Is Teen RIght for Questioning Christmas Display?

Should your local high school be allowed to have a Christmas display, even if some students object?

I came across this very interesting post at the Friendly Atheist (a column I regularly read at Patheos) which offers a response to a teen concerned that the teachers in her school have set up Christmas trees and are playing Christmas music: 

"I am a (soon to be)15 year-old high school student in Austin, Texas. I go to a public school. My school exhibits at least two decorated Christmas trees, and several teachers play what they call “Christmas Music” during class. There is no menorah, but there also isn’t a nativity scene. I have talked to my Mom about my thoughts on the subject, asking her whether or not I should raise a fuss and get them taken down. We talked about jockeying for equal representation, but I don’t believe that would resolve the problem. There is no conceivable way to truly exhibit equal representation. After all, what would the majority of parents think if our school had a Wiccan altar, or a Festivus pole? I would really appreciate your help."


Richard's response, I think, is not only helpful but also spells out the truth that there is, in the United States, both a secular and a religious observance of Christmas and both are a part of the fabric of our culture. For Richard, the important question is: How serious is the religious imposition? That is to say, if the school is just decorating a tree for fun and if the Christmas music tends more the way of Jingle Bells instead of O Come All Ye Faithful, maybe there's no reason for a young atheist to worry about launching a protest.

I used to be a public school teacher and a youth pastor at the same time.   As a committed Christian, I objected to all the religious symbolism in my school at Christmastime.  Some of my colleagues would say, "But you're a minister.  Why are you bothered by us bringing Christmas into the school?" For two reasons: 

Advent Ideas for Youth Ministry: Subversive Art Revisited

A youth worker shares images inspired by our post on Subversive Advent Art.

One of my favorite Advent activities in our church last year was creating together a mosaic image of Mary and infant Jesus out of bits of colored paper torn from Christmas advertisements and catalogs (Target ads came in handy when we needed some red!). The idea was to take the commercialism of the season and subvert its purposes in order to create something representing the sacred. You can see the image we created here and find a link to the original piece of art which inspired it. 

Several fellow youth workers have shared with me the results of trying this project with their own youth.  I'm grateful to youth worker Tracy Wallace of Coquitlam Presbyterian Church in Coquitlam, BC, Canada who recently contacted me to share these great Advent/Christmas images created as part of her youth group's participation in Advent Conspiracy activities. 

 

This project is really versatile. I know one youth minister who adapted it for use in Lent. You could use images of warfare and violence to create a mosaic icon representing peace, transform images of the world's outcasts into a mosaic of the radically welcome table of communion or even take individual photos of your own youth or church members and transform them into an image to represent what you hope to be as the one body of Christ in mission to the world.

Have Yourself A Merry Zombie Apocalypse?

Why as people of faith do we find TV shows like The Walking Dead so compelling? It turns out that the season of Advent just might hold an answer.

My latest essay at Patheos takes a serious look at why our culture is so interested in zombies and apocalypse, and what this all might mean for our youth in light of the Advent season:

For those citizens of the ancient world, living lives of oppression at the hands of the Empire, knowing the end was in sight and that big changes were coming was just about the only message of hope they wanted to hear. In a sense, anything had to be better than the present situation. And what of our teens today? Do they really want to see the world turned upside down? Some do, yes.

The mass shootings this week are a stark reminder that even as we try to bring light into the world with our holiday festivities this time of year, so much tinsel and evergreen boughs cannot hide the fact that there is still much darkness in the world, and many of our youth are experiencing that darkness in their daily lives. Might Advent be the perfect season for helping them to see how they can be part of bringing light into a world so in need of illumination?

You can read and share your thoughts on the full essay here.  

(Note: Image above features a paper craft zombie nativity. Not certain what to do with that theologically but maybe one of you wise readers can suggest an idea.)

Talking with Your Youth about the Newtown Shootings

In this Advent season, as we contemplate the light of God coming into the world even in the face of terrible violence and heartache, the best thing I can think to do when youth ask "Where is God in all this?" is to follow this advice from Fred Rogers' mom and to seek out examples like this caring teacher.  

Want more examples of God love's at work in the world? Check this out!

Image of the Day: Could This be the Holy Family?

What have we come to expect of depictions of the Holy Family? How about surprising your youth with the unexpected?

Artists of all ages in our church helped to create these African mask-inspired depictions of Joseph, Mary, and the baby Jesus.  How would your youth react to this depiction of the holy family, so different from the anglo-European images we often see on the fronts of greeting cards this time of year?

 

It might be interesting to gather a collection of images that depict Mary, Joseph and Jesus in unexpected ways to show to your teens. For instance, this image of a homeless family or perhaps these intriguing images from the Middle Ages and earlier of Mary breastfeeding the infant Jesus. Consider this contemporary image by Marc Chagall ("The Couple - a Holy Family" 1909), the unconventional recasting of the holy family in this Benneton advertisement, or this use of the holy family to make a political statement. How might sharing these images with your youth help them to think in new ways about Jesus, family, contemporary issues facing Christians, and how God is still at work in the world through the relationships that weave us together as "family?"

Advent Ideas for Youth Ministry: Which Nativity is Which?

Here's an idea to help your teens explore the richness (and differences) of the two stories of Jesus' birth in scripture.

Our church recently hosted a "Nativity Walk," a contemplative worship experience in which participants explored dozens of nativity sets and meditations shared by church members. At the meal before the service, I was chatting with one of our "resident theologians" about the nativity set I had donated and he jokingly wondered aloud, "Which nativity is it? The Matthean or Lukan version?"

 

This made me wonder: What would it be like to have a nativity set that just depicts Matthew's version of the story or just Luke's version of the story (much like the portion of Borg and Crossan's text The First Christmas in which they imagine how strange it would be to have children's Christmas pageants based just on one biblical retelling or the other rather than mixing the two stories together.) Though it is convenient perhaps to just merge the two stories, doing so causes us to lose the unique theological perspective and symbolism intended by Luke and Matthew.

Image via Pink & Green Mama

 

So here's the idea:  Divide your youth into teams.  Provide each team with a variety of craft supplies you may have on hand: construction paper, tape, glue, markers, fabric, tag board, play dough, and so on.  Give each group just one version of the nativity story, either Matthew's or Luke's and challenge them to take 30 minutes to work together to create a nativity set that only depicts the story elements in their version of the text.  So, for example, your Luke groups will have the shepherds, but the Matthew group will not. The Matthew group will have wise men but the Luke group will not. The Luke group might want to depict Mary and Joseph's path to Bethlehem while the Matthew group needn't bother as in their version the couple already reside in the town. 

 

When finished, invite the groups to share their creations and the discoveries they made about what is included or missing in the different stories. Invite them to consider such questions as: Why do you think Luke includes the shepherds? How does it change the story if they aren't mentioned?  What part do the wise men play in Matthew's narrative?  How does the presence or absence of, for example, the angels, the star, or King Herod affect the focus of the story? 

 

You may also want to spend a little time sharing the different agendas of the writers of Luke and Matthew and how their telling of the nativity fits into their theological intentions.  Doing so could help your youth find a deeper understanding of these oft-told narratives and perhaps discover a new appreciation for these stories from our faith tradition.

Video: What is Advent? (Gangnam Style)

(HT to Catholic Youth Ministry Resources.)

Advent Ideas for Youth Ministry: Free Xmas Devotional

Take time in Advent to slow down and reflect on the meaning of the season with this free resource. 

Fellow youth minister Robbie Mackenzie has penned a nice selection of devotionals to use through the Advent season and up to Christmas. Though written to be used at home with the family, they would also be easily adaptable for use with a youth group or for private meditation. 

Each day includes scripture, reflection, questions, and a prayer exercise. He has based them around weekly themes of waiting, expectation, joy and peace and them work best if you use them along with the lighting of an advent wreath. Read more here for this and additional Christmas resources from Robbie and download the devotional book here. 

Amazing Video for Your Next Bible Study

I'm a huge proponent of reading the Bible in context, recognizing the cultural, racial, moral, ethical, intellectual, colonial, gender, and sexual lenses that color everything we read in the Bible. (Which lenses did I leave out?)

How often do we name our own biases when reading scripture? How often do we interpret a scriptural text as if it was written for us living in the 21st Century without noting that to those living in the first century the text may likely have meant something completely different? (Incidentally, this is the subject of a very interesting and accessible new book entitled Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible by E. Randolph Richards and Brandon J. O'Brien).  

It seems to me that this video would be a great way to illustrate to students that how we interpret something has everything to do  with the perspective or vantage point from which we view it.  The objects in the video appear to be real three dimensional objects...until you change your vantage point.  Then they transform into an idea, a visual representation, a fake, an interpretation of an object, and so on. (You can download the Rubik's Cube image here, print it on 81/2x11 paper and try it for yourself.)

Advent & Christmas Ebook Still Available!

My ebook Creative Youth Ministry Ideas for Advent and Christmas (2011) is still available if you didn't have a chance to purchase it this time last year. Heck, even I went back to pull ideas from it to use with our youth this December!

 

In addition to offering some of the material scattered about this blog, now newly-edited and neatly repackaged into one ebook, you'll also find ideas never before published on the site.  This 66-page ebook includes Bible studies, games, discussion starters, art projects, song studies, and more.  All for the small price of $1.99. You can find out more information here. And keep checking back as new ideas for Advent and Christmas are on the way.

Advent Ideas for Youth Ministry: Advent-in-a-Box

Try this idea to encourage your youth to spend some time focusing on the themes and texts of the Advent season.

Inspired by a 2011 post by Joel Mayward and some of the ideas we have shared here for Advent prayer stations, I developed the following activity to encourage our youth to spend some time sharing themselves with each other while exploring the meaning behind the season of Advent.

Prepare a small gift box with the following items:  shepherd nativity figure, watch or hour glass, baby toy, votive candle, greeting card with image of the nativity, strips of green and red construction paper (most of these items I just picked up at a dollar store). Print and cut out the texts below and tape them to the corresponding object in the gift box.  Invite one participant at a time to select an item from the box, read the text and corresponding question and pass the object around the group, giving each person a chance to respond. Note: You could do this as one large group (no more than ten would be good) or divide into smaller groups (with 3-5 people per group).

WAITING:  Read from Luke 3: “As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John (the Baptist), whether he might be the Messiah, ^*16John answered all of them by saying, ‘I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with^* the Holy Spirit and fire.”

Advent is a season of waiting – waiting once again to celebrate the birth of Jesus and the way that birth changes the world.  Invite each group member to hold this watch and answer the following question: What are you waiting for this Advent season (for example, in your personal life, at school, with your family, in the world, etc.) If you like, pass the watch around again and ask each person: What do you think God is waiting for?