Every year, our church puts on a big youth rally. It ends up being my “big project” each year.
This year, we streamlined some things to put information, registration, and even payment online. Check out the site we put together using a wordpress theme.
I know I’m overloading you today, but I’m getting to a few things I’ve been wanting to get to for quite some time.
Below is an article I’m tweaking for a parent newsletter. What do you think? I’m also planning preaching a sermon on the 30th that deals with some of the same issues.
What’s shaping them?
For years, churches have been targeting the influences of our culture on our young people. I’m not sure how many lessons I heard as a teenager on not listening to “bad” music or watching “bad” movies. I think the bottom line of those lessons still holds true today, that we are influenced by what messages we allow to enter our minds. However, I think we have been slow to acknowledge where all those messages are coming from- and the rate at which they are coming in.
In the early 90’s there was a lot of discussion about obscenity in music. Senate hearings and court cases made national news as some albums were banned from distribution. If you wanted to hear one of these albums, you had to find a friend who had it, or get a copy off the black market. Nearly twenty years later, that whole concept of banning some type of transferable media seems silly. With the internet and file sharing services, it’s next to impossible to control the flow media. Today, almost any type of information, song, or video clip is just a mouse click away. They can be exposed to anything and everything all at once, if they so choose. It is no longer easy to regulate what messages teens are getting. The internet brings all forms of information together, influencing the thoughts and minds of our young people.
Beyond all that, there is even a more pervasive- yet ignored- threat to the minds of our young people: advertising. According to recent statistics the average American is exposed at least 3500 advertising messages per day! Actually, for most Americans who spend time on the internet, it is closer to 5000 messages or even higher!
We’ve been sure to talk about the messages in TV shows, but now we’re concerned about the commercials? Aren’t they just trying to get you to buy a product? It’s true, many advertisements simply want you to realize when you are out to buy something made by them, that they have the best. Yet, most advertisements out there are for things we don’t need. The advertisers then have the challenge of convincing you need something that truthfully, you do not. To do that, they need to reshape how you see the world.
I hope you catch the significance of that: marketers are purposefully trying to manipulate you and the way you see the world. At least 3500 times a day, we’re fighting off brainwashers and we don’t even realize it! Those messages they send are clear: you are only as valuable as what you own, look like, or can do. God’s Word teaches us our value is simply in being the people God made us to be, and His love comes without condition. I know many of us adults have trouble sifting through those messages that we should be something else. How much more difficult is it for teenagers who are developmentally still trying to discover who they are now?
How should you confront this? Awareness is the key. Evaluate advertisements when you see them, trying to determine what they are trying to tell you about the world. Sometimes, the messages are harmless. Other times, they could completely destroy your relationship with God. Be sure to talk with your teenager about the messages in advertisements and media around them. Help them develop tools to think through how someone is trying to manipulate them.
And above everything else, counter those false messages with truth. Spend time with them in prayer and studying God’s Word, and talking about the plans HE has for their lives. Each message from you carries far more weight than those 1000’s of messages they receive from invisible strangers.
And always take your vitamins.
Recently, I started taking vitamins again. It seems like I have more energy throughout the day and feel better all around. I’m not taking anything fancy- just a general Centrum with my dinner or before I go to bed.
I think I’ll keep taking them. Guess Mom was right!
So, Christmas is upon us. And what does that mean? Shopping.
Oh sure, there are much more important things about Christmas that we love and often get lost in the shuffle. It’s often because stores are competing for your hard-earned money, and going to great lengths to get you to spend your dollars with them and not somewhere else.
I’ve always been interested in Psychology, which was my minor in college (read: 5 random classes in the same field). I love trying to figure out the tactics and mind games that stores go through to get you to stay with them. Since we are in the midst of a battle, we need to be aware of how we are being attacked. For the next few posts, I’d like to look at some different strategies they use.
This is one of my favorites: Anchoring.
In this strategy, stores sell several similar items at different prices. One model tends to be ridiculously expensive. The retailers never expect to sell many of these- they are simply there to make you feel better about buying the less-expensive model. Both could still be massively overpriced items you will never need, but the fact that you pay “less than you could have” makes something that much more attractive.
Similar to this is the method yogurt companies use to sell their product. 95% fat free! Sounds like a bargain, right? How many do you think they would sell claiming 5% fat? Not many.