Teenage Lethargy: Don’t Blame it on the Youths

I have been involved in adolescence work since I entered the age of majority, which is 18 in Malaysia although, technically, I was still a teenager. That reality was lost on me and perhaps not very apparent to my co-workers as well. The most probable explanation, I suppose, was that help was (and still is) hard to come by and any volunteer IS a volunteer.

Because I worked with teenagers while a teenager myself, I was able to understand their needs better than my older co-workers. As I grew into my twenties, I began to sense that I was no longer very much in sync with them as I used to be. A generation gap had appeared!

In order to remain relevant to the new generation of teenagers, I kept myself up-to-date with youth culture. It helped a lot that I’m a techie so I’m always acquainted with the latest gadgets and computer games. Throughout the years then, I have become very sensitive to changes in youth culture in this postmodern world and appreciate the need to connect and work with them on their level.

But by doing so, I ran into problems with my co-workers. An experience more than a year ago was a case in point.

I was serving the youth group of a local congregation. They belong to a family of congregations that, in my estimation, blossomed during the Jesus People movement. However, unlike most Christian groups that prospered around the 60s-70s, they traced their origin to people who were very strict in their discipline. As such, they were more conservative than the Jesus freaks of the hippy era.

For some reasons, the lifestyle did not change much since those days. The formal dress code, the conservative music, and the worldview – it ran the gamut. This was the environment that their teenagers were in. On the first weekend after I signed up as youth counsellor (which they call "serving one"), I felt a bit intimidated. Clad in t-shirt, jeans and loafers, I was feeling under-dressed for the occasion.

The sense of intimidation was not because I did not know the group’s mechanism – for I grew up in similar settings (group dynamics evolved since I was last here). Rather it was because I had spent many years working with other youth groups who do not share its characteristics and the feeling of here we have a group of teenagers behaving so differently from the social context of, say, their school environment really got to me. Could it be that these kids from the iPod generation somehow found relevance also in late 20th century Puritanism (for lack of better term)?

So I sat through the first few Saturdays observing whether the teenagers were really into the programme. Who knows? For all I know, they might be enjoying it. After all, they do come every Saturday! Surely, I do not have the monopoly over what is enjoyable to adolescents, do I?

But it didn’t take long for me to come to the conclusion that the kids were there because their parents mandated their presence. They were bored and found the meetings irrelevant. Some could even present sophisticated theology but could not answer simple questions like, “Do you believe there’s God?” when I asked individually during supper. One answered, "I don't know whether I believe".

I prayed and received the sense that we needed to do something to contextualise the message of the Bible and the Christian experience to them. There was verbal support from the congregation’s elder but what ensued was tragic (at least from my perspective).

Seeing that they dressed like every other normal teenager when not in church gatherings, I decided not to observe the de facto dress code of shirt (usually long sleeve and white), dark long pants, leather shoes and the optional neck tie for boys and blouse + ankle length skirt for girls. To be fair, however, I must add that apparel and the other matters mentioned below are not compulsory in nature for this congregation. But enough positive encouragements are given in this direction that it’s difficult to have room for another.

I also moved the worship away from Horatius Bonar and Isaac Watts, which I ever appreciate, and opted for more contemporary numbers. Now, “more contemporary” is a relative term. I do not even mean Darlene Zschech or the Planetshakers. What I meant was more like Jack W. Hayford. You get the idea.

I was unable to move away, however, from their jargon-filled materials where the diction was so esoteric that few of the teenagers actually understood the meaning of the words, much less the message. We were called to present the Gospel to high school kids, not Dr. College Professor. So every week I have to find ways to unpack the message and tried to contextualise it to their school or family life. Admittedly, I was not always successful.

After a couple of months, I began to see some changes in attitude towards the Saturday meeting and towards God. There were those who were finding relevance of Christ in their lives and, of course, they were also those who were still drifting away. But I felt that positive developments were taking place.

Apparently, these moves were too revolutionary for some. I was described as being too loose and worldly, among other pejoratives. I have expected these oppositions. However, when things got out of hand and when people were more interested in my modus vivendi than whether the youths are now more drawn to Christ, I knew I have lost moral authority as far as some of the parents and youths were concerned.

Heavy-heartedly, I withdrew from that ministry and wished them well. Until today, on the one hand, I am bemused that church leaders are wondering why their younger generations are so disinterested and pray for breakthrough and, on the other hand, it pains me to observe the boredom in the eyes of these high school students who are wishing that the clock would tick away quicker. Jesus Christ, to them, is nothing more than a boring but compulsory inconvenience.

There were many times I thought of stepping in to intervene or to give subtle hints but I am reminded that playing a different tune on non-essential matters in a local congregation is a major reason for church division.

One thing that I find hard to understand is why some of the other youth fellowships in this family of congregations do not exhibit the same characteristics. I found that there are youth fellowships that understand youth culture relatively better. Could it be that, perhaps, besides blaming systemwide behaviour (although evidence also points in this direction) we should also explore whether local individuals may have contributed to these youths’ lethargy.

I also find that many Christian groups are experiencing difficulties in connecting to their youths. Numerous books have been written about it - the latest stream of thoughts seem to come from the emergent crowd with their post-Christian propositions. These are steps forward in the right direction.

The 21st century is a globalised world with ever liberating technologies at the fingertips of the youths. Youth culture is one of the most fleeting subject where something that was the talk of town one season will be cliché ad nauseam the next. The local church and her ministries exist within certain cultural context and it is incumbent on church leaders to continuous acquaint themselves with it, especially the more fluid youth component, if they want to remain relevant to their community. Otherwise, don't blame it on the youths if they are lethargic towards God.