No Need to Study

Some of us, if we’re honest, have cheated at some time or another. Those of us who are done with school might even have vague memories of writing test answers on the bottom of our shoes or scribbling geometric formulas on sticks of gum before eating the evidence.

Those methods are soooooo prehistoric.

Seattle

Wow... internet access. Cool!

I'm on my fourth day of travel with my family in the Olympia (Seattle), WA area and it's been a blur. I'm speaking at a camp called Black Lake Bible Camp this week. I'm excited because it's been a great opportunity for ministry and a great family time for me as well.

Last night I presented the Gospel at the camp and over 30 kids gave their lives to Christ. Exciting stuff. It's so cool seeing students praying one-on-one with counselors. Every student has a unique situation and I think one-on-one counseling is essential (I've jumped on my soapbox about this before) in these situations. It's fun being just a small part of what's going on at this junior high camp this week.

As I mentioned, I brought the family with me and we've been having a fun time traveling Southern Washington in between my speaking. Today we are hitting the Seattle downtown. My wife and kids have never been there, so today I'll take them to the Pikes fish market, the pier, the Space Needle, etc. Fun stuff.

Gotta run. Just wanted to keep you posted!

If you think of it, pray for me each night at 8PM Pacific Coast time as I'm speaking to this group of junior high students.

Look Mom, no cuss words! It must be clean!

More and more I'm finding that many parents have no clue what content their kids are watching day to day.

  "But I use CYBERPATROL and block out porn sites from our home computer!"

  "But I block those movie channels on our cable!"

That's what they always say. Then I ask, "Do you have iTunes?… YouTube?… MTV?"

I admit... it's sad when we have to set up so many safeguards to protect our children. And I'm sure some parents over-react and over-protect… while others remain too lenient. I can’t provide you with an exact recipe of where that balance lies, but I can tell you that it starts with becoming aware.

Do you know what the most popular song on iTunes is right now?

Is it explicit?

Have you seen the video?

You see, those nice little “Explicit Lyrics” labels might help us filter out some music, but what will help us discern the appropriateness of the “clean” music? (that’s what our kids call the music without the explicit lyrics labels)

Let’s use the #1 song on iTunes right now as an example. It’s “I Gotta Feeling” by the Black Eyed Peas.

Ask your kids, “Is this song clean?”

“Yes mom! See. No explicit lyrics!”

Are they right? Have you done your parental duty?

Jump on iTunes right now and take a listen. If you listen for a minute or so, it sounds innocent enough. Rather catchy too.

Are you done? Okay… maybe not.

Listen to the whole song, or jump to Google and type in “I Gotta Feeling lyrics.”

Oh my!

This is a little more disconcerting. Listen at almost two minutes when Fergie kicks in:

I feel stressed out
I wanna let it go
Lets go way out spaced out
and loosing all control

Fill up my cup
Mazal tov
Look at her dancing
just take it off

Wow. Maybe you didn’t catch that listening to it the first time.

But let's be honest. Some parents might think that this is still pretty tame. Okay. Let’s do what the majority of kids do and look at the video. Jump to Google, YouTube or MTV.com. It doesn’t matter… kids use them all. Type “I Gotta Feeling Video and you’ll find it within one click. Now take a quick watch. I warn you- this video has no nudity, no sex and no cursing in it. So, it’s clean, right? Take a peek. Seriously, don’t just stop at Fergie in a thong… watch the whole thing! (Once you watch this, please don’t email me and complain that I told you to watch this. If you think this will be a temptation- do this with someone else in the room.) Remember that most your web filters won’t filter this video, because “it’s clean.”

Here’s my point: many parents I talk to have taken steps to block porn, and most good parents monitor the types of films that their kids watch... but I meet very few parents that have any idea what subtle messages are being fed to our kids through the “clean” media channels daily.

Please understand. I’m not saying that we should raise our kids in a dungeon listening to Psalty’s Christmas Special. I’m not even saying to unplug your computer from the wall or block your Disney channel. I’m just trying to advocate a little bit of education for parents about the lies our kids are hearing every day. The number one hit we just glanced at above has some pretty sensual images in the video that a teenage guy will really struggle seeing. And the song’s message of “letting it go” and “losing control” might hit home for a lot of teenagers.

Is this a good message? Is this the message you want your kids listening to?

Educate yourself. Tune into our Youth Culture Window articles. These articles reveal you the truth about subjects like the place that some teens are getting their sex advice, they give you a summary of the “junk” (literally) your kids would have seen watching the MTV Movie Awards this year, and they expose the subtle messages in today’s PG-13 films. This huge collection of articles contains a gold mine of good information for parents.

In our parent seminars, David and I try to not only expose these subtle media messages that our kids are immersing themselves with, but we also try to teach parents how to filter these influences and teach our kids discernment.

Dialogue with your kids about their media choices. You’ll find that most kids today are pretty honest.

What are your kids exposing themselves too?

New Ideas

"I use your site all the time!"

That's what I always hear from youth workers when I see them face to face. But it's interesting, so many of these youth workers only seem to know about a few of our free resources. They might use our games or our Movie Clip Discussions... but they never knew we had a podcast. Or they listen to the podcast and read the Youth Culture Window articles, but they never even know about all our free curriculum and all our various forms of discussion jumpstarters.

I'm surprised how many youth workers don't even know what the front page of our web site offers each week.

For example: look at the front page of our web site this week: www.TheSource4YM.com  It highlights six brand new resources of all shapes and sizes.

1. A brand new Youth Culture Window article about kids going "high tech" with cheating.

2. Our OUTREACH RESOURCE OF THE WEEK (updated weekly of course, hence the name) has a brand new lesson/discussion from David using an heart pounding clip from the good ol' film Vertical Limit. David, my director of content development, has been really revamping our MOVIE CLIP DISCUSSIONS page lately. I don't know if you've taken a peek. But EVERY movie on this page now includes small group questions, scripture, transition statements, wrap ups... everything you need. You just rent the film and we do the rest.

3. Our SPIRITUAL GROWTH RESOURCE OF THE WEEK (yes... updated weekly) has another brand new lesson/discussion using a classic clip from Bruce Almighty to provoke discussion about faith during tough times.

4. Our WHAT'S NEW? section has a new game that is perfect for "anywhere."

5. Our THE SOURCE PODCAST page (with a link right there on the front page), our podcast for youth workers, has a brand new episode (launched just last week) with David and I answering your questions from our ASK THE SOURCE page.

6. Our A LI'L BIT PODCAST page (also linked right there from our front page), our 10-Minute Bible study for kids, has a brand new episode (launched just last week) as well!

Whew. I'm tired just thinking about all this!

Enjoy the resources. And when in doubt of where to look for what you need... always just start at the front page of  www.TheSource4YM.com

Another Transformers Disappointment

This last week our movie guy Todd reviewed the new Transformers film. Like most critics, he thought the film stunk. But I thought you'd be curious of some of the reasoning behind Todd's assessment.

Let me back way up. A year and a half ago Todd and I did our first annual Special Movie Review Podcast, a special episode where the two of us talked about movies from the perspective of two youth workers. We reviewed some films, talked about the best "clean" films that you could actually show at youth group, etc. It was a fun podcast.

One of the memorable moments of the podcasts was when we disagreed about the first Transformers film. He loved it, and I didn't have much good to say about it. My main concern was the subtle messages that degraded women. You can check out that podcast if you want to hear my rant.

Regardless, I was a little skeptical as I saw Transformers II approaching, its previews full of Megan Fox eye-candy.

Apparently my suspicions weren't far from the truth.

Here's a few comments from Todd's review:

Megan Fox seems to only have one agenda: more sexuality. I mean, when the first time we see her and she is bent over a motorcycle with a short pair of Daisy Dukes, what are we suppose to think? And I had to laugh at the countless slow-motion-Baywatch style running scenes she had. To make it worse, we have a new Transformer that can change into a human…and of course she has to be another bombshell. She “seduces” Sam but when Mikaela finds them together in his dorm, he tries to get away…so the Transformer whips her 100ft metal tongue around his neck...

His entire review here.

Youth Ministry in Iraq

Yesterday I received a pretty encouraging email from a fellow "youth worker" ministering in a distant land. He's a chaplain in Iraq!

Over the last decade we've seen www.TheSource4YM.com used by youth workers all over the the English speaking world. I get emails from across the pond, down under, Africa and Asia. It's amazing to see how many people use our free resources and training. But yesterday's email was particularly encouraging coming from our troops in the desert.

Below is the email I received from Captain Dave Christensen who just listened to our free podcast for youth workers (basically, a free "radio show" for youth workers- this particular episode answering a bunch of questions from the field). Dave liked one of the suggestions we gave to youth workers, a suggestion to "debrief" as leaders after each ministry gathering, to evaluate and improve.

I'll let his words tell the rest of the story:

 

I'm an Army Chaplain, currently deployed to Iraq and I wanted to comment on your answer to Millie in "Help Me! Episode 26."  I spent about 10 years in youth ministry before becoming a chaplain.  I've actually found being a chaplain much more similar to youth ministry than anything else due to the majority of my flock being 18-24 years old.  Anyway, I thought you'd find it amusing that the regular debriefing thing you suggested is a very "Army" idea.  We do this with everything we do.  Of course, we have a fancy name and acronym for it.  We call it an After Action Review (AAR).  Every time a squad goes on mission "outside the wire", we have an AAR when we make it back.  I have one with my Chaplain Assistant after a service or Soldier visitation.  I do one on my own after every counseling session.  I write up formal AARs after more highly visible events like Memorial Ceremonies.  My point is that this practice is one of the things that make our military the best in the world.  We constantly evaluate what we do and try to improve.  Everyone has a say too, from the most junior private to the unit commander.  I really believe, this practice, combined with prayer would benefit almost any ministry in any setting.  Thanks for everything you do at the source.  I think I've been using the web site for about 10 years now and I plan on continuing to the use all the wonderful resources here.

Blessings,

CH (CPT) Dave Christensen

Jonathan,

Thanks Dave! I know those of us in the U.S. appreciate your service to our country! And all of us appreciate your work for the Kingdom. Keep up the good work!