Yesterday I posted about an event called "Movement" and linked to everyone except the event itself. Here is the link to the Movement site. Also, Ypulse reader Ryan wrote to tell me about another "trend" in the Christian youth space, which I found fascinating. He said:

BTW, relating back to the same section that was speaking about youth ministers reaching out into youth culture one of the trends that's recently become a discussion point for youth that are both liberal and religious is deciding whether to call themselves Christian or not, they like the socially active and positive sides of Christianity (actively trying to make their neighborhoods and cities better, helping the homeless and troubled, etc) but don't want the stigma of fundamentalism that the word implies.

When I was at the recent MacArthur Foundation event at Stanford (btw you can watch some video from the event here and here), I crashed the dinner reception and was chatting with danah boyd and a few others about youth ministers. They make up a sizable portion of Ypulse readers and also follow danah's work in large numbers as well. Over the past four years (yes, Ypulse turned four this month!), I have been surprised by who is actually the most steeped in youth culture, media and marketing. Apart from execs at MTV or agencies that specialize in reaching youth, it's YA librarians and youth ministers. In a way, it makes sense — both of these groups are driven by something greater than the almighty dollar — in one case, they are driven by "the almighty" period. They both genuinely care about teenagers and are selling something bigger (literacy, salvation) than a sneaker or a candy bar.

I think that many of us who see ourselves as liberal are fearful of youth ministry or at least a flavor of it tinged with more judgmental fundamentalist thinking that tends to focus on the afterlife vs. this life (i.e. Battlecry and Livin' It see my past posts here and here). The reality is that youth ministry spans many denominations, and that there are even some evangelicals who lean towards more pro-social ministries engaged in trying to change the here and now.

I was pleasantly surprised to get word of this event called "Movement" in my inbox this morning. The focus is on social change and the key players include To Write Love On Her Arms (focuses on addiction), The Glue Network (social networking for social change), Walking on Water (surf community), Invisible Children (former Ypulse Mashup speakers) and Refuge (an OC youth ministry).

What I am always amazed at is how well these ministries are able to replicate very sophisticated design, marketing and technology in their efforts as well as create their own music and subculture within the hard to crack action sports subcultures. Whether they are more fundamentalist or more tolerant, all of these organizations attract thousands of teens to these events. It's worth checking out these sites as case studies in design and messaging.

Today's Ypulse Guest Post is from Shari Biediger. Shari is currently a freelance writer with over 13 years experience in youth media and marketing. If you're a Ypulse reader who works in youth media or marketing and have an idea for a Ypulse Guest Post, get in touch!

What Youth Marketers Can Learn From Youth Ministry

It was a cool spring evening down by the river, and there was a rockin' band, about two-dozen young people, and an outdoor basketball court-turned-dance floor. Nice night for a party.

Then the Candlelight Crashers showed up … a loosely organized band of teens who showed up at my 15-year-old daughter's retreat site over the weekend. (I say "loosely" only because they weren't wearing matching T-shirts … yet … and you won't find them in a Google search either.) She was there with 25 others from her all-girl, inner city Catholic high school.

Teen ACTS retreats are teen-led weekends where high schoolers sing, pray and generally talk about God, church and community service. According to their report, the 11-year-old ACTS movement now exists in Alaska, California, Connecticut and Missouri, as well as all over Texas.

These Crashers came loudly, uninvited and unknown (though not unwelcome), like they do at retreats all over the area nearly every weekend. I was intrigued as they danced and sang, that they had obviously sought out this "Jesus party," yet with good intentions. They didn't fit into one "type" or "clique" but were a mix of teens from artsy to preppy to loner.

OK, it's not like there was nothing else going on in town. But they had no doubt experienced an ACTS retreat themselves, and knew it was the best place for a free party. (It was probably easy to get mom and dad to hand over the car keys as well.)

A 2005 Harris Interactive Survey (.pdf) reported how religious leaders do a great job recognizing the need to be relevant to teens, and if they didn't do it now, it would be too late to establish lifelong faith. Now if Candlelight Crashers, who happily choose to spend their Saturday nights in this way, isn't an example of how effective they've been in beginning to create a lifetime preference, I'm not sure what is. Especially when it comes to picking up where parental influence leaves off, which can be a model applied so many other, uh, industries as well. After all, youth ministry has been around since the mid-1800s.

Of course, Crashers isn't a widespread movement and not an official group of any kind. But I loved how they subtly express their reaction to an experience. They serve as a non-digital reminder of how you can tell when your marketing efforts are a slam-dunk: when you see them (youth) make it social, make it fun, make it a little "underground."

Sort of related: (posted by Anastasia)

Papal Skateboard Art Design Contest gallery (via Next Great Thing)

More fun feedback from Ypulsers in the comments.

Rebecca responded to my post about the MTV/AP poll on what makes teens happiest (music!) writing:

Music definitely makes me happy. I think if the music industry were able to harness the power of how we share music between friends, that would be a great business model. I would say 75% of new music I listen to is recommendations from friends. Can music companies provide kickbacks to those of us who recommend and engage in a little profit-sharing? I'd sign up.

There is a really interesting discussion thread happening about Battle Cry and Christian youth groups happening on that post. I wanted to highlight one of the comments from danah boyd:

I too watched the CNN coverage and, while I understand Jeff's points, I do think that there's a component of BattleCry that is about intolerance.

BattleCry is about going to war with American culture and society. It is about creating warriors. Tactics of war breed hatred and intolerance, and much of what teens are encouraged to do through the construction of "Battle Plans" and mobilizing youth is about an "us vs. them" mentality. Don't get me wrong - I have huge issues with the way that mass media and marketing forces capitalize on desire and greed to encourage problematic cultural activities (for teens and adults). I just do not believe "waging war" is the path to salvation. I am a strong believer that change has to take place through civil and compassionate discourse, not aggressive "us vs. them" demands.

I also think that Anastasia's points are critical here. BattleCry reproduces the pop culture it demonizes (complete with the sounds and styles). BattleCry also focuses on people following a set of structured rules to deal with their problems rather than facing the issues that are causing their grief.

The social network site component of BattleCry (backed by Falwell) takes a hardline Christian stance that I find tremendously problematic. Rather than "respect thy father and mother," the BattleCry "warrior discipline" is "I will recommit to be submissive to my parents." Respect and submission are very different things.

This is a dangerous framework because it sets up a dynamic that encourages people to seek power, not work towards a culture of tolerance.

Allison - I have seen many Christian youth groups that play a positive role in teens' lives, but most of them are tremendously small and local and lead by a compassionate youth pastor. I have yet to find a large, national one that is not ridden with issues of power (and fame and greed). I really liked the segment on CNN's special with Pastor Boyd because I think that he succinctly explains why power is a huge problem for the church. This is also very true for Christian youth organizations that I've seen. :(

André responded to the story about Orkut (I apologize for misspelling this in Friday's newsletter — I had letter dyslexia) being a youth icon in India by saying:

In India? Orkut is HUGE HUGE HUGE in Brazil. Orkut is for Brazil exactly what MySpace+Facebook are for U.S. I will go as far as saying there is MUCH MORE Brazilians in Orkut than Indians, just create an account and see for yourself.

The article is just incredibly bad for not even mentioning Brazil: "Orkut is extremely popular in Brazil with some 8 million users, representing about a quarter of all Brazilians who have access to the Internet."

"66% of all Orkut users are Brazilians, followed by Americans (13%) and India (7%)."

3% in a country where 80% of the population is poor. Almost every single middle class person between 14 and 25 in Brazil has one.

Last night I caught some of the CNN special "God's Warriors" with Christiane Amanpour. They had a segment on Battle Cry, the fundamentalist youth ministry I've blogged about here before. What struck me as I was listening to the teens interviewed was the very palpable reality that they were in pain — whether it was family issues, depression or addiction, and that this movement, both the instant community and the promise of being "saved" are powerful offers.

My husband is going to school to be a therapist and is currently working with adolescents — I looked at him as we were watching and said, "this is your competition." It's much harder for teens to have to work through these issues in therapy (many of them aren't ready for the kind of talk therapy that tends to work for adults). Battle Cry ironically employs all the bells and whistles of the pop culture it rails against to create a cathartic experience for teens who are in pain, alienated or who are just looking for a greater cause to belong to. Unfortunately, it also pits them against the secular world and indoctrinates them with black and white thinking that leads to intolerance.

I'm playing catch up after running around most of yesterday. If you haven't already, definitely check out my article on the MySpace Ecosystem over at BusinessWeek Online and a big thanks to everyone who emailed me to help out. My next ViewPoint column will focus on "the new paper dolls," i.e. avatars and virtual fashion, looking at sites like Stardoll and Gaia Online that are becoming hits with teen and tween girls. Feel free to email me with leads or ideas.

The weekend's New York Times was full of Ypulse-y news, so I figured I would do a quick roundup post in case any of you missed these stories. Two of them struck personal chords with me — the first was the Sunday Styles section's attempt to label black or brown people who dig rock music as part of a trend — "Truly Indie Fans." Eat the Press over at Huffington Post offers up a decent commentary politely reminding the Times that this is not new. I spent a good chunk of my teen years on the Nashville, TN punk scene in the late 80s and guess what, not only were there a couple of African American kids who hung out in the hardcore scene — one was a drummer and one of the most popular local hardcore bands. Plus…hello, anyone remember Bad Brains, Fishbone (who still put on a kick-ass live show) or Living Colour?

The magazine featured a lengthy piece on how many evangelical churches are opening up to allow dancing. Hallelujah! I'm sure I've waxed not so poetic here about how "Footloose" is one of my favorite teen movies of all time…I just remember the Church of Christ kids not being able to dance in Nashville…This story is on my "to read when I have some time" list.

The Arts section belatedly covered the Slamdance controversy over the Super Columbine Massacre Role Playing Game!, which was withdrawn from the competition, and gave us a preview of "Jackass" and professional skater Bam Margera's upcoming MTV series covering his wedding preparations.

And finally Monday's Business section informed us that Nielsen is now rating what college students are watching on TV — and tells us, most channel surf, multitask and don't have DVRs.

This set is from Dare2Share, a big Christian youth ministry that claims to have reached 250,000 teens nationwide. Some are familiar, but I liked the Starbuck's spirituality and street education trends:

#1- There will be an increase of teen volunteers or new programs for community involvement managed entirely online.
Teens will continue to be a generation that is a study in contradictions, i.e. being involved in the community while isolated in their bedroom. You will see them exhibit unapologetic self-righteousness, then flip the switch and be a paragon of tolerance. Teens today are moving in a direction that is comfortable with conflicting worldviews. For example, they will spend time and resources on ‘me’ items (ipods, downloads, games, etc.), and at the same time spend time and resources giving back to the community and others around them. They exhibit strong individualism AND communal-ism (Everything today is customized, but teens want to be part of a community too).

#2- Major media production houses will follow the lead of Christian production companies and begin to include spiritual elements to their releases.
This is a generation that increasingly responds to faith based marketing like the Christian productions of Amazing Grace, Left Behind video games, etc. Sales and stats are showing a rising popularity among teens to explore spiritual themes. Companies and businesses are responding to this with a variety of options for this generation and in 2007; more movies, TV shows, and video games will be released with spiritual or faith based elements in them; specifically targeted to the teen audience.

#3- Teens will increasingly individualize their beliefs
This is a generation that embraces a ‘Starbucks’ spirituality. Teens today are used to customizing every aspect of their life, so why wouldn’t this spill over into the area of spiritual beliefs? When forming their opinions about faith based matters, picture most 13-18 year olds ordering up a Grande Carmel-Kabbalah latte with a dash of Buddhism and a Hindu Krishna cookie on the side.

#4- Student led campaigns will be created to raise awareness of social justice issues
This generation is already known as a generation that is drawn to community relationships and activism. From the Gap/Bono iPod for Aids relief, to the uber success of myspace.com, it is obvious that teens today are tribal and feel a strong need to make a difference in the world. They really do exhibit a “think globally- act locally” attitude- with the addition of global concerns as well. It wouldn’t surprise us to see students create campaigns that raise awareness of child prostitution in Asia or orphaned kid soldiers in Sierra Leone.

#5- Students will no longer see value in formal education as much as street education.
This is a generation of ‘what have you done for me lately?’ teens. Much like the young people of the 1960’s, these adolescents do not have an inherent respect for titles and/or positions. Yet unlike the Woodstock folks, they generally aren’t actively anti-establishment. What registers with them is personal authenticity and passion about life regardless of background, education, or societal ‘rank’. Formal universities and seminaries are going to have their work cut out for them to keep teens engaged in pursuing a formal degree.

P.S. Also check out TrendWatching's top five consumer trends for 2007 — there were so many made up marketing words I wanted to hurl, but I did like the concept of Transparency Tyranny.

I'm curious about what people in the Christian space think about MTV possibly launching a vertical site focused around "faith and spirituality," which to me signals they want a piece of the zillion dollar Christian music pie. Do you think the company that a certain strand of evangelicals (BattleCry) would consider the enemy and the source of most of what they view as evil in the popular culture can be successful in this space? I could be wrong — maybe "faith and spiritualiy" just means some sort of music version of Beliefnet — open to every faith and its music. But when AdAge used "Bible-Thumpers" in its headline, it made me think otherwise…

I've blogged about this before, but for any Ypulse newbies who don't know, my mom is a born-again Christian or a "Messianic Jew" so I grew up surrounded by lots of evangelicals in the buckle of the Bible Belt otherwise known as Nashville, TN. I am a culturally Jewish agnostic, but because of the way I grew up, and because evangelicals are spending lots of money, time and energy to co-opt every aspect of youth culture and recreate it in their own image, I follow Christan Teen Media on Ypulse.

So of course I was fascinated by this profile of C-Lister Stephen Baldwin on Salon.com (daypass or subscription required). I posted an Essentials item about his Christian graphic novels the other day but had no idea how large, and frankly a little scary, his Livin It ministry actually is. According to Salon:

- "The Livin It tour drew an audience of over a million in 2005, selling out stadiums from Atlanta to Kingston, Jamaica. At the Minneapolis Metrodome, the tour packed in 40,000 people in a single evening; the wait for an autograph after the 'altar call' lasted three and a half hours. (Last year's X Games drew only 16,000 to a skateboarding competition.)

- The 'Livin It' DVD came out in 2004 and was expected to sell 20,000 copies in four years; it sold 150,000 in 15 months."

Ok — now here's what's scary about Baldwin and his ilk:

- "Baldwin preaches that free will is a lie of Satan — we must shut off our brains, he says, and be led by what God tells our hearts. Furthermore, he writes, efforts to end global poverty and violence are just the sort of 'stupid arrogance' that incur God's wrath, which we'll be feeling any day now in the coming apocalypse."

He even goes after Bono: "'The Unusual Suspect' [his new memoir, which is shooting up the best-seller lists] features an open letter to Bono, lambasting him for lobbying for debt relief for developing countries instead of preaching the gospel on MTV.

- Ryan Dobson receives a shout-out in Baldwin's book as a messenger for 'Homey,' as Baldwin calls God. In Dobson's book 'Be Intolerant,' he rails against relativism, homosexuals, environmentalists and 'inclusive, open-minded Christians,' charging his readers to 'get your armor on and take up your cross.'"

If you thought the documentary Jesus Camp sounded scary, think about what an army of teenagers, pumped up on intolerance, can do…I'm all for people having faith in whatever they want, but the combination of MTV cool combined with Christian fundamentalism scares the bejeezus out of me….

Check out this video from Current TV of a BattleCry ralley:

Related:
Are Advertisers the New "Terrorists"?

This weekend one of the broadcast engineers at Current sent an email out about a huge Christian youth pep ralley called Battle Cry happening across the street at the ball park. The fact that the two-day music and speech-fest sold out at $55 a ticket speaks volumes to the power of Christian teen marketing. But then again, I'm always amazed at the huge Catholic turnout at their Popefest events.

While I don't have a problem with Christian teen marketing in general, I think this organization and event are scary — in the same way I think the Promise Keepers are scary. They are using the violent terminology of "The War on Terror" to voice their unhappiness with advertising and popular culture, and more importantly to convey a political agenda that targets gay marriage, abortion and other hot-button issues in the "culture war." There are plenty of critiques to level at the pornification of pop culture and marketing to teens, but framing a discussion that should be about media literacy as a war or battle seems incredibly divisive and polarizing. From the article:

"Military metaphors abound in Luce's descriptions of the struggle. He tells young people of how 'an enemy has launched a brutal attack on them.' At a pre-Battle Cry rally Friday afternoon on the steps of City Hall, Luce told his mostly teenage audience that 'terrorists of a different kind" — advertisers — were targeting them and that they were "caught in the middle of the battle.'

…Luce's approach has been praised by conservative leaders from the Rev. Jerry Falwell to Fox News commentator Sean Hannity. Much of the statistical backing for the horrors Luce sees on TV is provided by the Parents Television Council, which is funded by conservative foundations such as the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation.

…A Battle Cry invitation to teenagers made plain the symbolism of gathering in San Francisco for a pre-event rally at 'the very City Hall steps where several months ago, gay marriages were celebrated for all the world to see.'"

On top of it all, it seems like these events are also designed to help Ron Luce, the organizer promote his new Christian alternative to MySpace (and potentially make millions), which according to the Chronicle, will be launching soon.