Soul Searching by Christian Smith

I cannot speak more highly of Christian Smith's work within youth culture.  His book, Soul Searching, is a must read for anyone who is currently doing youth work if for no other reason that it helps identify that "spirituality" is not a notion naturally identified within Millennial culture and Moral Therapeutic Deism replaces religious expression when theology is not taken seriously by those raising the next generation of Christians.

But there is an added bonus.  There is a Soul Searching film that highlights some of the stories that are shared by this project and the movie is a great resource for youth workers to help describe the current challenges they are facing.  If you haven't already, you need to check it out.

Poem by Anonymous High School Student

I wish I could tell secrets

To someone who would listen,

To someone who wouldn’t tell.

I wish I could meet that special someone,

Someone who loves me, 

Someone who cares for me.

I wish I could talk to someone,

Someone who would understand,

Someone who wouldn’t laugh.

I wish I has a best friend,

Someone I can trust, 

Some I can tell secrets to.

Someone who understands me,

Someone who will grow with me,

Some I can talk to.

Adolescence: Stuck in the Middle

In the early 1920’s, an individuals life expectancy averaged at 42 years.  Since then, life expectancy has doubled and life has changed because of it.  Without a doubt, the causes for these increases have significant connections to the scientific advancements, however, not enough research has been done to chronicle the effect of prolonging life. 

That being said, the most resent research points to a significant shift in the transition from childhood to adulthood, a period referred to as adolescence.  Typically, an individuals transition through adolescence occurs in two stages: early and late.  

During early adolescence, an individual asks questions like who am I or why I am I growing hair in places I’m not comfortable talking about.  And often, but not necessarily, the psychological development of an individual mirrors the physical changes that occur during puberty.  

Late adolescence is indicated by the final stages of being recognized socially within a community.  At various points, you would be considered an adult when you married, had children, solidified proper employment, and so on and so forth.  These events marked your status within a community and validated your adulthood.

Yet, with the emergence of the Millennial Generation, another stage has been added to properly describe a new phenomena taking place: mid-adolescence.  

Mid-adolescence refers to the period after an individual begins to ask the question who am i and before they are recognized by their larger society as contributing members of it.  Chronologically, this period is often the time an individual would be in High School or College, but can extend well into a persons late 30s.  

Chap Clark, a leading scholar in identifying the concerns and problems of adolescents, describes this period as a world beneath the surface of the main stream.  In his book, Disconnected, he describes it as the following:

“The world beneath refers to the lone safe relational place mid-adolescents believe they have left – other kids. It is in this world where loyalty to each other is (usually) the greatest value they have.  It is their own world where they do not feel they will be hassled or judged.  It is the world where they have their own language, style, music, and for most kids at least during the mid-adolescent years, worldview.  No matter how ‘cool’ they are, adults are not welcome, because the reason the world beneath exists is for protection from the multiple agendas that control and manipulate mid-adolescents” (Disconnected, 69).

Recently, his claims have been strengthened by an increased awareness and research surrounding the effect of parents lying to their children.  This lying, regardless of how innocent the intensions can be, has created a divide between these two groups (parents and their children) and, as a result, a great deal of suspicion continues to effect the millennial worldview.   

Other trends that has formed the Millennial generation in terms of adolescent psychology are increases in divorce rates and the changes in defining family.  I suspect this too has something to do with honesty, or at least sentimentalism, but the basic premise cannot be denied - the increase in life expectancy has brought about a prolonged adolescence where the challenges of reaching adulthood have been made more difficult do to cultural shifts.  These shifts are not hard to identify.  But the Church needs to be more aware of the changes that are taking place and begin to address these challenges in more thoughtful and engaging ways, rather than abandoning them because the conversations that might take place might be uncomfortable.  

From One Generation to Another

Last spring, I was fortunate enough to teach a lecture series on the Millennial generation which highlighted current research on early, middle and late adolescents, technology, the effects of globalization, education, and religion in North America.

Over the next couple of weeks, I will be posting short abstracts that distill those lectures here at Youthful Praxis.  As for taste of what is to come, here is an abridged list of resources I sited in preparation for the lectures:

• Chap Clark and Dee Clark, Disconnected: Parenting Teens in a MySpace World (Grand Rapids: BakerBooks, 2007).
• David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, UnChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity… and Why it Matters (Grand Rapids: BakerBooks, 2007).
• Robert Wuthnow, After the Baby Boomers: How Twenty- and Thirty-Somethings Are Shaping the Future of American Religion (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007).
• Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).
• Thomas Friedman, The World Is Flat (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2005).
• Mark Noll and James Turner, The Future of Christian Learning: An Evangelical and Catholic  Dialogue (Grand Rapids: BrazosPress, 2008).
• George Barna, Revolution (Carol Stream: Tyndale House, 2005).