Well, as one who homechurches (and believes it to be the best model), I would say that homechurches really don't have the same problems that regular churches have with their youth groups, since, by nature, everyone is together in a homechurch (at least in most of them). "Those who walk with wise men will grow wise..." I have immensely enjoyed fellowshipping with my 'elders' as well as with my fellow youth; I would not trade that for a youth-only environment. :)

So....that's my thought on this issue. :)
SecDef | Homepage | 09.10.05 - 12:37 pm | #

I wholeheartedly agree... My family started a church in our home back in 1998, and I cannot overstate the benefits it has had on my life. The problem, however, is if we allow ourselves to be isolated in our little home churches, and fail to reproduce and reform the Church as a whole. I know there are several others who read this blog who attend similar churches... Your thoughts?
Alex Jordan Harris | Homepage | 09.10.05 - 12:50 pm | #

Let me clarify...I am not talking about "family worship," but a group of believers who meet in a house. Hebrews tells us to not give up meeting with other believers. I just think that the house model is best. :) It is also better for evangelism, as most people would feel more comfortable coming over for a meal than 'going to church.'
SecDef | Homepage | 09.10.05 - 1:48 pm | #

I am member of a home fellowship as well. We've been growing at an incredible rate lately, and it's forcing us to define our vision and goals more clearly than ever. For years, God brought other homeschooling families to our church, and all the members were incredibly like-minded. Now, however, many of the people interested in our fellowship are believers who do not homeschool or who do not have school-aged children. This growth is exciting, but it raises new questions about unity and diversity. We definitely don't have it figured out yet.

It's fascinating that the discussion about what it means to be a rebelutionary is beginning to focus on the philosophical issue of the one and the many. I didn't realize how far-reaching that philosophical dilemma was. I recently read the following quote in Fit Bodies, Fat Minds , by Os Guiness. It fits well with this discussion.

"The loneliness of the solitary genius was one of the false fruits of nineteenth century romanticism...Thinking Christianly, however, is different. It is inescapably individual, as all discipleship is. But it is also inescapably collective. For all discipleship is communal because every disciple is part of the body of Christ."
Karen K | 09.10.05 - 3:31 pm | #

Addendum - that was a beautiful post, and so very relevant. I'm really thinking about what the youth in my church could do as a group to participate in the rebelution.

An idea other readers could consider - my cottage school (one day/week tutorial school cornerstone-cottage-school.com) started a student service club for its teens this year. We are meeting once a month, going through a leadership course by Jeff Myers, and participating in various service projects. The club is run entirely by teens and the goal is to combat apathy by inspiring servant-leadership.
Karen K | 09.10.05 - 3:46 pm | #

1.) What is the current state of the youth culture in your church? Does it embrace or resist our society’s expectations?

First of all, I've been very lucky in this regard. There was wordliness in "The House" (my youth group) but it was not NEARLY as bad as it is in others. In general, youth (and their leadership) embrace the culture, are in fellowship with it, and encourage it.

2.) Who do you need collaborate with within your church in order to bring about change?

Well, at the moment, we are looking for a new church (odd, the youth pastor - the reason for the near-lack of "culture" in our group - was moving out as well), so I can't speak for myself. However, if it's a standard church model, I would say try to start with the youth themselves. It's a radical idea, I know, but perhaps it will work. If not, go to the youth leadership and other adults in the congregation. If all else fails, go to the elders/pastors and give it into their hands. All the while, never stop working for it among the youth. Persistence is the key.
David Ketter | Homepage | 09.10.05 - 5:39 pm | #

1.) What is the current state of the youth culture in your church? Does it embrace or resist our society’s expectations?

Well...my church doesn't do the youth group thing. I go to Heritage Family Church. They believe that it's not the pastor's job to teach the children about Jesus. That's the parent's job. The pastor is to reinforce that. So thankfully I can answer it resists society's expectations. However, I have been in churches that have youth groups, and that get pretty worldly. Yes, they have a dress code, yes they have rules...but you have to be careful. In your "Why Women Are Exposing Themselves" series, the statement was made, "What you attract them with, you attract them to." I believe that not only applies to that, but to this issue as well. If we are attracting the youth of the city, or country with the type of music they listen to, with pool tables, and video games, then that's what they'll come for. Now, I'm not saying that it's wrong to have a youth group, (although I don't believe in them) I don't see anything in the Bible against it. And I'm not saying it's wrong to have a pool table in your youth group...but you have to be so careful, and it's a really thin line...

Marshall
Marshall | Homepage | 09.10.05 - 6:35 pm | #

Excellent point, Marshall. I like the way you applied the "what you draw them with you draw them to" statement to youth groups. I think it was an accurate cross-application.

As a clarification, if we haven't mentioned this already, our doesn't have a youth group either.
Brett Harris | Homepage | 09.10.05 - 9:29 pm | #

Wow. That post was awesome. The concept of focusing on collective excellence as opposed to individual "statistical anomalies" was something I had totally missed. I think I've had way too much of a separatist and elitist attitude, and your comments were a bucket of cold water in my face. (I mean that positively, of course!)

My church is very similar to a home church, except that we meet in a hospital cafeteria, not a house. We don't have a typical youth group, but we do have a separate study group for kids 6-12. We felt this was the best temporary solution in light of the fact that the families in our church are woefully unprepared right now to implement a completely integrated model.

Among the problems we face is that there is only a single whole family unit in the whole church (my family). The rest of the members are either single or have extremely splintered families. Fathers are in short supply. Additionally, there are significant discipline problems, and a problem with lack of education. All this makes it very hard to try to keep everyone together in a family-centered model.

However, like I said, our youth group is treated as a temporary solution, and the idea is to get kids out of the group as soon as possible (some have already "graduated").

Also, we look for ways to bring the kids and the adults together. For example, everyone stays together during lunch, and during praise and testimony time, and we only split up for the Bible study segment. Also, we try to encourage the kids to help with preparation and cleanup, etc. So far, I think this approach has helped solve some immediate problems, but without creating any real sense of an isolated "youth culture."
J | Homepage | 09.11.05 - 7:35 am | #

1.) What is the current state of the youth culture in your church? Does it embrace or resist our society’s expectations?

I think if they are not in love with Christ then they slip into the snare of society's expectations. After all, it is the love of Christ that constrains and prompts us to obey His commands. Honestly, I think the root problem in our generation is we simply don't know the Lord or His Word.

Consequently, I've been talking to my friends at church and school about the Lord, and it's amazed me how they've responded! I initially thought they wouldn't be interested in talking about Him, but they are! Lives are actually being changed and people are growing in their Christian walks. Can you tell I'm excited? =)
Elizabeth | 09.13.05 - 6:14 pm | #

We must not be satisfied with simply being better than the average teenager. Such a classification reinforces, rather than combats, the myth of adolescence. As the old saying goes, "The exception only proves the rule."

Jordan, you have really hit the nail on the head. When I was a youth a great deal was often made about how well behaved I was, and how I never rebelled against my parents. It always disturbed me. One of the reasons for this is just what you've pointed out: by lifting me up as exceptional, the grown-ups were giving implicit acknowledgement of the "rule" my exception supposedly proved. The truth is that the question "will you or will you not rebel against your parents" is a remedial question to begin with. If you decide "I won't get my eyebrows pierced and sell crack," you're then left with a bigger and better question: "what will you do then?"

The real danger for youths intent on rebelution™ is that these smarter-than-the-average-bear kudos can become the new (and easy) standard. Unfortunately we often get praise for things which weren't particularly difficult to achieve. If we focus on the props and encouragement of those who have low expectations for us, we become mediocre.

It can be challenging to set our sights on excellence, particularly when we're hearing that we're already there. One of life's greatest lessons, which we all must learn could be expressed in the phrase, "That was nothing. Watch this."

Now on to the application: I think it is appropriate for excellence-focused rebelutionists™ to call their youth leaders, pastors, teachers and parents on their faint praise for standing out. Challenge yourselves and others to call the normal things "normal", and save that word "excellence" for things which really are.
Joel | Homepage | 09.14.05 - 10:53 am | #

As I follow this discussion, I thought I might jump in and comment on the issue of how an individual can rebelutionize his or her youth group, church or any other social context. This question goes to the heart of why the Apostles went about preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and not merely the Gospel of individual salvation. The Gospel of God's grace purchased for us by Christ on the cross brings regeneration or new birth to each individual who believes in his or her heart that Jesus is Lord (i.e. Sovereign over all that is) and that God the Father raised this Jesus from the dead. This believing sets off a chain reaction in one's soul that literally recreates and reorganizes all of reality. It is more than a paradigm shift, but it does include a new way of looking at everything. If Jesus is Lord then nobody else is Lord. Not your self, not your parents, not your spouse, not your boss, not your pastor, not the government, not money, not sex, nothing. Jesus is Lord. His will is now more than your law, it is your delight. Doing His will is the only sane thing to do in light of who He is and what He has accomplished. Anything else would be crazy.
Now just because Jesus is Lord, and all of these other people and things are no longer Lord, does not mean that they have no more place in your life. They are all very important in their proper places because they comprise the context in which you are to walk in the obedience of your faith in Christ. This is where the Gospel of the Kingdom comes into play. God's kingdom comes where God's will is done on earth. That is what we pray in the Lord's prayer and it is happening now as born again people trust Jesus enough to actually obey Him in a situation. As Paul wrote in Ephesians, having been saved by faith alone without works, "You are now Christ's workmanship, prepared for good works that you should walk in them." God has prepared you for the good works and He has prepared the good works for you.

(cont'd next comment)
Gregg Harris (AKA Dad) | Homepage | 09.15.05 - 10:23 am | #

The good works God has prepared for you to do are all in the contexts of relationships you have with others in your family, your church and your community. You are a rebelutionary. You have been transferred out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of God's dear Son. Now, Jesus commands you, through Paul, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right." So, as a Christian young adult, you are to honor and obey your parents for the Lord. Even if they are not Christians, or if they are not yet mature Christians, God wants you to "obey" them in ways they may not even have thought of yet. Be an example of a believer. A believer in what? A believer in the person, Jesus Christ, who is Lord. and a believer in the objective historical fact that God raised Jesus from the dead and so will raise you from the dead too. As one free from the fear of death and the fear of lack, go love others from a pure heart, fervently. In the Old Testament circumcision was the sign of the covenant, but in the New Testament "neither circumcision nor uncircumcision are anything, but faith working though love" is now everything! By this love all will know that you are Christ's students, because you love one another. By this you yourself can know that you have passed out of death and into life, because you love your brothers and sisters in Christ. Love is now the sign of the covenant. Love is the keeping of the entire law of God. We are to build one another up in love. We are to spur one another on to love and good deeds. God's kingdom on earth comes in power whenever and wherever redeemed human beings trust God enough to actually obey Him by loving one another in practical ways. In fact, God asks us to show our love for Him by the way we love one another.

So how do you "rebel against the darkness and the lies of this world." Seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness in relation to that kingdom. Get into relationships of love and respect and watch what your King can do with a little leaven hidden in three measures of flour. It will ultimately permeate all things as God reconciles all things in heaven and on earth to Himself through His Son, Jesus Christ. That, my young friends is "rebelutionary."
Gregg Harris (AKA Dad) | Homepage | 09.15.05 - 10:25 am | #

My youth group is going through serious changes right now. My church flooded from Katrina so our church has been meeting somewhere else. Alot of people are in different states still, but the great thing about it all is that God is doing so much.
Susanna | 10.20.05 - 7:53 am | #

What is the current state of the youth culture in my church?
Anonymous | 10.29.05 - 10:04 am | #

Woops, I posted that one before I finished. My church is very conservative, and we do not have a youth group. We do, however have an option of family sunday school or graded sunday schools. Are you saying that this is evil?
Anonymous | 10.29.05 - 10:06 am | #

Anonymous: Of course not! Not at all. Our church doesn't have those things, and we think it bears better fruit, but it isn't a matter of good and evil practice. If your approach is bearing good fruit for the Kingdom of God, then keep going!
Brett Harris | Homepage | 10.29.05 - 11:26 am | #

Wow. I just read this whole series for the first time, and it was very good, and got me thinking, a lot.

The biggest thing I have a hard time with is that adults, knowingly or not, have an extremely hard time thinking of the teenagers that culture has created as anything more than mere annoyances that they have to wait for them to grow up.


1.) What is the current state of the youth culture in your church? Does it embrace or resist our society’s expectations? It is not as bad as some places where friends have gone, but the majority of the youth in our church certainly embrace culture,

And that really spurns a question, and that is, what is a way to gain support from adults in the process of becoming more than just a teenager?

2.) Who do you need collaborate with within your church in order to bring about change? The biggest difficulty, is that the majority of the youth in our church, are average teenagers, who don't want to work for anything more. And so I believe it might be very hard to get people willing to collaborate. Although, I think that the biggest help would be the parents of the youth. Because if they can't get encouragement from their own parents, then who else are they going to feel that they can turn to?
Elijah | Homepage | 01.09.06 - 12:49 am | #

I agree that many adults have a difficult time seeing that teens can be "more than mere annoyances." I see the battle on two fronts: teens need to be challenged and adults need to have their minds changed.
My husband and I are doing all we can to cast a different vision to parents of what their children can be with their help and the help of the church. I just stumbled onto your blog from your brother's blog and immediately sent the link to our youth pastor.
Vivian Padilla-Chapman | Homepage | 02.07.06 - 7:56 am | #

What advice would you have for college students? How can someone who now looks back on High School affect that group?
anonymous | 03.07.06 - 12:05 pm | #

Thanks guys, after reading your posts I always leave feeling inspired to go out into the world and be a true Rebelutionary to the Glory of God. I realised after reading this post that we are to be like a city on a hill so that people see the difference in us, only to discover that it is not we ourselves who have produce this difference but that we are mere reflections of the perfect man -namely Jesus, thereby bringing more glory to the name of God!
Anton | 04.26.06 - 2:26 am | #

Hey guys,

I have enjoyed reading your blog. I think you are on the right track. I have some advice for you and your zeal. Go to WWW.livingwaters.com and listen the the Hells best kept secret audio. I think it may give you guys some direction that you may need.

Your Brother in Christ,

James S.
James S. | 05.26.06 - 1:30 pm | #