Youth Ministry and the You Tube Generation (part 1)

Youth Ministry and the You Tube Generation

For a while now I've been contemplating You Tube and it's implications for youth ministry. I don't mean "how can youth pastors use You Tube for ministry purposes?" though that is an important question. I mean, "what does the rise of popularity of You Tube signal, and how should the church respond?"

On You Tube, students are the stars of their own television show. It started with Jerry Springer and shows like that, where normal people (or, not-so-normal people) could become instant starts for a day. Then reality television took over, giving more people the chance to become a star, or look like a fool, on the national stage.

Now, with You Tube, anyone with a video camera or a cell phone camera can make themselves a star. Students have their own shows and have followers. We've moved from, "Hey, look - there's someone like me on television" to "Hey, look - I'm on television."

This is a trend, and churches - especially youth ministries - should be looking to take advantage of it. As with any societal shift, it presents unique challenges and opportunities. If youth ministries respond correctly, we have a chance to further transform our students into the image of Christ by taking advantage of this moment.

The key principle of this series of blogs is this: Students are no longer satisfied being media consumers; they now want to become media producers.

We see this trend on You Tube. We see it with create your own commercial contests. Facebook and Myspace are even a part of this trend. Yet in youth ministries, we are too often the ones producing the content without regard to our students' urge to have their own hand in creating it themselves. We youth pastors are the content experts, and our students are the consumers.

The trend is changing. Even small churches with limited resources can now create youth ministries where students can help create their own content. We can elevate our students to be the stars of the youth ministry.

This will require humility on the part of we youth leaders to allow ourselves to take a backseat coaching role. It will require us to understand that "excellence" may not always be achieved in the same way it has been before, as students are learning new skills. But it will allow us to truly engage students in the mission of Christ like never before.

In my next post, we'll look at how a You Tube approach to youth ministry is more biblical in some ways than what we have been doing. In the final post, we'll look at some ideas to make You Tube Youth Ministry a practical reality.