Second, suburbia tends to be a busy culture. Some youth groups feed the frenzy by constantly scheduling more and more events for their teens. But many teens are so overscheduled that the last thing they need is more activities. So I applaud the contemplative youth ministry movement and folks like Mark Yaconelli and Mike King’s Presence-Centered Youth
Ministry, where youth group is a quiet space for solitude and silence.
Third, suburbia tends to be a consumer culture — suburbia is almost always a place of consumption rather than that of production. So a Christian alternative would be for youth
workers to find ways to cultivate spiritual disciplines of creativity, simplicity and generosity. One Christian high school of 575 teens chose to give up Starbucks coffee, pizzas and prom dresses in order to raise money to fight AIDS in Africa. Over the course of a couple of years, they gave several hundred thousand dollars of their own money to build a medical clinic and provide medicine and health care materials to a village. They had caught the vision of giving up some of their consumer nonessentials on behalf of others who were in far more desperate need.
Goetz: The last 25 years have seen a rise in “experience discipleship”— missions trips and “leadership” adventure trips, for example. Some might criticize the expense, but one
positive outcome is the exposure to the wider world and what God is up to.
One danger is that some successful youth programs tend to attract students of the same type or economic station in life. Somehow student pastors must build a ministry that cuts
through the socio-economic structures of today’s high schools. Many high schools reflect the culture in which they are located, and so a ministry committed to Christ’s mission
will not simply mirror what exists in the high school.
YWJ: What are the main differences between those kids who grow up in suburbia and attend suburban youth programs and those kids who don’t?
Hsu: Maybe the safest thing to say is that suburbia can amplify and intensify some aspects found in American society at large — if America tends to be individualistic, suburbia can be all the more individualistic. All of American culture is materialistic and consumeristic, and that’s hyper-accelerated in suburbia.
Goetz: Effective student ministries seem to produce students with a strong sense of mission in this world. The downside of programming is the risk of creating consumers, not
disciples of Christ. Also, programming often requires, in essence, students to “come to church” for the activities — as opposed to experiencing their faith in the culture itself. Spirituality without service in the world is a form of narcissism.
YWJ: What can you say about how suburban kids define the good life?
