caste, creaming, and others - pt.1

Structurally speaking, the focus of church youth programming or ministry can become extremely compromised whenever the offspring of the most prominent church attendees are involved.

This is hardly an outrageous phenomenon within the context of adult interaction and youth development as often proven by overzealous parents and your local youth sports league. Growing up playing sports was a wonderful experience that equipped me with all the proper axioms, which now consistently attempt to govern the terms of my everyday life. The coach’s kid was always the star quarterback, pitcher, or point guard; unconsciously living as the vicarious vehicle of lost dreams.

Systematically, church based youth development operates under the same principles - straining to provide an equitable environment for various family representatives while subtly mandated to leapfrog the youth with a “specialized family calling”. Church-based programs seem almost bound by the rules of spiritual succession though it is never spoken but almost certainly implied. I don’t think I have ever met a young person whose family was prominent in church-based ministry that had not heard they were also “called” to follow in those footsteps simply due to the nature of their genetic composition. What I believe develops over time is an absolute genuflection of services and opportunities in the direction of that family member and a freeze out of sorts for those not fortunate enough to bear the family crescent.

I am increasingly disheartened by this system of hierarchical creaming, which attempts to influence outcomes by simply herding young people into predestined slots. Plainly stated, kids whose parents have little or no power always seem to get the proverbial short end of the stick, while those in power continually convince themselves that simply providing the best situation for their own teen will somehow create a spiritual Reaganomics type trickle-down theory.

Confronting issues of entitlement, which are so entrenched within the fabric of church culture, leaves one with little ability to protect the infrastructure of the youth ministry/program from the impending stress fractures. Being an eyewitness to these types of interactions have moved me to believe in, and call for complete reformation in our youth ministry methodology. I fear we have become nothing more than an elaborately adorned Christian version of the Caste system. Seemingly less interested in the possibilities that could reside within a communal vision of redemption for our family systems because of our single-minded focus on the establishment of our own family legacies and transferable titles of nobility.

Before discussing some options that might be considered when trying to reform the current system there is an additional portion I would like to explore. This portion deals with the American Christian family’s inability to embrace, enter into, and develop an understanding concerning human pain and suffering. To completely blame the American family is extremely irresponsible because our present church structure is ill equipped to even attempt a basic conceptualization.

Our ecclesiasticism (or principles of thought) is one that seems to promote a “glory to glory” type of Christian experience leaving those with hardships to wonder if they are lacking in faith, knee deep in sin, or simply cursed. Why does the American church gloss over human pain and suffering as if it were an outdated Old Testament ritual? Where did we acquire the viewpoint that any hardship we encounter must originate out of the sin of the person who is suffering without ever considering issues of systemic corruption? Have we become like the witnesses found in Job’s story that only sought to assign blame as a result of a particular person’s sin?