If you watched last fall’s “Video Music Awards” broadcast, you may have caught more than the fact that Britney’s a mess, that Justin’s doing all he can to “bring sexy (and sex) back” (I didn’t know it was gone), or that 50 Cent and Kanye (excuse me, now it’s “Mr. West”) are both materialistic egomaniacs.

No, you should have looked beyond the obvious to ponder why the show was as carefully constructed as it was. What did its structure and content tell us about youth culture?

MTV, the Awards’ cable channel, gave the show an extreme makeover in an attempt to connect with a teen population that no longer embraces the network. At more than a quarter of a century old, MTV—which in its first decade provided teenagers a life-shaping label (“The MTV Generation”)—isn’t dead; but it is gasping for air.

To survive, MTV has had to spend time working to understand kids, to reach them and herd them into their viewing audience. In the world of media, that’s called market research.

In youth ministry, we call that knowing our mission field. It is helpful for us to get to know our mission field by tapping into what media’s market researchers are learning about kids.

TWEENS LEAD THE WAY
I found some clues in a marketing book called The Great Tween Buying Machine: Capturing Your Share of the Multibillion Dollar Tween Market by David Siegel, Timothy Coffey, and Gregory Livingston.

Kids 8 to 12 years old aspire to be perceived and treated as teenagers. And don’t forget, this year’s tweens will be in your youth group next year.

The book’s authors and the folks at MTV highlight the “motivational platform drivers” that lie beneath the choices today’s kids are making. According to The Great Tween Buying Machine, there are four primary drivers that marketers must recognize and tap into to influence teens and sell product. The VMAs addressed them all. We have to, as well.

THE DRIVE FOR POWER
First, there’s power. Today’s tweens and teens want to be able to make decisions for themselves while controlling situations, people, and things. The driver of power evidences itself in things like superiority, mastery, rebellion and control.

Last fall, the MTV Video Music Awards ceremony was largely void of older adults. The young performers controlled the show by throwing the parties and setting the agenda, thereby giving young viewers a sense that they were fellow participants in a gathering of their peers.

The adolescent drive to power should remind us that our ministries shouldn’t be about thinking for teens or forcing outward conformity to a set of “Christian” behavioral standards. Instead, we should walk alongside kids, giving them the freedom to think through their choices as we think with them, offering the gift of processing those choices under the light of God’s Word.

THE DRIVE FOR FREEDOM
Second, there’s the driver of freedom. Marketers know that kids are spreading their wings in preparation to fly away from the nest of family. This involves individuality, uniqueness, independence, and exploration. Products such as cell phones, scooters, and the Internet are marketed as pathways to freedom.

The VMAs oozed a climate of unbridled freedom, as the show flowed randomly between the actual awards venue and a series of simultaneous theme parties being held throughout the hotel. The visual and lyrical performances promoted a “no rules but your rules” ethic, especially in relation to materialism, sexuality, and the view of women.

In our ministries, we must recognize that each kid to whom we minister is a unique individual, on a journey from the dependence of childhood to the independence of adulthood. Rather than restricting them from exploring life, we must encourage them to discover God’s world and their places in it.

But freedom isn’t unbridled license to do whatever. Our dialogue must take into account their desire for freedom. As a result, it must not be marked by dictation, but by discussion. As we walk beside them, we must assume the corrective and prophetic posture of Jesus, offering the contrast between what the world says about freedom and all its expressions (“You have heard it said that … ”) and where those lies and deceptions contrast with God’s Kingdom (“But I tell you … ” and “I tell you the truth … ”).

THE DRIVE FOR FUN
Third, there’s the driver of fun. Marketers know that for kids, fun evidences itself in sensation, simplicity, amusement, pleasure and creativity. 

MTV attempted to connect with adolescents by moving out of the typical and familiar awards-show format, to a more free-flowing style that frequently moved viewers in a seemingly random manner from party to party. There was no precise start or finish to anything but the show’s beginning and end. Sadly, teen-targeted marketing and programming in today’s postmodern landscape often equates “fun” with the unbridled pursuit of hedonistic pleasure.

Youth ministry has always included indulging the adolescent desire for fun, perhaps to an extreme. We must never forget that adolescents are still kids, and one of the greatest gifts we can give them is the ability to play, laugh and enjoy God’s world together. But there are dangers— when the fun is at the expense of others, when the boundaries of fun are stretched to include sinful behavior, or when our provision of fun leaves kids thinking that work is drudgery or that suffering is to be avoided at all costs. Kids must learn that our primary goal as Christ-followers is to glorify God in times of fun and in times of suffering.

THE DRIVE FOR BELONGING
Finally, there’s the driver of belonging. Marketers know that one of the worst situations a teen can experience is being rejected, left out and alone. Kids will not only compromise morally to belong, they will purchase product after product that promises the “cool” that leads to acceptance.

The VMAs worked to give kids an experience of belonging by removing the sense that every viewer was a viewer, replacing that with a sense of the viewer as participant.

Our ultimate youth ministry goal is to point kids to that life-changing relationship with their Creator that came undone at the Fall. In addition, we want them to experience the supportive community of others who have been reunited with God.

Youth ministry is all about giving kids a place to belong. But the reality of more and more broken families has coupled with our youth ministry tendency to segregate adolescents from non-teen believers. This has led to a situation where the church and home really aren’t places marked by belonging anymore. When that happens, kids are more prone and vulnerable to seek belonging in those unhealthy places where they were never meant to belong.

A MINISTRY MAKEOVER
If there’s one thing we can learn from MTV about ministering to kids, it’s that we need to think before we act. Maybe the cable network that knows and influences kids can teach us a few things.

They want power, freedom, to have fun, and to belong. If we take the time to think about the implications for our ministries, maybe we’ll rethink some things in ways that just might lead to a long-overdue ministry makeover.