Author: Wick

Parents, teachers, youth pastors, child advocates, psychologists, sociologists, etc…are all beginning to realize the same thing: The internet has very little regulation when it comes to advertising. Any type of advertising, really…and to any targeted audience.

Over the past decade, small numbers at a time have realized this…but it seems as if the movement to bring it to the “powers that be” is finally gaining momentum. Or maybe I finally crawled out from behind a rock and realized it myself.

One large area is advertising targeted at minors, from unhealthy products. We don’t have to look far to realize that our culture of immediate self-indulgence is producing a generation of unhealthy and overweight youngsters. This article talks about the thousands of experts and advocates who will be proposing a new INTERNATIONAL CODE…which probably won’t get approved of just yet, and even if it did, would take years to actually enforce… the code is:

I think this might do SOME good. But I doubt it will do any SERIOUS damage to the rate of obesity and unhealthiness of our culture. We don’t need a cartoon to tell us that unhealthy foods taste good. I’m pretty sure that even if cheesy poofs came in a blank cardboard box, and was never advertised, kids would eventually, by experience, LOVE the sight of that box, and get excited about having some.

When I was in high school, our youth group took a mission trip with the theme of “The Least of These”. We were given the opportunity to serve in places of great need, to feed and love on people who had been disenfranchised by society.

It was good. Hopefully it was good for them…the memories I have certainly seem like God used us to bless others. It was definitely good for me…to have my world-view broadened, and to realize that as bad as it may be at times for me/my family…..that was nothing compared to the needs of some others. I stayed involved in ministry to the “underprivileged” (even though I put myself in that category growing up…having attended as a camper, and then as an employee) through a camp called “Youth Haven Ranch“, and man…if I had millions, I’d support that camp like crazy. The theology may not run deep, depending on who is actually doing the programming that year, but they feed and clothe, and love God’s children in a personal/relational way that fed my hunger growing up. And thinking of it….that’s pretty good theology. Pure and undefiled, even.

Now, I’m a youth pastor. We’ve talked about poverty recently, and will touch on it again tomorrow night. What our response should be as followers of Christ, etc. But I know many of the students in our group come from homes that float close to the line of “poverty”. They see themselves as “poor”. Resting inside their own shell of need, they don’t see themselves as called by God to serve others (wonder who they get that habit from?). I can show them videos of true poverty for hours, but it wouldn’t sink in until they actually travel across boundaries to experience/view these conditions first-hand.

Wish we had a “Youth Haven” type option nearby. Maybe there is, and I’ll find it someday. So many teenagers today get depressed about life in general. Or bored. Or feel like their situation is so uniquely bad that no one could possibly “get” the struggles they have. I want to introduce my teens to a regular ability to serve others less fortunate. To see the change that happens, when instead of focusing on “how bad I have it”…we focus on how we can contribute to the needs of others.

There are many who went on our “mission trip” from last summer. But those types of experiences fade if not incorporated into a lifestyle of serving others. Their youth pastor probably should’ve found a way to continue that pattern when they returned.

But I don’t want to simply take them to a bad part of town, and have them walk door to door giving out hugs of God’s love. This is Decatur, IL for crying out loud.

Our Church has a food pantry that is open every Monday from 11:30am-1:30pm. I’ve not been involved regularly, but have gone a few times. Teens don’t have school in the summer. I think a good option would be regular participation in the pantry for now…and see what happens. I imagine cheesy scenes of teenagers smiling while walking a nice older lady to her beat up car, showing her God’s love in a brief moment of relational connection. Will that happen? Maybe. Or maybe it’ll be pulling teeth just to get one or two teens down there on a regular basis. I sure haven’t set a good example of it being a place we should be.

Thanks for following that thought train. Chugging on for now….

just home from a great tenebrae (shadows) service at my church

it was good, and different from ways I’ve done it in the past. but it brought up a thought or two, also. we remembered Christ from the “big picture” perspective. which was good.

but trying to think of what the closest friends to Jesus may have been feeling on this night. two main thoughts come to mind.

sadness. to have lost a man who most of them had known for quite a while. and not just “known”…but had some VERY close bonding experiences. they didn’t just coast through life together. they were tight.

disappointment. to have lost the man who all your hopes for “a change” had rested on. political. social. economic. revenge. the man who was going to flip the tables, and who you would reign with. dead.

another random thought….i’m glad there’s a “holy saturday”. a time for humanity to rest from our expectations and reasons we mourned losing Christ……so that we can better celebrate His rising again, without jumping directly back into those, but instead allow our view of Christ to receive new life as well.

Not someone to make us feel good all the time. Not someone who will give us vengeance against all those who we are quick to label as “evil”.

But Christ. The Son of God.

Risen.

(no celebrating yet…..wait until Sunday. Until then….rest, mourn, and release the Christ you thought you knew)