Donald Boyd
YOUT 350: Campus Ministry
Book Summary: Engaging the Soul of Youth Culture
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Introduction
The Church is losing the emerging generation in trying to change its culture. An age, even
closer to us than we know, looking for purpose, a little change, and help. They are living in our
homes. A young girl speaks to the Church, on behalf of a generation in an acclaimed 2003 film
about thirteen-year-olds, the question asked, what do we hear them say? “We’re changing,
confused, and vulnerable.”1
The generations of X’s and Millennials made up of social media, online gaming, a heart of
passion and confusion, is reaching out to the blind (each other) to see where they are going.
Mueller writes from speaking with a young student, “Derrick, like all teens, is trying to find his
place in this world. When he’s most honest and transparent, he admits he feels overwhelmed and
lost. Even though he’s never personally met most of his online friends, they offer acceptance,
understanding, community, meaning, and guidance that he doesn’t get from anywhere else. Most of
them feel just like Derrick.”
Summary
Christian and religious students today are leaving the Church at an astounding pace. Though
the teen church engagement remains robust, many of the enthusiastic teens so common in North
American churches are not growing up to be faithful young adult disciples.2 They are leaving for
various reasons with the same intentions, noting the failure of formal Churches to recognize their
needs and admiration.
The Christian community does not understand the new and not-so-new concerns, struggles,
and mindsets of young dropouts. Christian parents with respectable Christian worldviews, biblical
1 Walt Mueller (2015). (p. 8). Engaging the Soul of Youth Culture. InterVarsity Press.
2 David Kinnaman, You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving Church and Rethinking Faith (Grand
Rapids: Baker Books, 2016), pp. 2.
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teachings, and institutions of good standing are losing the battle as well. Kinnaman said it his hope
that the Christian community can learn to obey Jesus’s command to make disciples in this and
future generations. Listening and engaging the young on their level, starting with their perspective of
life and being transparent, is motivating for our students and humbling for the older generation.
On another paradigm, social media, tech craze, or easily accessible information has its
unconventionality. In You Lost Me, Kinnaman draws out high tech as a divider saying, “It is safe to
say that Mosaics’ affinity for technology contributes to the sense of disconnection between
generations.” Also, Kinnaman and Hawkins agree, saying, “Changing means and methods of
communicating and finding information—the digital tools of access—are one of the reasons the next
generation’s context is discontinuously different from the past.”1
Engaging the Soul of Youth Culture defines culture as what we believe, what we do, and
how we live our lives from day to day.2 Understanding that the next generation has a lifestyle, not of
their parents or grandparents; however, a culture that defines who they are and what they
believe. Making an effort to know the emerging generation’s culture allows the Church and parents
to see what our young minds are thinking and collaborates with two opposing parties. Mueller said,
“It binds us to those who think and live in a similar manner.”
Personal Response
My observation of our country today expresses a very similar trend in our current and up
and coming generational demise. The unwillingness to change or listen from older generations to
forthcoming generations are divesting at the least. When people are unheard or ignored, they feel
insignificant, devalued, abandoned, and disheartened. Overtime and untreated, those wounds fester
1 Ibid, 45.
2 Walt Mueller, “Engaging the Soul of Youth Culture.” (InterVarsity Press. 2015), pp. 112.
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to something more destructive and damaging not only to oneself; however, streaming out only to
effect loved ones, friends, and others.
The spiritual condition can lead to a demoralizing state leading to a lack of hope. Dr. Leary,
a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University, said, “a great deal of human
emotion arises in response to real, anticipated, remembered, or imagined rejection by other people.”
The up and coming generations, such as the Millennials and Xer’s, are maturing in a postmodern
way of life. The Emerging culture is filled with cries of help and unanswered questions.
Our current epidemic is financially devastating countries around the world; however, this
sudden catastrophic, pain shattering, and the life-changing event is not on the mind of Millennials.
As a Youth Pastor, in talking with my students, I find that over 50% of students said their stress is
mainly coming from Schoolwork, parents, and idle time with their friends. So, a major of their time
chatting, face timing, and gaming with friends. No mention of God unless inquired. Mueller incited
this time cadence saying, “the great certainty of our time seems to be that satisfaction is nowhere to
be found. We roam around, searching without finding, yearning without rights.”1
Just the other day, my wife, daughter, and I was engaged in store-store visiting, going places
outside the home, something we hadn’t done in months, due to Covid-19 lockdown. Our state and
county were one of the last to open up. As we listened to the radio, a new popular song, written and
a song by a new young artist, was playing; the song, dedicated to Black Lives Matter (George
Floyd incident). The lyrics were detailed and spoke to how the generation of today felt;
nevertheless, the song has some expressive and saucy words in it. I commented, “why can’t the
young express themselves properly,” my daughter, a young student, who loves the Lord spoke. In a
rage, sounded out, “they are, expressing themselves, and just because their words don’t speak
properly doesn’t mean they are not expressing themselves” She was right!
1 Ibid, 38.
Conclusion
In Engaging the Soul of Youth Culture, the emerging generation can become a lost
generation if Church, Parents, and Student Ministry leaders do not begin to immerse themselves in
the X’ers and Millennials immediately. Understanding the emerging generation is a priority, no,
it’s a must. Mueller corned this sentiment writing, if the Church doesn’t listen, the Church can’t
understand.”
The goal is not to keep the emerging generation in the Church. However, it’s to keep them
grounded in Christ Jesus, the bible as their foundation for everything in life. Our emerging
generation must be heard and know that they are being listened to because they matter to God.
Greg McLogan framed it, “people matter to God. All people. The keyword in John 3:16 is
“whoever.” So that means everyone matters to God whether God matters to them or not.”
Engaging the Soul of Youth Culture is about the need to listen to, understand, and know the wall
of postmodernity. This wall is marked by a great need and great interest in spirituality, but little or
no understanding of or regard for the bible. As the Church, Parents, and Student Ministry Pastors
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My eyes were opened! I am the generation of non-listeners, the bunker cohorts that Dr. Walt
Mueller wrote about, saying, “My point is that not everything that isn’t “Christian” is evil. God’s
common grace extends to all of humanity… This principle extends to everything, including popular
culture and entertainment… Paul is not telling us to avoid looking at the world,” not listening. To
become a listening generation, we must get past ourselves, our religion, our righteousness to hear
the emerging generation, who are speaking their troubles, their minds, disapprovals, and even more
importantly, their heart.
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reflect upon their role to ministry and account for the emerging generation, one only needs to pray
and read the bible to do what Jesus did.
Bibliography
Leary, Mark R. “Emotional Responses to Interpersonal Rejection.” Dialogues in Clinical
Neuroscience. December 2015. Accessed June 18, 2020.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4734881.
Mueller, Walt. “Engaging the Soul of Youth Culture.” InterVarsity Press. 2015. Retrieved from
https://app.wordsearchbible.lifeway.com
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