Chapter 03: Be Contextual (with focus on Culture)
(Note: need more positives)
Expand Your Horizon:
Culture is a part of our every day existence. Culture, like someone said, is the water the fish swims in; it is something we see around us but we are not aware of it or the impact it leaves on our lives. However, culture is not imperceptible. Young people do have their own specific culture. The Church has usually shied away from talking about it, because they feel that culture is evil and a Christian has to shun evil and therefore to stay clear of anything to do with culture. We need to get over this unhealthy perspective. For youth workers, pastors, ministers who have an access and opportunity to engage in the lives of young people, it would be crucial to understand the context, the culture of the youth they work with. Like Walt Mueller says, as God’s people, we can choose to be accommodative or alienated, either blending with culture and compromising God’s standards or cutoff with a holier-than-thou attitude. Christ calls us to be in the world but not of the world, which calls for a ‘holy worldliness’. Going into the culture allows us to know both the culture and the individuals in it, who are desperately in need of redemption. It will also help us to develop credibility; just like Jesus did when he took the time to listen, understand and respond with grace and compassion. Our influence will be non-existent unless we enter the world of the ones we hope to reach. (Walt Mueller, Engaging the Soul of Youth Culture (Downers Grove, Ill: Intervarsity Press, 2006) p. 136-154) A little history: Youth is a term that came into being in the west, post industrial revolution (between late 19th and early 20th century). Prior to that, children were part of the working community, often learning trades alongside adults as apprentices. The development of the labour market in which the young no longer had a place (mostly due to occupational hazards) and then the development of organised schooling for education led to a creation of a new cohort of the youth consisting of teenagers and adolescents. A. Cloete says that Industrialisation and the labour market led to a separation of children and adolescents from the category of adults and slowly a new subculture emerged, namely youth culture. Schools became one of the most important societal structures where youth culture developed rapidly. Youth culture: We see around us too that the subculture afforded to young people by school, class and work gives them a sense of identity and a social reality that is independent of and different from the adult oriented world they are born into. Youth mirror the times they live in, in their thinking, living, doing and talking. However, because their culture is dynamic, it is difficult …show more content…
There is often a danger of generalization as we try to analyze culture. For instance not all young people are religious zealots, neither are all drinking or nor are they all violent, these are just a miniscule percentage. Many a time it is the uncommon story that is highlighted in Newspapers and Magazines and generalizations are drawn from it. Karen Jones in her article ‘To see the world in a grain of sand’, an article found in a journal by IASYM, 2003, encourages us not to worry excessively about youth culture. Don’t depend too much on experts to analyze youth culture, she says, instead as youth workers you and I must strive to be ‘Relational and Relevant’ . For instance, the ‘experts’ may tell us to be careful in presenting absolutes as young people resist absolutes. This generalization can dampen our enthusiasm to share the truth of God’s Truth, truth that remains the same… despite the changes in times and seasons. Yet another danger to avoid, says Karen Jones, is the trap of being boxed in by developmental descriptions of the adolescent. Developmental studies, for example may over emphasize the generation gap, but the truth may still be that deep down kids long for parental approval and not just peer approval. Instead of looking for sweeping generalizations to understand youth, it may be better to know one’s own youth group and the uniqueness of our own young people. This is not to say that ethnography and serious cultural studies are useless but to emphasize the importance of knowing your own smaller
(Note: need more positives)
Expand Your Horizon:
Culture is a part of our every day existence. Culture, like someone said, is the water the fish swims in; it is something we see around us but we are not aware of it or the impact it leaves on our lives. However, culture is not imperceptible. Young people do have their own specific culture. The Church has usually shied away from talking about it, because they feel that culture is evil and a Christian has to shun evil and therefore to stay clear of anything to do with culture. We need to get over this unhealthy perspective. For youth workers, pastors, ministers who have an access and opportunity to engage in the lives of young people, it would be crucial to understand the context, the culture of the youth they work with. Like Walt Mueller says, as God’s people, we can choose to be accommodative or alienated, either blending with culture and compromising God’s standards or cutoff with a holier-than-thou attitude. Christ calls us to be in the world but not of the world, which calls for a ‘holy worldliness’. Going into the culture allows us to know both the culture and the individuals in it, who are desperately in need of redemption. It will also help us to develop credibility; just like Jesus did when he took the time to listen, understand and respond with grace and compassion. Our influence will be non-existent unless we enter the world of the ones we hope to reach. (Walt Mueller, Engaging the Soul of Youth Culture (Downers Grove, Ill: Intervarsity Press, 2006) p. 136-154) A little history: Youth is a term that came into being in the west, post industrial revolution (between late 19th and early 20th century). Prior to that, children were part of the working community, often learning trades alongside adults as apprentices. The development of the labour market in which the young no longer had a place (mostly due to occupational hazards) and then the development of organised schooling for education led to a creation of a new cohort of the youth consisting of teenagers and adolescents. A. Cloete says that Industrialisation and the labour market led to a separation of children and adolescents from the category of adults and slowly a new subculture emerged, namely youth culture. Schools became one of the most important societal structures where youth culture developed rapidly. Youth culture: We see around us too that the subculture afforded to young people by school, class and work gives them a sense of identity and a social reality that is independent of and different from the adult oriented world they are born into. Youth mirror the times they live in, in their thinking, living, doing and talking. However, because their culture is dynamic, it is difficult …show more content…
There is often a danger of generalization as we try to analyze culture. For instance not all young people are religious zealots, neither are all drinking or nor are they all violent, these are just a miniscule percentage. Many a time it is the uncommon story that is highlighted in Newspapers and Magazines and generalizations are drawn from it. Karen Jones in her article ‘To see the world in a grain of sand’, an article found in a journal by IASYM, 2003, encourages us not to worry excessively about youth culture. Don’t depend too much on experts to analyze youth culture, she says, instead as youth workers you and I must strive to be ‘Relational and Relevant’ . For instance, the ‘experts’ may tell us to be careful in presenting absolutes as young people resist absolutes. This generalization can dampen our enthusiasm to share the truth of God’s Truth, truth that remains the same… despite the changes in times and seasons. Yet another danger to avoid, says Karen Jones, is the trap of being boxed in by developmental descriptions of the adolescent. Developmental studies, for example may over emphasize the generation gap, but the truth may still be that deep down kids long for parental approval and not just peer approval. Instead of looking for sweeping generalizations to understand youth, it may be better to know one’s own youth group and the uniqueness of our own young people. This is not to say that ethnography and serious cultural studies are useless but to emphasize the importance of knowing your own smaller