toward me, like an echo.  When I posted videos on Facebook, all of the people that were friends of that person would comment and share the video around.  It was remarkable!  The democratization of media means that most small amateur videos won’t get huge followings, but they are hopefully meaningful to people who find them.  If theology is democratized, then many people will weigh in with their own opinions.  This does not mean that everyone is correct.  In fact, methods of authority will still be important, but it is my hope that authority is shared, especially with young people.
Each interview that I conducted, edited, and posted has caused me to reflect a great deal.  It has been an exhilarating and an exhausting process.  I am blown away at how many struggles the young people whom I interviewed have, and the depth of their reflection. I truly believe that given the opportunity, young people will articulate their theology.  But the process does not end with just one video.  The people who courageously volunteered to be in these videos are not done learning and growing in their faith.  The Holy Spirit is still at work in them calling them on to a deeper struggle, myself included.  In each video that was made, I attempted to focus on topics that were of interest to that person.  For this reason, the project is woefully incomplete: due to the lack of people, not their particular interests.  I have only scratched the surface of topics typically included in a systematic theology.  Big topics that were not addressed, but that I hope to post videos on in the future would be: creation, sin, salvation, Christology, Spirit, Trinity, and much, much more.  Maybe you will be inspired to post your own video, text, picture, painting, etc!

1)    Appendix 1
Lesson Plan for “Methodology is speaking and listening.”
Lord Teach us to Listen
HSYG May 11, 2010

Activity – Prayer Tag!!!

Opening discussion – What is the most difficult situation you have ever been in?
How did you get out of it?

Is prayer ever something you can do in a difficult situation?

Watch video of Katie

What is prayer?
What is the point of prayer?
Why did Jesus pray if Jesus was the Son of God?

Mark 1:35-39

Why did Jesus pray in these passages?

Prayer practice:
Lectio Divina
THE FIRST reading (the text is actually read twice on this occasion) is for the purpose of hearing a word or passage that touches the heart. When the word or phrase is found, it is silently taken in, and gently recited and pondered during the silence which follows. After the silence each person shares which word or phrase has touched his or her heart.

THE SECOND reading (by a member of the opposite sex from the first reader) is for the purpose of “hearing” or “seeing” Christ in the text. Each ponders the word that has touched the heart and asks where the word or phrase touches his or her life that day. In other words, how is Christ the Word touching his own experience, his own life? How are the various members of the group seeing or hearing Christ reach out to them through the text? Then, after the silence, each member of the group shares what he or she has “heard” or “seen.”

THE THIRD and final reading is for the purpose of experiencing Christ “calling us forth” into doing or being. Members ask themselves what Christ in the text is calling them to do or to become today or this week. After the silence, each shares for the last time; and the exercise concludes with each person praying for the person on the right.