Forces & Trends Affecting Today’s Youth

Introduction:

Today, our kids are facing a whole new set of choices, expectations, fears, pressures, challenges. They’re facing them at younger and younger ages. Tonight, we will look at the forces & trends affecting today’s youth. We will discuss changing family structure; outside influences; and resulting trends that have been created in the wake of these problems.

I. Changing Family Structure.

A.        God designed the family to be a place of love & nurturing.

1.          Eph. 6:4; Eph. 5:25, 28-30, 33 – kids need parents who love God, each other, their kids.

B.        How has the family changed?

1.          The increase and acceptance of divorce.

a)          Mal. 2:16 – wonder why God hates divorce?

2.         Rise in cohabitation & out-of-wedlock births.

a)          1970-2007 - # of people cohabitating + 1000%. 70% of teens approve

3.          Decreasing amount of time parents spend with kids.

II. Outside Influences:

A.        Music, Advertising, and Media

1.          Many believe the media – not parents – is parenting kids today.

B.        The digital revolution.

1.          Ipods; laptops; cell phones; PDA’s bring the world to our kid’s fingertips.

C.         Peer group pressure.

1.          Peer pressure is now much greater than what people experienced a generation before.

D.        A post-modern worldview.

1.          Post-modern worldview has enveloped us.

a)          No such thing as objective & transcendent truth.

b)         People can discover & invent truth for themselves.

c)          The only wrong idea is to believe in truth and the only sin is to believe in sin.

2.         Barna Survey: 2002:  64% of adults – truth is always relative to the person & their situation. Teens: 83% said moral truth depends on circumstances.

III. These changing influences have led to new, disturbing trends.

A.        On sex.

1.          Kids are much more sexual today – than in previous generations.

2.         Media: sex is an appetite to be indulged in whenever, wherever, however, and with whomever they like.

B.        Materialism.

1.          Our kids have unprecedented economic opportunity & wealth.

2.         Building their lives around the desire to possess things.

C.         Smorgasbord spirituality.

1.          While 84% of teens believe in God, who or what is the God they believe in?

a)          Not the God of the bible: but a “moralistic; therapeutic; Deism.”

b)         Many believe God exists to serve them – by helping them to feel good, happy, secure, and at peace.

2.         Instead of integrating their faith into all of life, many young people live an unintegrated faith that only touches select parts of who they are.

Conclusion:

A.        The nature of our culture makes it difficult to instill godly values…but it is not impossible!