In place of love is intimacy. Someone will say, "I still love him, but there isn't anything there (no intimacy); we just want different things." As time and space radically have sped up, they have transformed the core building blocks of identity from work to consumption, from love to intimacy.

If there is one constant then, it is that I use my body as the place to work on my many fleeting identities. The body becomes the place from where I broadcast who I am by hanging my consumptions on it and receiving intimacy through it. The Internet is not a tool that disembodies me, but a tool that allows my body to be broadcast across time and space. Michelle spends hours choosing her profile picture, and Madison's YouTube videos show off her waistline and new jeans.

So What Can Youth Workers Do?

What's to be done with the Michelles and the Madisons? We may want to tell them they should have their identity in Christ, but just saying that is of no help. Rather, what we must see is that the Michelles and the Madisons are living constantly with the question: Who am I?

We must have something to say that is more than religious phrases. We must be able to articulate that the Jesus we serve is the Jesus who is found in yearning and questioning. There is no reason to tell them to stop searching for an identity in the blur of time and space. Rather, we must together seek for God in our questions and longing.

It is the youth worker's job to help young people form an identity, and an identity that has their Christian commitment is central. That commitment must be as solid as a rock; if it isn't, then their faith isn't either. The problem is that identity already has been liquefied, and few adolescents find it necessary to have one single self-definition. Therefore, in a real way their (often) partial self-definition as Christian is always open. They see themselves as Christians for now; but in the future, who knows?

Of course this is risky; but there is an opportunity here for youth workers, as well. The opportunity is to perceive conversion not as a final destination but as a constant process of reflecting deeply on one's life, seeking God next to one's deepest question. There is no deeper question for this generation than, Who am I? It becomes essential that youth workers are able to engage young people in a process of personal/constructive theological reflection. In many ways the question, Who am I? should be on our on minds with every talk we give, every retreat we plan and every Bible study we lead. It is a question never fully answered and constantly nipping at young people's heals. Who am I? is the starting point for deep contemplation about God, self and world.

While consumption and intimacy promise electric experiences, they are also very thin. Suffering is always close to the search for identity. Consumption and intimacy have short half-lives and demand constant motion, often hurting in their wake of transition. Youth ministry must seek for a theology that places God near those who suffer, near those who question and search for God in the questions of who they are.

Perhaps in Erickson's day the objective of youth ministry was to provide religious foundations for one's single self- definition. In our time, the objective of youth ministry is to accompany young people as they figure out who they are in a world where time and space are blurred, and yet God seeks them in their deepest yearnings and questions.