Getting Cultured - Part 1

I was privileged to take a trip to Ecuador one particular year for our church mission trip. We took several adults, as well as a few teenage boys, with us. I remember a certain lady named Fran who was in her early 60’s. She was a sweet, little lady who couldn’t speak a lick of Spanish. She had never been overseas and had never really experienced a different culture before. But the entire trip was amazing for her.

I remember the day we landed back in Houston. We were desperately needing American fast food and the sweet nectar of Heaven, Dr. Pepper! So we stopped for lunch.

As we were getting out of the van, Fran burst out in tears. Something really upset her, and we were trying to calm her down in order to find out what it was. She finally choked back the tears enough to say, “I can’t take it any more! They are just so negative to one another!”

“Who, Fran? Who is negative to one another?” I asked. With her sweet, tear-filled eyes she looked towards two teenage boys we took on the trip. “They have been talking bad to one another the whole trip! And I can’t take it anymore!”

I had to hold back the laughter. I was around these guys all week and never once saw them do anything different than what they had always done. They were really good friends and always seemed to have a good time together. They did what any normal teenage boy does with a close friend, they ragged each other endlessly!

Then it hit me. Fran had spent an entire week in a different country, engulfed in a foreign culture, and was unable to speak the language of the people. And not once did she experience culture shock. Yet, it just so happened that she had culture shock by simply spending one week with a few teenage boys. There’s something unique about the teenagers we serve. They are a different breed of Homo sapiens!

This is why, before we continue, I feel like it is important to have a crash course in youth culture in order to better understand the reasons behind the rest of the book. It is imperative for us to know our audience before we can effectively minister to them. It’s essential to understand this sub-culture and why we even do student ministry in the first place. (Did anyone ever notice that student ministry is nowhere in the Bible?)