Ministering in an Age of Distraction
An image has recently surfaced on Twitter showing the intense hold that electronic media has on children The picture portrays a gathering of students in front of one of Rembrandt’s most famous and moving pieces, The Night Watch, at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum.[1] What’s interesting, although not surprising, is that none of the students are observing the painting, but all of them are looking at their phones. With the opportunity to look at one of the great paintings of the last 500 years, these students opted for digital distraction—ironic.
No one—especially youth ministers and parents—needs to be told that contemporary technologies are having a profound effect on students (and adults) today. Too often, youth ministers walk into a youth room and see nothing but students’ eyes glued to their screens. While the addiction may not surprise us, the long-term impact may. Our culture is continuing to lead students deeper into their electronic escapes. Furthermore, youth ministers must think through how youth ministry itself has taken on the characteristics of a technology.[2] Therefore, my goal is to help youth ministers think through the difficulties of ministering in this age of distraction and provide a hopeful way forward.
Technological Tyranny
We must analyze the possible hazards when observing the stronghold that technology has on what many call the “digital natives.”[3] Marva Dawn argues that the church’s youth are in six immediate dangers concerning media over-consumption:
- Wastes so much time
- Stifles the imagination
- Causes children to develop smaller brains
- Causes children to be less motivated to think
- Promotes and fosters greed
- Muddles our perception of reality[4]
Some of these dangers are intuitive, and thus come at no surprise. While each danger poses challenges to the spiritual and mental health of children/students, I’m specifically concerned with number six. The fact that media is not simply communicating information, but also cultivating[5] the way that youth understand the world should raise ministerial red flags. Youth ministry expert Walt Mueller writes,
In addition to shaping what they think, media is shaping how they think, and thereby distinguishing them even further from previous generations. Millennials are passive, easily bored, uneasy with quiet, often impatient and expectant of immediate gratification. . . . they are communicating, learning, perceiving and processing information in new and different ways.[6]
I would argue, in some ways, with author Nicholas Carr that “a medium’s content matters less than the medium itself in influencing how we think and act . . . a popular medium molds what we see and how we see it.”[7] The medium, combined with its message, is reordering how students understand the world in a powerful way.
Struggles with technology can come in a variety of ways. Media can reorient the way a student thinks, but also weaken their mental capacities. Duke University professor Katherine Hayles states, “I can’t get my students to read whole books anymore.”[8] We’ve reached a significant milestone when a professor of a prestigious university can’t convince her students to read an entire book.
American youth ministry is itself more technological than one might think. Andrew Root writes,
North American youth ministry has been a technology. It is no surprise that the age of the technological—the age in which American society was gripped by a consumptive drive for the new and better (that only a technological society could provide)—was the age of contemporary American youth ministry’s beginnings. . . . Youth ministry was created as a technology, needed to solve the problem of adolescent religious apathy, and thus existed for functional growth, as all technologies do. . . . As technology created to functionally solve…problems, youth ministry could only be judged by its increased capital. . . . This technological ethos has begun to feel like a noose around the neck of youth workers.[9]
If youth ministry, as we know it, became a technical application to solve a spiritual concern, it is no surprise that the medium, in many respects, has swallowed up the message. We can only conclude that these two elements are interrelated: the overuse of technology and youth ministry as a technology itself.
Recalibrating Desire
“What is the solution?” we might ask. After we see that youth ministry itself has roots in this technological age, how do we minister to and in light of those who are inundated with media that fosters distraction? In short, we must lead them toward renewing their desires.
At the college where I work, our history professor shares a story with which others can sympathize. Throughout his children’s upbringing, they always drank orange juice made from concentrate. For the uninitiated, juice from concentrate is an icy mush from a can that you mix in water to make a pitcher of juice. While it was economically helpful, orange juice from concentrate was (and is) certainly not the best option. Yet he and his children would repeatedly drink this juice from a paper and tin can. One day though, for a special occasion, he bought the best juice that money could buy. We can all imagine: wonderful, hand-squeezed, authentic Florida orange juice. Our mouths water at the sound. But the youngsters were surprised. In his own words: “I had picked up the new freshly squeezed orange juice and we had been accustomed to the concentrate. [My son] asked what was wrong with the orange juice. I thought that he was like many of us. We become accustomed to the cheap so long that when we taste the good the good tastes odd.” While he had flavorsome juice sitting in front of him, all he wanted was the metallic-tasting, mushy concentrate.[10]
Such is the struggle for youth ministers—and all ministers for that matter. In many ways, we’re trying to renew and reorient the desires of youth. For so long, they’ve been submerged in the distraction-laden world of social media and electronic screens. All that these technologies can offer are passing moments of temporary gratification. Yet our goal in ministry is not to have students desire less, but more! We don’t want them to settle for fickle, passing pleasures, but long for the joy of eternity that exists in God alone.
But how do we renew or transform desires? How do we help students see that what the Gospel and Scripture offer is much grander than anything this world can offer? It is easy to say that this is necessary, but another thing entirely to give a practical way forward. In many ways, it comes in two separate but overlapping principles: depth and transcendence. In a sense, we must give them a vertical spectrum—showing them the depth of truth and the height of glory.
First, we must encourage students to “give roots” to their faith. This comes through the formulation of a biblical worldview. This will help change not only what students think, but also how. Youth ministers must equip students with the resources to think through ethical situations, theological problems, philosophical questions, and the like. This comes through biblical instruction that touches on every facet of life. Yet the only way to accomplish this is to lead students deep into their faith, allowing them to root themselves in Christ (Col. 2:7).
Second, we must lead them to long for something far greater and far more wonderful than what electronic media can offer them, or anything of this world for that matter. We must help them to desire the object of glory. C.S. Lewis called this our sehnsucht—a German noun that is often translated as meaning “yearning” or “longing”. It implies a deep emotional state with this longing. As Lewis wrote, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probably explanation is that I was made for another world.”[11]
How do we do this? By helping students “taste” glimpses of glory. This can come through any of the means-of-grace. The more students experience biblical fellowship, deep scriptural teaching, sacrificial service, earnest prayer, or other biblical church practices, the more the temporary pleasures of this life will fade away. When they perceive a foretaste of Christ’s treasures practiced in the biblical community, man-made fads will cease to satisfy the longings of their hearts.
Conclusion
From all indications, electronics, technologies, and the like are not going away anytime soon. But the more youth ministers can give their students a taste of something greater, the less of a stranglehold electronic technology will have on students. Our charge is set before us. Take students deep. Show them the depth and wonders that our faith has for lives today. At the very same time, take students high, and show them the wonders and glories that are still to come.
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[1] Van der wal, Gijsbert, Twitter post, November 27, 2014, 3:44 PM, https://twitter.com/wijdopenogen/status/538085905987567616.
[2] Andrew Root, Bonhoeffer as Youth Worker: A Theological Vision for Discipleship and Life Together (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2014), 4-5
[3] Marc Prensky, “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants,” On the Horizon, MCB University Press, Vol. 9 No. 5, (October 2001).
[4] Marva J. Dawn, Is It A Lost Cause? Having the Heart of God for the Church’s Children (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 166-171.
[5] In his book Everyday Theology, Kevin Vanhoozer argues that all cultural items (or texts as he says) achieve four basic functions: (1) communicate, (2) orients, (3) reproduces, and (4) cultivates.
[6] Walt Mueller, Engaging the Soul of Youth Culture: Bridging Teen Worldviews and Christian Truth (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2006), 96-97.
[7] Nicholas Carr, The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2010), 3.
Carr is certainly not the first to make this argument. For more information see “Marshall McLuhan: Making Sense of Media”
[8] Quoted in Naomi S. Baron, Always On: Language in an Online and Mobile World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 204 cited in Carr, The Shallows, 9.
[9] Root, 4-5.
[10] I’m thankful to Mr. John Carter for this wonderful illustration.
[11] C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: HarperCollins, 1952), 136-137.
February 13, 2016
Nice.