Mini-Essay on Youth Culture

What is there to say on the youth culture of the Coleraine area, in Northern Ireland, and it’s relation with ministry efforts in that same area?

A difficult question to ask, because one cannot just begin by describing a culture; in the same breath, describing a specific ministry cannot start it either. They are both far too broad for brief explanation. They do overlap though, and that would be a fine place to begin. One of the main goals of a healthy church, or a healthy ministry, would be to be explaining what Christ has done, and bringing people into an awareness of that. In essence, they want to be leading as many people to Christianity as possible; it is a fundamental part of their doctrine. This is how they overlap – the youth culture in Coleraine is a goal for the Church’s in the same area, they want to saturate them with the message of the gospel. It is common knowledge as well that the traditional ways of doing this no longer effectively work – or in other words, it is essential that a church be relevant to a current culture so that it’s message be relevant to the people. Which leads us to a second question - how can a church be relevant to a youth culture in modern society whilst still maintaining it’s fundamentals and not watering itself down? The answer is in the people.

The people, the culture. If there’s anything that connects a Christian and a non-Christian it is that they are both people. The both like or dislike different sport teams; the both like or dislike certain music, books, politics, styles… the list goes on; they both are submerged in some kind of culture. The Youth culture in Northern Ireland, or more specifically the Coleraine area, is something to be observed now in this case, what makes a Colerainer a Colerainer? Which is yet again a broad question to be asked – an outsider could assume very quickly that it is a culture that prefers Football of all the sports, Fish and Chips of all the foods, Westlife or Snow Patrol of all the bands and has a very traditional church background – always rooting into either a Catholic or Protestant stream. But once again you find that generalisations are hardly ever true to the individual, and this is purely the case in the Coleraine area. The culture is complex just like anywhere else in the world, and nothing can be assumed about anyone. The internet and global media has helped in dimming down specific cultures and just adding them to a global culture that just changes slightly with geographical changes. But yet again there are consistencies, the internet being one of them with huge culturally influential web sites like YouTube, MySpace, Bebo, Facebook, all connecting people in some way – the mass percentage of Youth culture would be involved somehow in these things – Christian and non-Christian alike.

People again, we share joys and we share pains. Love and pain is what very often brings people together. Youth cultures around the world are alike just beginning to experience these things in their fullest, things like dating, divorce and death are all becoming real to them – and a comfortable place with answers to the questions these things develop will always be welcomed. Church would be effective in approaching these subjects as they approach youth because immediately they can on some level connect and share. Once people connect and share on a personal level they become more relevant to each-other and to each-others opinions and beliefs. That is the place where a relevant ministry wants to be, sharing and connecting. The same applies to youth even in the Coleraine area, they are not immune to the difficult aspects of life like death, or the emotions or pains that are associated with love - no one is – Christian and non-Christian alike.

People dislike injustice, people dislike falsehoods, people crave truths. Nobody wants a sleazy, lying politician leading them. Nobody wants to hear of innocents dying on the news and criminals walking free. People connect in certain fundamental morals. There’s a standard of living that Christians are called to live at that can either be appealing or completely un-attractive. They live very moral lives in a very immoral world. Fortunately for them immorality is not portrayed under good light, even by the clearly immoral who typically disagree yet rebel even against themselves (and portray it as being cool). Youth are just beginning to explore these things and figure out where they stand. They are bombarded by different messages; typically it would be the up-tight teacher or parent who would offer the moral way of living and the cool celebrity types who advertise the opposite. This combined with a youthful desire to explore, to learn, to experience, and to self-fulfill is what really combats a Church’s ministry and it’s relevance. Youth don’t want to be told “no”, they don’t want to be bored, and the youth of Coleraine are no exception. They do not connect on this level but they do connect on a parallel that people everywhere are looking for more in life, the more in life that Christians have found. Youth don’t want to be told no, but in the same breath they also always want the best, to portray the message that in saying no to certain things and yes to other things that are so much more is the course of action that needs to be taken for a Youth based ministry. Youth are looking to the future, looking to see what it offers; morality plays a big part in that, and so could Christianity. Cause everyone wants the best, everyone wants more – Christians and non-Christians alike.

So, what is there to say on the youth culture of the Coleraine area, in Northern Ireland, and it’s relation with ministry efforts in that same area? That youth in the Coleraine are fundamentally no different from youth anywhere else in the world and then when approached with the ministry efforts in that it was asked - how can a church be relevant to a youth culture in modern society whilst still maintaining it’s fundamentals and not watering itself down? By connecting and sharing with them in a focused cultural way, using broad tools like MySpace and connecting with the big issues like bands and music, or big football matches. Showing that Christians are culturally relevant and not disconnected, or in other words showing that Christians are people too. Also in connecting and sharing with youth on the universal topics of life, and death, love and hate, happiness and sorrow, comfort and pain, showing that Christians aren’t immune and that they’re people too, just with an all surpassing joy and new-life. And then in offering them to live in a higher standard of life, one that Christians strive for as well, connecting and sharing with them on hopes for the future. None of these things require a watered-down gospel nor do they come across as un-appealing to youth, because all people and youth have a connection with one another, Christian or non-Christian alike, we’re all people.