The Importance of Media Julianna Shults

Maybe you noticed, and maybe you didn't, that I took a small hiatus from blogging the last few months. Last fall I went back to school to work on a Master's degree, and combined with my already busy schedule at church, the intense workload became too overwhelming for me. I stopped reading the blogs, websites, magazines and news articles that keep me up to date on popular culture. Before I knew it, I felt completely out of touch. My youth were mentioning songs, events and stories I didn't know, to both their surprise and mine. As passionate as I am about the intersection of youth ministry, pop culture and media, there just did not seem to be the time in the day to proactively find the open doors for faith conversations or to consider in advance the best way to articulate godly perspectives of the world around them. I was responding to their prompting, but it felt delayed and incomplete. I considered that maybe it was time to take a more permanent break from writing about pop culture and youth ministry. Then in one of my last weeks of teaching contemporary issues in eighth grade Religion class, we were discussing the impact of music and media on our thoughts, hearts and values. I asked the class, "What is the purpose of movies, YouTube and TV?" One student quickly responded, "Mindless entertainment." The rest of the class nodded in approval. Internally, I did a facepalm. Had I taught them nothing? "So, music and media are just things to be used for fun? You don't think they have any messages or something they are trying to sell you?" I responded in the kind of tone that tells them they might need to rethink the answer. Their responses were quick in coming and they didn't change their minds. No, they were convinced that media and music was simple fun, mind-numbing amusement, something for their enjoyment and nothing more. No message, no value and nothing that could influence them. I took a different approach. "So what's your favorite band?" I asked. Silence. No one was willing to admit they listened to the likes of Nicki Minaj or Drake. One student offered up what seemed like a safe answer, Johnny Cash, with Michael Buble and Journey coming in shortly after. I waited a beat more and heard, "Smashing Pumpkins". "And you want me to believe that Smashing Pumpkins doesn't have a message in their music? You think their music is mindless, thoughtless entertainment? Because I think they would fervently disagree." Suddenly, they were singing a different tune. We spent time looking over lyrics from recent Top 40 hits and watched clips from YouTube and TV. For each piece we worked together to compare their messages to God's Word. What was true, noble, right, pure, lovely and admirable for us to think about as God commands in Philippians 4? Did the words we listened to over and over encourage us to follow God's law or did it belittle what God wants for us to strive for with the help of the Spirit? Did it encourage us to give and receive grace and forgiveness so freely given to us through Jesus' death on the cross? Slowly, they began to see the messages where once their minds had been numb, and to perceive the words of our culture that had slowly crowded out the Word, the cross and the Gospel. As I left the classroom, I was filled with a new enthusiasm for helping my teens navigate the complicated world around them in a God-pleasing way. In a world where everything is commercialized, designed for entertainment and split into 30-second sound bites, there can be no escaping the messages or the sly sales pitches of media. I may lose touch with what's new in our culture, but I can cling to the fact that God does not lose touch with me. God does not change and He does not go silent. He does not leave us on our own to navigate the complicated world with its competing messages, but rather He gives us Himself and His Word to help us navigate. Popular culture is something to be ignored only at our own peril, and we can only be grateful God continues to send His message of forgiveness and hope through Jesus. After a couple of months away from this blog, I am reminded anew of just how important it is to help our teens see the media-driven culture around them through the lenses of faith and the cross. If we don't, the messages and the values they pick up through exposure will take root and leave us with a much more difficult battle to fight. I hope that you, too, are encouraged as Christ works through us, strengthening and encouraging us, to help teens live and grow in faith fed by Scripture and not by Top 40 hits or reality TV. I hope that we can work together to be prepared, not waiting for them to come to us with questions, but with all the tools we need to walk alongside them with the Gospel through our world today.

Julianna Shults is a DCE currently serving in children and youth ministry at St. Paul Lutheran in Chicago. She has been a speaker at the 2007 National LCMS Youth Gathering, 2007 and 2011 National LEA Convocation as well as district Jr. and Sr. High gatherings. She drinks entirely too much coffee, only does her dishes when absolutelynecessary, knits, writes, and is unapologetically nerdy. You can find her on Facebook or Twitter @dutchnotgerman.

Youth poll results surface bright spots, concerns | LCMS News & Articles

Youth poll results surface bright spots, concerns | LCMS News & Articles

http://jwinters.com/post/59395539726/miley-cyrus-freshmen-and-the-college-experience

Miley Cyrus, Freshmen, and the “College Experience”

Anyone who was surprised watching Hannah Montana metamorphosize into a meth-addled low-rent strip club hoodrat at the MTV awards has forgotten the vicarious shame that people on every college campus on the planet experience when they see freshman act like they know what college is all about.  This year I joined the “2017 FSU Freshman” group on Facebook (because yes, I am just THAT sketchy and curious about what people think and do) and saw plenty of naive freshman put on their best faces.  

Just like Miley, girls and boys who had barely stepped out of prom couture hinted at how they were going to be out of control when they got to campus. References to “molly” showed up, as did questionable invitations from girls for guys to give them rides to places late at night, and let’s not forget one of my favorites from a FSU freshman girl, “I admit it, I like to drink, so boys hit me up.” 

There are three responses to this kind of behavior.  The first is predatory.  It’s the guy licking his chops and wondering just exactly how “out of control” things can get so that he can have even more control.  The second is fraternal, a “lol’ing” acceptance and resonance with the appeal of the behavior.  The last is concern and shame over a campus culture that we have created that makes freshman think that “the college experience” is about being out of control rather than about being fun and social.

Theologically, these three responses are often our three responses to seeing sin in other people.  When we see other people sinning, we can respond in a way that is predatory, we can act in a way that is fraternal, and we can act in a way that expresses simultaneous concern and shame.  

Unfortunately, there is a fourth response that many Christians default to, which is the response of so-called “righteous indignation”.  I don’t know about your social media feeds, but mine was filled with that last night.  It was the same thing I first experienced at a Christian conference early on in my campus ministry career when I told people that we did some great evangelistic work in bars - the person said, “Oh, I guess that’s great if you want THOSE people.”  Yeah, we do. We want the Miley Cyruses too.  Not because they are making awesome life decisions, but because Jesus made a life decision for them - the decision to end His so they could have theirs.

Since we’re sinners, the best that we can do when we’re confronted with a twerking almost naked Miley Cyrus or a vomiting freshman at 3am is understand that we share in their shame as sinners, and that we share in the responsibility for caring for them and speaking the Gospel to them.  

The Gospel is “the college experience” if only you don’t reject it.  It is the process of realizing that you need saving, and recognizing your savior. For many freshmen, this is going to involve running from one false savior to another, just as appears to be the case for Miley.  It’s a love that transcends our prodigal sinfulness and calls us “son”, and calls us “daughter”.  It is what we need on college campuses and on the VMA’s, and it is what we need everywhere else.

Are You Ready to Defend Your Faith?
If someone asked you why you were a Christian, what would
you say? Would you say you’re a Christian because you were raised
that way, or would you say you’re a Christian because you “just
believe it”? Wouldn’t that answer fit a person of another faith—
perhaps a Muslim or a Hindu? When you give these responses
to the question, you reveal a pretty weak rationale for believing
Christianity. Do you have a good defense for why you believe what
you do?
There is a better answer to the question of why you are a
Christian. You are a Christian because Christianity is true. How
can you defend that statement? That’s the purpose of this book. So
welcome to the wonderful world of apologetics.
Apologetics is, by definition, a defense of your actions or beliefs.
It is explaining why you believe what you believe. We can find this
concept in the Bible in 1 Peter 3:15–16.
But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy,
always being prepared to make a defense to
anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that
is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,
having a good conscience, so that, when you are
slandered, those who revile your good behavior in
Christ may be put to shame.
We are always to be ready to gently and respectfully share the
reason for the hope we have—why we believe in Jesus as the Savior
who rescued us from our sinful condition and will grant us eternal
life in heaven one day.

Apologetics is defending the faith.

As we defend our faith, explaining why we believe in Jesus as
Savior, what we say is important—the content of our apologetics
must be solid. We must know the facts and be armed with
knowledge. However, that’s just one part of the defense of our faith.
The other part of the defense is how we say it—the delivery of those
facts and knowledge. Peter instructed us to use “gentleness and
respect” in explaining our hope that we have in Christ. Paul, by the
inspiration of the Spirit, says a similar thing in 2 Timothy 2:24–26.
And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome
but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently
enduring evil, correcting his opponents with
gentleness. God may perhaps grant them
repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth,
and they may come to their senses and escape
from the snare of the devil, after being captured by
him to do his will.
People need to hear the truth, and how you share that will make
a big difference. Being a know-it-all or acting in a condescending
manner is not appropriate—being kind in instructing others is what
God calls us to do.What we say (content and how we say it
(delivery) is important.
Paul brings up another important aspect of apologetics.
Remember that God saves people, not you. Yes, we need to know
information and how to share it well—the “what and how” of
apologetics. But our knowledge and instruction will not change
anyone’s sinful heart—only God the Holy Spirit can do that. He
will convict the sinner of his or her condition through the Law
and reveal the remedy for his or her sinful condition through the
Gospel.
Reasons People Reject Christ

Even as we share the Gospel and practice apologetics, some
people may not believe what we have to say. In the book The New
Evidence That Demands a Verdict, Josh McDowell explains.6
 Some will not believe since they are in a “snare of the devil, after being
captured by him to do his will” (2 Timothy 2:26). Spiritual warfare
is a real thing. When Jesus told the parable of the sower and the
seed, He said some seed falls on paths and is eaten by birds before it
can take root. Jesus explained what He meant in Luke 8:11–12:
Now the parable is this: The seed is the word
of God. The ones along the path are those who
have heard; then the devil comes and takes away
the word from their hearts, so that they may not
believe and be saved.  You can defend the faith, handling both areas of content and
delivery well, but some won’t believe because they are under satanic
attack.

Some won’t believe due to  spiritual warfare.
Another reason some may not be converted to Christianity after
you explain why you believe what you do is that people stubbornly
refuse to admit they are wrong. Jesus faced a similar attitude in
John 5:39–40. “You search the Scriptures because you think that
in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about
Me, yet you refuse to come to Me that you may have life.” The
religious leaders of Jesus’ day would not come to Jesus, even though
He fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies. In light of this prideful
rejection of the truth, we can see why we are called to practice
apologetics with “gentleness and respect.” It will be easy to get mad
at people, but that won’t help your witness.
Some won’t believe due to their prideful refusal to  admit they’re wrong!

A third reason some people reject faith is that becoming a
Christian means leaving a lifestyle of sin. Jesus explained this in
John 3:20 when He said, “For everyone who does wicked things
hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should
be exposed.” You can say the right thing in the right way when
defending the faith, but some will choose to stay in their sin rather
than receive the Savior. They may feel that they’re not that bad, or
that they will convert later.Some won’t believe due  to their unwillingness to  change their lifestyle.

Knowing the three reasons why some reject the Christian
message helps us diagnose why people aren’t converted. We must
realize that even if others reject faith, we did not waste our time
because God’s Word is effective.
For as the rain and the snow come down from
heaven and do not return there but water the
earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving
seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall
My word be that goes out from My mouth; it shall
not return to Me empty, but it shall accomplish
that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the
thing for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:10–11
Furthermore, later someone else may add to what we shared,
and ultimately the Holy Spirit changes people, as Paul said in
1 Corinthians 3:6–7: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the
growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything,
but only God who gives the growth.” Apologetics isn’t easy, but it is
definitely worth it!
C

It is fun getting this back going!

YOUTH EVENTS AND NEWS FOR MAY AND JUNE!!!!!

May 31^st: Youth at Badger: 6:30-8:30 p.m. We begin at Badger sports at 6:30 p.m. Cost of this event is $11.00 which includes unlimited golf and batting cages, 1 go kart, and 1 laser tag. The youth will cover the pizza cost. Bring $1 for soda at church. We will meet a badger and your parents will pick you up following badger!
June 5^th: Youth: 5:30-7:30 Cram Sesson/Movie in
June 12^th: No Youth VBS
June 19^th: Senior Cook out and board meeting Pastor’s House: 5:30. Please bring a dish to share; we will provide brats and hot dogs and the fixings. RSVP by June 12^th!

June 24^th: Youth at Noah’s Ark: Noah’s Ark Day! Greetings Youth, our annual Noah’s Ark North Wisconsin District day is here! The date is June 24^th! The total cost to attend is $47.50 which includes round trip coach bus accommodations from Faith Lutheran on Glendale, buffet lunch at Noah’s Ark and your ticket. We are limiting this trip to the first 20 to sign up! We will leave 7:30 a.m. and return around 9:00 p.m. You will have to pay for supper on your way home and money for a locker at Noah’s Ark. Please RSVP no later than May 26^th by signing up on the youth board or via email at tseabaugh@gslchurch.net. Your payment total payment will be due on May 26^th!

June 24th : Final NYG meeting: after late service. in Room 3

Youth News

Come join us for the variety of youth events upcoming! Friend are always welcome to come!