Consuming Youth: Leading Teens Through Consumer Culture (YS Academic) [Paperback]

 

 

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Consuming Youth: Leading Teens Through Consumer Culture is an examination of how the Western consumer culture has affected youth and the coming of age process. From the first chapter, it's clear that the authors have put a lot of time and research into crafting the text. Articles, journals, papers and books where referred throughout the book regularly.

The book splits it's three main ideas into two parts. The first part examines what consumer culture is doing to youth and, to a lesser extent, the history of consumer culture and the coming of age process. Also, the first part includes a look at what it means to grow up in a market-driven culture and why that ideology needs to change. The second part of the book focuses on youth ministry and it's influence on adolescents today through the use of stories.

I enjoyed my time with Consuming Youth. I'll be honest, it wasn't exactly what I was expecting but from the very beginning I could tell that it was written with a lot of care and craft. Every facet of consumer culture and it's effect on youth is examined in this book.

The Christian book industry publishes a plethora of books about every topic one could imagine ' Christian weight loss programs, instructional guides on how to make more money (while serving others), strategies for improving your husband and, of course, books on how to pray and read the Bible.

This also applies to youth ministry. Next to the sale of niche Bibles and the ever expanding selection of Amish romance novels, I suspect that the most profitable genre of Christian literature is books on youth ministry. Every week I receive publication notices of new youth ministry resources, adding to the growing number of books on a wide array of topics.

However, despite the range of topics addressed, there is a noticeable absence of books on one of the biggest spiritual issues facing the church today.

In a culture where advertising is omnipresent and marketing is a way of life, where companies vie not only for customers but for lifelong brand loyalty, where success is measured in terms of profit and material goods, it is not difficult to see the influence of consumerism in our lives ' at home, at school, at work, and, yes, even in church.

Churches compete with other churches for market share. Ministry programs are advertised as religious goods and services, each targeted to a specific demographic or interest group. Worship services are about keeping the majority of worshippers (i.e. customers?) happy so that they will return from week to week with their chequebooks. The success of churches is measured in terms of attendance, modernized building facilities, and an increasing cash flow.

Everywhere we turn, whether on the streets or online, our lives or saturated with advertising, encouraging us to buy more, to upgrade, to lose weight, and to try the next best thing.

In such a culture, our lives are lived under the scrutiny eye of marketers who skilfully exploit our desires through the fabrication of perpetual dissatisfaction.

One cannot deny the influence of consumerism on our lives. However, this influence is largely ignored by Christian publishers, partly due, I suspect, to the realization that they will be responsible for releasing books that directly challenge elements of the industry and partly because of the captivity of most North American evangelical churches to the norms of consumerism. It doesn't make good business sense to publish an un-sellable book for an uninterested market.

This is precisely the problem ' we have an overabundance of books on spiritual issues and youth ministry, but we have so few that address the spiritual deformation of children, youth, adults, and churches due to the pervasive influence of consumerism.

Walk into the youth room of any church in North America and you will see the overwhelming evidence of consumer culture on today's youth. I mean 'on' literally. Shirts, jackets, pants, hats, and shoes worn by teenagers proudly display brands currently en vogue. They are literally branded, more so than any previous generation, wearing labels not only as a badge of allegiance but also as a marker of their identity. It's been said that 'clothes make the man'; in the case of today's adolescences, this is undoubtedly the case.

The 'right' brand immediately confers legitimacy and status to its wearer; it simultaneously (and paradoxically) provides its wearer both a sense of individuality and conformity. Moreover, the sense of identity conferred by brands also extends to the myriad of accessories used by teenagers. From MP3 players to cell phones, the status of a brand is immediately transferred to the status of the owner.

The quest for identity, meaning, and purpose is quickly exploited by marketers and advertisers who are less interested in aiding youth on their journey of self-discovery and more interested in growing profits and a healthy bottom line.

Unfortunately, youth workers and parents who are eager to keep kids entertained and in church are often unaware of the insidious spiritual effects of consumerism on youth. While there is an overabundance of books and resources about how to engage youth and strategies for outreach, there aren't many books, particularly from evangelical publishers, that deal with consumerism and youth.

Consuming Youth

Enter John Berard, James Penner, and Rick Barlett. They are determined to focus our attention on this important but overlooked issue in their book 'Consuming Youth'.

Because I think that this is a book that every youth worker, parent, teacher, and pastor should read, I'm going to forgo a summary of the book. Instead, I will offer comments on what I appreciated and conclude with some observations in order to continue the important discussion initiated by this book.

- The authors raise some very important concerns without succumbing to alarmist rhetoric. Their hopeful tone propels us to action rather than despair. They are convinced that there is a way to combat consumerism in and through youth ministry and offer some helpful suggestions in order to move forward, particularly in terms of fostering intergenerational mentoring relationships.

- The book is not overly long ' it took me less than a day to read. While I am familiar with many of the secondary resources they cite, this is certainly a book that will bear repeated reading for those less familiar with the issues it raises. The authors strike a good balance between brevity and depth, which makes the book accessible and engaging.

- This is a well researched book as is evidence by the footnotes. It's certainly atypical, but refreshing, to read a youth ministry book that cites philosopher Charles Taylor. The research provides a strong historical and sociological overview that lends weight to the author's argument without becoming tedious for those who assume that such forays are impractical.
- Written by youth ministry veterans, 'Consuming Youth' demonstrates the importance of learning from past youth ministry mistakes in forging a hold new 'ideology of youth' without falling prey to the 'one-size-fits-all' mentality of youth ministry models.

Continuing the Discussion

'Consuming Youth' raises some important issues and offers helpful suggestions for moving youth ministry beyond consumerism. In the interest of taking their argument and proposals seriously, I want to offer some brief reflections I had while reading this book as a springboard for further discussion.

- While the focus of the book is on youth, I wondered about the role of parents in implicitly encouraging the consumerist habits of their children. The authors are essentially addressing the middle class mores of Western culture. Consumerism begins at home ' children reflect the buying and spending habits of their parents. This means the ability to combat the effects of consumerism in youth must begin with parents. Parents must not only support the initiatives of churches, they must also put them into practice themselves.

Therefore, churches must find ways to challenge the normalcy of consumerism in the homes of its members. This goes beyond constructing a different sociological imagination as suggested by the authors; it requires rooting ourselves in a radically prophetic imagination. I was disappointed that in spite of all the suggestions for confronting consumerism made by the authors, they did not reflect on the biblical narrative as the foundation for the church's counter-cultural resistance to consumerism as a subversive community in the shadow of empire. This is a necessary discussion for our resistance to consumerism is to bear fruit in our churches and homes.

Moreover, if churches want to address consumerism, they must do so on all levels ' not simply within existing programming, but also at a macro level by considering the nature of church programming itself. Typically, churches approach their ministry programming in terms of a product to be sold to its members and to the community at large. This requires advertising, competing with other churches who offer similar programming for market share, and approaching staffing and resources with a management mentality. Too often the programming of churches reflects consumer culture.

In documenting the rise of consumer culture, the authors neglected to map the simultaneous rise of evangelicalism. We cannot discuss how churches can confront consumerism without acknowledging how our churches grew alongside and within the contours of this culture.

- A biblical theology of youth is assumed in the book without being explored. I wholeheartedly agree with the authors' insistence on the importance of intergenerational mentoring relationships and the necessity of including youth in leadership roles. However, these claims require a biblical foundation if they are going to hold water in the context of discussions among the adult leaders of the church.

- There is a subtext to the book about moving youth ministry away from 'attractional' models toward 'missional' structures that release youth to serve in our communities. While beyond the scope of the book, it is an important conversation to have in tandem with the one started by the authors. As others have noted, affluent suburbs have become the spiritual wasteland of North America.

- The focus on vocation is also a needed corrective to the typical youth ministry focus of pizza, pop, games, and a little bit of Jesus on the side. However, this emphasis is dangerously close to the purpose-driven mantra of consumerism and echoed by many evangelical churches. How can we focus on the importance of purpose and vocation without succumbing to the demands of a culture that requires us to be continually distracted with our... Read more ›

Used as a way to mark identity and wealth, or to show status, individuality, and conformity, teens today find themselves 'branded' more than ever before. Consuming Youth: Leading Teens Through Consumer Culture presents to its reader a great picture, scattered with many excellent resources, quotes, stories and case studies, of just how youth today are influenced by this continual call to buy. The book outlines how youth have become separated from social roles, networks of care, attention to the common good, faith communities, and expectations held for them to fully attend to the call of God upon their lives (finding vocation). Social institutions have begun to sell the identities of the 'mook' or the 'midriff', changing the values of youth significantly from what they once were. Teens today face the challenges of stuff (where consumption becomes an identity shaping practise) as well as the challenge of brand buying (the draw to which becomes stronger as the bonds between these people become weaker). John Berard, James Penner and Rick Bartlett help youth leaders, both new to and well versed in the field, to enter this consumer driven world with the knowledge and strategies needed to engage the youth who are products of this world.
I find myself in an interesting position when reviewing this book. I am at an age now where I am leading in a Youth Ministry capacity; however, I am also coming out of an age that has been influenced by the consuming nature of today's culture. I have felt the pressure of consumerism and now find myself looking for ways to combat it with the youth whose lives I am a part of. To add to this, I am also a student, and therefore new to the field of Youth Ministry. I am looking to learn methods of getting the same bible stories, themes and teachings across to students in a new way that is both captivating and relevant.
I truly feel that this book played into all of these areas of my life in a way that was solid and inspiring. I was able to reflect on my own upbringing, and look at how I can work to change some of my own habits having to do with consumerism. I also feel that it has also equipped me with a new way to look at youth ministry. None of my classes thus far have presented me with a topic so prominent to today's society (both inside and outside of the church), but instead have given me a general, broad based knowledge. While learning the basics is an excellent start, the authors give their audience the tools to look deeper into what it really means to be a teenager in consumer culture. No matter what context you work with youth in (formal, informal, teacher, youth worker, friend, etc.), the conclusions that the authors come to are accessible and really encourage the reader re-assess how they are dealing with issue of consumerism in youth. It has given me practical ideas of how to approach Youth Ministry in a new way ' incorporating the youth in a community based program, integrated with the adults who influence their lives.
I would strongly recommend this book to all those working with youth. The layout is easy to follow, and the Discussion and Study Questions at the end of each chapter provide the opportunity to further explore the chapters themes and 'think outside the box' to apply these themes to your own contexts. Over all, the book gives a fresh perspective to Youth Ministry that is well presented.
I would like to thank the authors, especially John Berard, for the review copy of the book. It was a pleasure to read and I am extremely grateful for the opportunity.

Samantha Becker, Second Year Student
Bachelor of Arts, Youth Ministry Major

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