Sometimes, when you are in any form of youth ministry, we just know that we know that we have been hanging out with kids way too much. The truth of the matter is that I can’t even blame my own children in this point. There are just certain ways that you want to connect when you work with kids of any kind. The point is to build relationships and so you learn the “discussion starters.”
As a point anything from the Disney channel seems to transcend time and space. They are able to overcome barriers of economy, race and up bringing. I can start conversations about,”Hannah Montana,” “Camp Rock,” “The Cheetah Girls,” or “High School Musical,” with pretty much any child under the age of 16, especially the girls. I watch the back packs of every popular show traipse through the halls of our after school program. Come on let’s admit it, the “Jonas Brothers” are just too catchy.
One of the main areas that we work on with the students is that of issues of the heart. We know that we are told in Samuel that man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. ”Out of the heart the mouth speaks.” It follows then that we spend time looking at the lyrics of the popular songs that they are listening to. While “Fity” “Lil’ Wayne” and “Chris Brown,” may not always be the most “positive” influences many time the Disney tunes are just “bubble gum.” They can be seen as just little love songs about friendship and love that make us feel a little better. The reality is that while I would love it if the students would meditate only on God’s Word, we have to help them to navigate that what they are putting in their ears, effects what they think on and therefore effects the state of their heart.
So I began to really think on some of these Disney tunes. I have found that I am able to allow the Lord to work on my heart even in the midst of tween pop. ”Gotta Find You,” by Joe Jonas makes me think about the world looking for Christ every time I hear it. “You’re the missing piece I need, the song inside of me. I gotta find you,” Joe croones. Now I realize that in the movie this is a song for and about a girl. However, I would argue that the voice inside our heads that we are looking for is Jesus.
Then there is the phenom that we call “High School Musical.” I can guarantee I will have many young girls asking if they can hang with me on the weekend it opens. ”You are the Music in Me, ” is a favorite. My own children love it when my hubby and I joke around and sing it as a duet. But, really who is in the music in me? Yep, that’s right Jesus. ”Like I knew you before we met, I can’t explain it.” Why? because I am my Creator’s created. I know that “we belong,” my Savior and I.
Now before you think I am a total fruit cake, I have a contention to make. We want to let the children of our youth groups, and especially those of the city know that there is a God whose love is so wide and high that it will search them out to the ends of the earth. I am not advocating crossing the line and just using “taking music back for the Gospel” as an excuse to fill our heads with junk. No while we want to understand the culture of the kids we are ministering to, we are called in James to “keep ourselves from being corrupted by the world.” However, I also believe that we are called to be wise and creative in how we bring hope into a dying world. In always getting to the heart of the matter Jesus himself used stories to get the point out.
If Disney is everywhere, why can’t we just take this little piece back? As you talk about these movies and popular muscians why can’t we ask the probing question, “Have you ever thought about who that is that IS the music in you?” Think about it for a moment. Use every converstaion as one to bring life and hope taht is our Lord. But, no this does not give you the excuse to watch them in 3D.
