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Jonathan's Resource Ezine

Weekly Resources, Ideas and Articles from The Source for Youth Ministry
 Tuesday, March 11, 2008

In This Issue

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Something You Can Use: Easter Resources Galore!

If you're a regular visitor to our web page then you're LOVING our new front page, packed with new resources at your fingertips every week. Notice that this week's OUTREACH RESOURCE OF THE WEEK, and SPIRITUAL GROWTH RESOURCE OF THE WEEK are both focused on Easter.

Bottom line: Our front page provides easy access to the free resources you want. Updated weekly- can't beat that!

For Even More Easter Resources...

Go to our HOLIDAY IDEAS page and scroll down to Easter for a number of great resources like...


Youth Culture Window: 'Do the Lyrics Really Affect Me' Survey Results

Do Bad Lyrics Really Affect Teenagers?
The Source's Music Survey
David R. Smith

It started with an anonymous 14 year old girl in a chat room talking about chart topping songs when her friend revealed the meaning behind a song's questionable lyrics. Her response? "i love this song, and i dont really care what the lyrics mean :P"

Is this the way most kids think?

That's the question we were trying to answer when we polled users of The Source for Youth Ministry in our recent "What Do Your Kids Really Think?" survey in Jonathan's blog. We can assume (fairly safely) that lots of unchurched teens listen to music that has questionable-to-outright negative and harmful lyrics. But what about the kids sitting in our Wednesday night Bible studies? Are they listening to this stuff? Do they care about the content of these songs?

We asked youth workers across the nation to administer a very short poll to students that attend their church programs. Over the past few weeks, we have received data from youth ministries representing hundreds of teens.

Below are the six questions we asked, and our "churched" students' responses to them.
  • Do you think that parents and youth workers should stay out of your music, turn a deaf ear, and hope that lyrics don't affect you? (53% said "YES, stay out!")

  • Do you think that the lyrics affect you? (55% admitted the lyrics affect them.)

  • If parents or youth workers discover that a song is vile or degrading, should they explain it to you and warn you about it? (78% said adults should warn them.)

  • How many of you would still listen to the music even if you knew the lyrics were bad? (73% confessed they would still listen to the music, regardless of content.)

  • Should parents draw a line and enforce rules of what you can and can't listen to? (Less than half, 43% of our kids, said parents should draw a line.)

  • What should that line be? Or, what criteria should they use? (This answer brought in a cornucopia of responses. The largest response centered around foul language and sexual content being the deciding factors.)
Thanks for helping us out with this, even though it's not all good news. (Remember, these are our churched kids!) I usually leave statistical interpretation to people far more intelligent than me, but I can't help but point out a few observations from this survey.

First, over half of the students admitted that music has an effect on them, good or bad (question 2). And they're right. Jonathan provided some stats to back this up in another recent blog. I was comforted that at least a slight majority of our church kids are aware of the influence music can have on their lives.

Secondly, while just over half of the kids polled said adults should stay out of their music (question 1), over three quarters of the same kids said it would be OK for adults to weigh in on musical choices (question 3). I think this means that kids want to believe they're in the "driver's seat" when it comes to musical preferences, but it's OK with them for adults to "ride shotgun" sometimes.

Finally, I think all of us realize that question 4 really gets down to the truth of the matter. We asked, "How many of you would still listen to the music even if you knew the lyrics were bad?" And 73% said they would. A majority of these kids already admitted that the lyrics affect them, but that doesn't stop them. In other words, temporary pleasure wins over what they know to be true.

So, how does this information impact our role as youth leaders? I think there are a few things youth leaders can do that will bring this conversation to the forefront of teens' thinking...

CLICK HERE FOR THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE



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