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 | Jonathan’s Resource Ezine |
Weekly Resources, Ideas and Articles from The Source for Youth Ministry
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
| In This Issue |
- Youth Culture Window: Our Response to the MTV Movie Awards and Three Essential Practices for Your Youth Ministry
- Outreach Magazine’s Tamara Rice on Jonathan’s New Book: Pre-order Jonathan’s New Book “Getting Students to Show Up” from us Right Now and Receive the FINAL COUNTDOWN Event Resource DVD FREE!
- Podcast Update: The Source for Youth Ministry FREE PodCast is Live and Pumping! Episode #2 is Coming Soon, Get Episode #1 Right Now
| If you aren’t a subscriber of this EZINE and would like to subscribe – it’s free – just pop on www.TheSource4YM.com and sign up in the upper right hand corner. |
| Youth Culture Window: Our Response to the MTV Movie Awards and Three Essential Practices for Your Youth Ministry |
MTV is a window into our youth culture.
That’s what I always tell you. But lately it’s getting harder and harder for me to even peek in that window. Every glance is like a flashback to the pubescent conversation that surrounded me in the jr. high boys locker room during second period P.E. so many years ago.
If you’ve been an EZINE subscriber for even six months, you’ve probably heard me refer to the twice a year that I watch MTV. I never gain popularity points in Christian circles by verbalizing that. Some from the church think I shouldn’t be paying any attention to filthy influences like MTV. At the other end of the spectrum are those in the church who think the polar opposite, “Oh, MTV isn’t that bad.”
Regardless, twice a year is enough for me. I get a sufficient taste of MTV each year by simply watching their Movie Awards (late Spring) and then their Video Music Awards (in the Fall).
I’ll be honest. I’m a big advocate of keeping aware of our youth culture and even using it to provoke discussions with kids. (We’re even devoting time in each of our free podcasts to a section we call youth culture window.) But I can only stomach so much of MTV. I’m not a big fan of adults in the corporate world pimping smut to our children. And that, in a nutshell, is MTV.
But please, don’t take my word for it. Decide for yourselves. MTV.com has a link on their front page to see the highlights of Sunday night’s movie awards on demand. You can watch every minute of Sarah Silverman’s raunchy opening monologue as well as some of the other online highlights you don’t want your students seeing (Oops, I guess it’s too bad that 74% of 8-18 year olds have ready access to a home internet connection1 and 59% are MTV viewers, watching MTV at least once a week).
Or -most of you are reading this article on Wednesday-check your TV schedule; a repeat of this year’s 2007 MTV Movie Awards is being shown again on MTV tonight. I encourage you to watch just the first 10 minutes of the show.
If they decide to actually air the first 10 minutes again, then this is what you’ll hear:
- Jackass’ own Johnny Knoxville riding a cartoon purple horse and joking to Sarah Silverman that she can ride his “purple pony.”
- The host Sarah Silverman commenting about how many celebrity vaginas she sees in the room that night.
- A joke about Paris Hilton being comforted by the bars in her jail cell because they have been painted like penises.
- A commercial for “the dirtiest mouth moment,” awarding the movie with the worst language this year.
- Sarah singing a song filled with words that the sensors have to beep…and a few that you wish they would have.
- Jack Nicholson following suit with his language, and stumbling through a speech that will leave you wondering what was in that bottle he was chugging during the show.
- Dane Cook talking about “nipple slips,” punching himself in the balls, and being “hard” watching Rihanna perform.
- A clip from the movie Borat showing two naked men rolling around a bed fighting.
- Will Farrell and Sasha Baron Cohen (Borat) winning best kiss and kissing each other on stage-not just any kiss-but passionately for almost 30 seconds while rolling on the floor.
- Robin Williams, Mandy Moore, and John Krasinski joking about “balls” in the face.
- Seth Rogen telling Eva Mendez that he likes to impregnate women with his “Jew sperm.” Eva Mendez replies, “I love Jew sperm!”
- The worse lapse of judgment of the evening, awarding last year’s Pirates II the award for Best Movie.
Our kids are watching this.
The people on this show are their role models; either Amy Winehouse singing about rehab, or Lindsey Lohan missing the awards because of it.
And you wonder why so many books are being written about hurting kids.
SO WHAT!
So how do we respond? How do we not respond? Why even pay attention to the MTV Movie Awards?
Good questions. Allow me to address them while at the same time imploring you to carry out these three essential practices in your youth ministry.
1. UNDERSTAND OUR GENERATION:
I watch MTV twice a year for better understanding of who our kids are and what they are becoming. Staying current helps me know what messages kids are hearing and even opens doors to discussions about these messages.
When I hear kids talking about Rihanna, I know who they’re talking about. When they’re joking about the movie Borat, I have an understanding of what they saw.
2. CONSIDER OUR AUDIENCE:
If we start ranting to our kids about the “smut on MTV” they’ll dismiss us in a second. I’m quick to tell youth workers and parents about what we’ve discussed above, but with kids I try to be a little shrewder. I try to do a lot more listening than talking. If they mention Kelly Clarkson’s music video for her song Never Again, or Fergie’s video for Glamorous, I have thought through questions that I can ask them about the videos.
The questions I ask church kids are different than the ones I ask unchurched kids. With unchurched kids I might use discussions like the Linkin Park discussion guide we recently put on our site that inquires about forgiveness and opens the door to talk about the “new start” that Jesus offers us. With church kids I might be a little more assertive and ask them how they decide what to allow in their iPods or on their TV screen. Even then I don’t close doors by barking out condemnation. I listen, taking careful note of their opinions. This understanding will help me as I choose my curriculum, small group material and discipleship material that I use with these students.
3. PRAY FOR OUR STUDENTS:
After watching the MTV Movie Awards this week, my first reaction was despair. I’m far from a spiritual giant, but the dark cloud that hung in the room after the show Sunday night forced me to my knees. I needed God so I turned to Him.
We need to remember to turn this over to Him. Sometimes I’m too quick to click on the Billboard charts or the youth culture website… but slow to talk to the creator of the universe.
Carve out a time. Set your alarm 10 minutes early, go into your closet and pray.
Jesus was one of the best living examples of one who mingled with sinners. And Jesus was also a incredible example of someone who constantly sought out time alone to just pray and refuel. If he needed it, I’m sure we do too.
Pray for our students. Pray for wisdom as we help kids see the truth in a sea of lies.
These three practices won’t solve all your problems or turn you into the next Walt Mueller, but they may just provide you with a little help and encouragement as you strive to reach out to kids in a relevant way with the God’s truth.
So I guess this Fall it’s back to the proverbial jr. high locker room one final time in 2007 as I peek through MTV’s window once again for their VMA’s.
Jonathan McKee is president of The Source for Youth Ministry and author of numerous youth ministry books like “Do They Run When They See You Coming?” and the forthcoming “Getting Students to Show Up.” Jonathan studies youth culture and trends, speaking and training across the country and providing free online resources, training, & ideas for youth workers at www.TheSource4YM.com1. http://www.kff.org/entmedia/upload/Executive-Summary-Generation-M-Media-in-the-Lives-of-8-18-Year-olds.pdf
| Outreach Magazine’s Tamara Rice on Jonathan’s New Book: Pre-order Jonathan’s New Book “Getting Students to Show Up” from us Right Now and Receive the FINAL COUNTDOWN Event Resource DVD FREE! |
Jonathan’s brand new book “Getting Students to Show Up” hits the shelves in July. This fantastic resource is recommended by Kurt Johnston, Dan Kimball, Wayne Rice, Jim Burns, Scott Rubin, Les Christie and more.
Outreach Magazine’s Tamara Rice says it well:
- There’s no fluff here and no philosophical rambling, just focused and specific advice every youth worker needs. From bands who don’t know when to stop singing to speakers who ruin the night-McKee has experienced it all, and doesn’t shy away from the hard truths of youth outreach event planning. In his own words, just because you built it, doesn’t mean they’ll come-and as any seasoned youth worker knows, just because they came, doesn’t mean they’ll stay.
McKee shows readers how to program their outreach events, whether large scale or small, from the time the idea is first sparked at a leadership meeting until the lights go out and the last kid leaves the building–on time! Working within the demographics of their own communities, their individual budgets and resources, any youth pastor can use this guide to program an event that works-effective youth outreach events are programmed one tiny detail at a time. Getting Students to Show Up is just what today’s youth workers need. No gimmicks and gags, just practical how-tos that have already been tried and found to be true.
Tamara Rice, Media Editor
OUTREACH Magazine
PRE-ORDER THIS BOOK FROM US NOW AND GET THE
Event Resource DVD
FREE!
(shipping with the book in July)
You know how we at THE SOURCE like to give you free stuff! So we put together a spectacular DVD for you with three different countdown videos and a few other extras you’ll enjoy!
CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS &
TO PRE-ORDER THIS BOOK
| Podcast Update: The Source for Youth Ministry FREE PodCast is Live and Pumping! Episode #2 is Coming Soon, Get Episode #1 Right Now |
If you missed it, we just launched our free The Source for Youth Ministry Podcast, providing help, encouragement and entertainment to youth workers around the world. This show is fun and applicable with ideas you can use that day! And like our web site, it’s always free!
Episode #1 is up on iTunes already. Subscribe, take a listen and write a review! Episode #2 is just around the corner with information about our SUMMER PODCAST GIVEAWAY- some great prizes you don’t want to miss. So if you haven’t downloaded this free resource for youth workers, do it now!
Each show The Source for Youth Ministry Podcast will feature:
- PRIZES: We are giving away some fantastic prizes this summer exclusively to podcast listeners… like a new video iPod!
- SPECIAL GUESTS: The Source is bringing in guests each week to join Jonathan in the show. Some will be youth workers from the front lines, others will be authors, speakers and bands that you know and love (Upcoming guests: Chap Clark, Kurt Johnston, Les Christie, Greg Stier, Scott Rubin… and more!)
- YOUTH CULTURE WINDOW: In this section we will address popular videos, songs, quotes, statistics or youth culture phenomenon.
- THE SEVEN SINS: This is the part of the show where we look at how NOT to do something.
- RESOURCE HIGHLIGHT: Here we take a peek at just one of the thousands of free resources on S4YM.com that helps youth workers reach kids.
- HELP ME! This is the part of the Podcast where we address some of the questions that people send to us at ASK THE SOURCE on S4YM.com
Or, if you don’t have iTunes already… jump on Apple’s web page and download it now, then click on our podcast page.
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Jonathan McKee
Jonathan McKee is the author of over twenty books including the brand new The Guy's Guide to FOUR BATTLES Every Young Man Must Face; The Teen’s Guide to Social Media & Mobile Devices; If I Had a Parenting Do Over; and the Amazon Best Seller - The Guy's Guide to God, Girls and the Phone in Your Pocket. He speaks to parents and leaders worldwide, all while providing free resources for youth workers on TheSource4YM.com. Jonathan, his wife Lori, and their three kids live in California.