{"id":45736,"date":"2022-03-11T13:48:28","date_gmt":"2022-03-11T19:48:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/?p=45736"},"modified":"2022-03-17T21:46:21","modified_gmt":"2022-03-18T02:46:21","slug":"youth-ministry-and-the-rise-and-triumph-of-the-modern-self","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/?p=45736","title":{"rendered":"Youth Ministry and the Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Perhaps you\u2019ve seen it on TV or heard it on the radio. An ad begins with a host of happy and energetic young voices talking on top of each other. Then, a narrator asks the question: \u201cWhat do <em>you<\/em> want to be?\u201d After several responses from teens regarding their confusing quest to establish their identity, we hear the invitation: \u201cWhoever you want to be, it\u2019s yours to make on Instagram!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Two thoughts jumped into my head. First, Instagram\u2019s marketing team has really tapped into our kids\u2019 urgent yearning to answer that all-important question: \u201cWho am I?\u201d Of course, it\u2019s hard to imagine a more dangerous guide than Instagram. Which leads me to my second thought, one that\u2019s short and sweet: \u201cUgghh!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Because we all swim in the so-called cultural soup, it\u2019s easy to miss the significance of this 30-second Instagram ad. But if we take the time to reflect on this cultural artifact, it\u2019s clear that it\u2019s both <em>directive<\/em> and <em>reflective<\/em>. As a <em>directive <\/em>piece, it lays out a map for our vulnerable kids to follow in order to find their way on the identity-formation trail. As a <em>reflective<\/em>piece, it offers us a wide-open look into the basic beliefs we<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Perhaps you\u2019ve seen it on TV or heard it on the radio. An ad begins with a host of happy and energetic young voices talking on top of each other. \u2026 keep reading\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[793],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9marks","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/557"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45736"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45738,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45736\/revisions\/45738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}