The following article is reprinted from the June 2003 issue of Tri-State Voice. [Read and comment on it online at Relevant Magazine as well.]

Young People are NOT the Future:
Embracing the YW8? (Why Wait?)™ Generation

- By Jeremy Del Rio

In American culture, young people are prized.

They win Grammy, Oscar, and Emmy awards; compete for Olympic Gold; fight wars; earn millions; and define COOL. This after centuries where they achieved national independence; abolished slavery; pioneered new territories; secured civil rights; and innovated new modes of communications, transportation, civic engagement, and much more.

From revolutionaries like Nathan Hale to abolitionists like Frederick Douglas to the student activists who organized 1960s sit-ins; from artists like Eminem and Norah Jones to athletes like A-Rod and Kobe to icons like Leo and Britney; from innovators like Steven Jobs to frontiersmen like Davy Crockett to Iraqi liberators like G.I. Joe, it seems like everywhere except the Church young people accomplish big things.

Yet a popular notion has captivated many of our churches and their leaders, limiting the opportunities for our young people to make great impact.

The alluring yet deadly wrong culprit: "Young people are the future."

Too often, this misguided mantra informs our programs, shapes our strategies, and guides our teachings, creating well-meaning adults who aim to inspire future greatness at the expense of present purpose.

Few rhetorical catch-phrases have been more insidiously destructive to the development of our young people than this popular myth. It's insidious because it's partly true. (Nicotine is partly relaxing; it's the other part that's deadly.) Kids have a future, no doubt, but they also have a present and a past. By equating them with the future, we have inhibited the contribution they can make to their communities, culture, and churches today while discouraging the lessons they have learned from the past.

Even worse, the myth is patronizing and provides cover for condescension. Despite its sweet sound, implicit in the idea that young people are the future is the idea that adults are today. As a result, kids perceive that their present realities matter less than adults', along with their preferences, judgments, values, hopes, and fears. While many adults can't (or won't) discern the inherent arrogance in the not so subtle message that they matter more than their kids do, kids can smell it a mile away, and they find it revolting. That's why many rebel.

At the same time that it drives kids away, it runs far afoul of Biblical teaching as well.

David was not the future when, as a shepherd boy, he was the only Israelite courageous enough to slay Goliath; Esther was not the future when she was appointed empress of Persia as a teenager; Josiah was not the future when he became king at the age of 8; Mary was not the future when God himself impregnated her virginal body; Timothy was not the future when Paul charged him: "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity." (I Timothy 4:12)

Set an example? Resist condescension? Sadly, not in many churches. At least not today.

Why is it that when our young people try to be nonconformist trend setters, Pharisaical church leaders feel compelled to put them in their place? Rather than embrace them, mentor them, and empower them to use their courage to bring light to dark places, the punk kids get relegated to the back of the bus: the ghettoized, junior "youth group" congregation.

Marilyn Manson grew up in youth group. So did Elvis, and Whitney, and hundreds of others whose churches failed to make room for them, except for the occasional choir solo.

Remarkably, we then wonder why our youth groups only attract a handful of kids, usually those coerced by parents to be there.

In 1996, my wife and I were among a group of fourteen young people who resisted the parochial box of a generational label, X, that relegated us to a confused present and a frightening future. Challenged by a pastor who wasn't afraid to let us fail, we determined to overcome the stereotype and contribute something meaningful to our community. At the ripe old age of 21, I was the senior member of our team, and the oldest involved in its day-to-day operations.

Looking at the realities of our community, the historically impoverished Lower East Side section of Manhattan, we wanted to offer our peers viable alternatives to the streets, and for that matter, to the X-box. Despite no money, no equipment, no paid staff, and no space of our own, we opened a youth center in the projects and called it Generation Xcel. Seven years later, Xcel operates two facilities, a theater in the heart of the trendy East Village, and retreat programs upstate, and has impacted thousands of kids through after school and summer programs, community service projects, and neighborhood outreaches. In the process we made scores of mistakes, bended a few common sense rules, and learned how to defy the odds.

We were not special, just empowered to make a difference. And we did.

It's time to wake up and smell reality. The future is now. Why wait to embrace it?

Next month, The Joshua Paradox: Establishing a Meaningful Mentorship Model
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Additional articles by Jeremy available online:

X Factor: Redefining a Generation for Xmas (December 2004)
An Embarrassment of Riches: Economic Injustice and the Church (November 2004)
Wake Up from Slumber: Civic Hypocrisy and Voter Dysfunction (October 2004)
A Letter to My Son on Father's Day (June 2004)
Fight of the Fatherless (May 2004)
Let's Talk about Sex (April 2004)
Beyond Passion: Living a Crucified Life (March 2004)
Losing Races: A Dream Deferred (February 2004)
From Irrelevant to Revolutionary: A 21st Century Continental Congress (November 2003)
Crisis of Zeroes: Engaging NYC Public Schools (September 2003)
WWJD (What Would Jay-Z Do): Engaging Youth Culture (August 2003)
The Joshua Paradox: Establishing a Meaningful Mentorship Model (July 2003)
Thanks to Heroes (September 2002)
A View from Ground Zero (September 2001)
By Any Means Necessary: Free Hot Dogs and Youth Evangelism (July 2001)
Ground Zero Photos (Photography)

Visit HERE for more Xcel Original Writings.