Conflicted! Was this and is this a youth ministry boo-boo?
A month and half ago I took some girls from the Annex (youth drop-in) to a concert in London. It was held at the John Labatt Centre. We got lost for only seven minutes! I made sure I left myself time to get lost because I knew that I probably would. The bands I took them to see were Thrice and My Chemical Romance. Another no name band played as well but they weren't very good. I have connected with these three girls from the Annex really well. We share the same sort of taste in music and we like Art as well. So one time I had mentioned to them that it would be fun if we could all go to a concert together. Later on I realized I should probably follow through with my promise. I'm sure that other people have made promises to them before without ever following through and I didn't want to be lumped in with those people.The night started off well with dinner at a cool diner style place and I took some funky shots with my camera of us all acting like idiots. Afterwards we headed over to the JLC, one of the girls and I bought some merch while the other two found our seats. After Natalie and I bought our goods we went to look for the other girls. We had a bit of a hard time finding our seats but we finally found them except the other two girls were nowhere in sight!?! We were sitting their for awhile and then this guy and his girlfriend sat down in two of our seats! I asked him his ticket number and he showed me his, he had the same seats as us?!? I showed him my ticket number and he said that I was in the wrong section. Ah ha we felt like idiots so we moved again with the same sort of results and then we finally asked someone to help us find our seats.Finally we got situated in our seats and tell the other girls our story. We had a good laugh at ourselves. Thrice starts playing and they were amazing! Their were songs where I got chills! Thrice has some beautiful compositions! A lot of people enjoyed their performance, heads were rocking and feet were tapping. So I started praying that they would get more acclaim for their performance than MCR, that the sound guy would make them sound good (instead of the typical 'lets make the first band sound crappy so the headliner sounds better') and I prayed that God would annoint their music.When I booked the tickets I thought that MCR would be an okay band to see because they don't have a lot of sexual content or swearing. Their music is depressing but decent and I couldn't find a whole lot of decent Christian bands that were touring at this time of year. MCR begins playing and every other word that comes out of the lead singers mouth is the F word. He yells at the kids to "fucken get jumping", he does this repeatedly, my girls starting jumping with glee. I start getting uncomfortable because I hate it when people tell me what to do and to top it all off he was telling us to 'fucken' do it. Even in church when the pastor says things like 'turn to your neighbor and tell them that God loves them' I don't like doing it because I'm not a robot, I think for myself! And to have someone talk down to me makes me even more pissed! Yet, every young person in the auditorium was joyfully obeying and it bothered me. It bothered me because they just lapped it all up. I thought to myself 'this is a generation who is use to being treated like garbage even by their idols and it is no wonder they think so lowly of themselves.'I began taking in the whole scene. The stage consisted of two screens on either side of the stage in the shapes of stain glass windows, images of stain glass windows from churches were being flashed on the screens. Some of the images even had Christ in them! I watched the kids dance with glee as they were sung words of depression over them, words that said straight out 'we sing the songs that you slit your wrists to'. Parents were encouraging their kids to jump around to the music as the lead singer asked 'all you mfo get your fingers up in the are' (he wasn't pointing to heaven either). In a way it was a church experience, the band was preaching death over it's congregation and their followers were innocently eating it up like puppy's eating out of the trash can. Dynamic performers who knew how to sugar coat their message with catchy beats and great stage presence. I know I may be over dramatizing and showing a little bit of the sheltered life I have lived.We left early and in the car I asked the girls to compare and contrast the bands. The girls talked a lot about stage presence and how MCR was really upbeat and Thrice wasn't so much. Then Dinah piped up about how Thrice was more spiritual and how she kind of got chills from the music when she listened to them. They then asked me my opininon and I said something along the lines of MCR are good performers, but not so great musicians (that is my honest opinion). I said that Thrice has really good musical compostion. Then I totally chickened out and didn't say anything about how negative MCR is and how positive Thrice is. I could have totally talked about music and the power it has over us and why I initially chose the concert. The girls love me though! They had a really great time, I was able to show Christ's love by loving on them and taking them to the concert.I'm thinking of asking them if they will take me to Catholic mass sometime and then maybe deberiefing with them again over coffee about the concert. They go to a catholic school and I have never participated in mass so I thought it might be a cool idea for them to take me and do something a little more spiritual. I dunno I'm trying to brain storm ways to bring in spiritual aspects to the relationships I have made at the drop-in I volunteer at. Anythoughts from you guys are welcome, lets just make any criticism or comments politely worded. I don't want to debate I just want feed back and your opinions.
2 Comments:
Its important to build trust and friendship, especially with teens, before getting all spiritual on them... so its not a "boo-boo" YET, but it has the potential of becoming one if you keep opting out of speaking your true feelings for fear of them not liking you. Its a good idea to bring up the issue again and explain your concerns about the message the band is sending out, just make sure its done in a very diplomatic way that shows respect for the opposite side of the argument. If anything, they'll respect your honesty :)
1:47 PM
Unfortunately the music that you were “victim” to is considered “light-weight” to what they receive daily. Knowing the girls in which you are concerned for they would think lightly and would probably laugh off the idea of the music you heard together as offence towards them.
Being swore at and degraded is pretty common for the “rap scene” and admitably (as I would say) I feel that these words don’t have an impact on me. When some of my favorite rappers tell me to smoke a fatty, shoot someone and slap that bitch, I don’t consider or imagine myself a pimp or gangster. Just as these girls won’t tell you that they don’t feel like a piece of ass when they get called a whore.
Maybe talking to them about the music isn’t the route to go. Maybe asking them what they think of themselves and asking them why they hold to certain values might be. I don’t think you would get a lot of people who would find a connection to the music they listen to and the life style they live (although I am sure you might feel differently.)
I find people are pretty open to discussing what they believe (or don’t know they believe)
Maybe you can have a spiritual conversation with them with being all “spiritual.” Just straight up questions like “so do you do” or “what do you think about”
(use your imagination) followed by a discussion on why they do them. No harm in straight talk.
Ade, you ow me a coffee (well you dont ow me one, but we can go for one) - thats if your not to busy that is.
4:06 PM
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