The other really significant impact on me from the Forge “Dangerous Stories 2″ National Summit was from Mark Sayers. Mark’s got a pretty solid reputation as being a quality researcher on youth and young adults and discipleship. He’s a funny guy – in all senses of the word – and he communicates somewhat complex concepts really quite well.
Basically, the central point to Mark’s two-part workshopp/elective type thing was that the consumer-oriented, media-driven youth culture depicts a world that is “even better than the real thing”: Jean Baudrillard‘s “hyperreality“. The “whiter than white”, where you become the guy that men want to be and girls want to be with (or vice-versa). This world is the world that our culture tells us we should live in and that drives the consumerism inherent in our western cultural mindset.
The hallmarks of this hyperreality that Mark described were*:
- Surface over depth
- Fame and celebrity as key values
- Finding meaning in buying “stuff”
I’m sure there were a few others, but we’ll stick with that. The “wow” moment though came when you really considered how much this hyper-reality construct has slipped into our churches, and the way we talk about God. You don’t have to be a part of the “prosperity gospel” type church to be contributing to building this up in your disciples. So much of the message becomes about how God will make your life better, about the “experience” of god, for the sake of experience. We pander to the non-committal, quick hit of God experience, so that it doesn’t have to get in the way of the “secular” parts of our lives.
It’s interesting, and it’s hard at the same time. Because this stuff is almost impossible to build some practical methodology for sorting your way out of this hyper-real world. Because the big problem is a heart and a head change, rather than just changing the actions. Because you can go all greeny and stop buying the flashy products and go organic and natural and fair-trade and all of these (good) things, but if it’s about finding meaning in the things that you buy – then it’s still all about this same consumeristic culture.
* – OK, I think these are the ones that he described. If not then it’s getting close (I hope)
P.S – If you’re looking for a good resource for late-high school to young adult type audience, “The Trouble With Paris” looks like it’s a great starting point for getting these types of conversations happening. We’ll be using it in our young adults group, and I’ll probably let everyone know how we go.