This article is part of a series titled “Hope in the City: Gospel-Centered Wisdom for Urban Youth Ministry.” In this series, we hear from youth ministry leaders about how they faithfully disciple students within an urban context while navigating limited resources, complex cultural dynamics, and the everyday pressures of ministry.
It has never been more challenging to be a teenager than right now. In recent decades, the adolescent years have been defined by cultural pressures that prohibit many students from living in a way that makes them happy and free. They must always consider what their peers or the culture around them think. They perceived they must form every move, word, opinion, and belief with thought of their image.
Imagine trying to be a young Christian when you already feel the overwhelming burden to fit in and succeed. As teenage believers, our students must learn to live as followers of Jesus within a culture that seeks to push them elsewhere and to base their identities in other ideologies or worldviews. This is not an easy feat, to put it lightly. But Scripture helps us teach our teenagers how to keep their identities firmly in Christ despite the aims of the surrounding society.
There are perhaps no better biblical figures to look to for help than Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. We most commonly remember the latter three by their Babylonian names: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These young men had to ascertain how to live as God’s children amid cultural pressures. The Babylonian empire transplanted them, along with many other Jews, from their homes in Jerusalem to Babylon.
Upon reaching their new location, King Nebuchadnezzar attempted to strip them of their identity as God’s people. Daniel and his friends faced pressure to eat the king’s food, which went against Israel’s dietary laws. The King pressured them to bow down to his golden idol and forsake their loyalty to Yahweh. And at one point, the government forbade them from praying to God. Through the biblical narrative, we can note how these young men kept their identity in the Lord in three intentional ways. These provide a blueprint for our students, who, like all Christians, dwell within a cultural environment that seeks to deter them from God.
Pay Attention to Your Consumption
Once in Babylon, the first temptation the young men met was eating like the Babylonian attendants as trainees for the king’s court. The text explains, “Daniel determined that he would not defile himself with the king’s food or with the wine he drank” (Dan. 1:8, CSB). As an Israelite, Daniel had committed to living according to the Lord’s statutes and ordinances as prescribed through Moses. These laws included what he could eat and drink. Daniel decided that his physical location would not determine his obedience. After asking permission “not to defile himself,” Daniel found favor with the king, who allowed him to eat a diet of vegetables and water. Despite refusing the best the kingdom had to offer, Daniel and his friends looked healthier and fatter than any of the other attendants.
For today’s teenagers, this point is not merely about food. In the twenty-first century, opportunities for consumption abound. Beyond filling their bellies, our students have access to various types of content that can saturate their hearts and minds. One mindless scroll on TikTok can inform them on the new, hottest music to listen to, the latest dramatic show on Netflix, or the trendiest attire to wear. It can then point them to where their political affections should lean or who they should be in the world. Not all content is evil. But if students don’t learn to pay attention to what they allow to fill their souls, they will be more prone to permit other principles to form their identities.
Like Daniel, our teenagers can choose not to consume what will defile them. They can determine to remain diligent about what they put before their eyes and in their ears. Sometimes, with the help of a youth minister, students may need help reflecting on who their content of choice is calling them to be: more like Christ or the world? Soon, they may realize that despite the world’s promise of connection, prosperity, and flourishing through its content, only God can provide true peace, hope, and joy.
Choose to Be Set Apart
Next and most famously, the exiled Jews in Babylon faced temptation to bow to King Nebuchadnezzar’s gold statue. Faced with the threat of burning in the blazing furnace, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah tell the king, “Even if [God] does not rescue us…we will not serve your gods or worship the gold statue” (Dan. 3:18). Despite the impending danger, these young men decided that they would remain committed to Yahweh. They chose to be set apart for him. As Jews, the three boys likely knew about Israel’s history. Possibly, they could recall that the Lord had delivered their ancestors from Pharaoh’s hand by parting the Red Sea. Maybe they remembered how God provided for Israel in the wilderness. Drawing upon their understanding of the God who protects and provides for his people, when everyone bowed, they stood.
During the teenage years, there will be moments when it seems like everyone is “bowing.” Every generation faces trends that do not align with the Father’s desires for his children. Nonetheless, our students must know that they have the power not to blend in with the crowd. As believers, they, too, can remember what God has done. Along with their personal testimonies of God’s faithfulness, today’s teenagers may consider how God came down from heaven to deliver us from the grasp of sin when it appeared as though sin would ensnare humanity forever. Jesus came to earth himself so that we would no longer be bound by unrighteousness.
The God we serve continues to protect and provide for his children. Therefore, we only need to look to him for the courage to “stand.” Youth ministers have an exceptional opportunity each week to remind students of this amazing truth and help them to understand that it’s okay not to look like the crowd. It’s the call of the Christian life. Ultimately, the pressure to please other people may always be present. But our students can base their identity in Christ by seeking his approval alone.
Practice Spiritual Disciplines
Lastly, the advisors of a new king conspired against Daniel to urge King Darius to forbid his subjects from praying to “any god or man” except the king. King Darius agreed and declared that offenders would be thrown in the lion’s den (Dan. 6:1-9). Despite this edict, “three times a day [Daniel] got down on his knees, prayed, and gave thanks to his God, just as he had done before” (v. 10). Like the young men who refused to bow to the golden statue, Daniel denied the surrounding culture’s claim to his life amid the immense compulsion to “fall in line.” He demonstrated where his identity lay by practicing the spiritual discipline of prayer, even with the looming threat of a lion’s jaws.
Like Daniel, students today can find their identity in Christ by seeking him through the spiritual disciplines. Regardless of their daily habits, teenagers are being formed in some way. It is simply a matter of what is forming them. Therefore, by choosing to practice disciplines such as prayer, Bible study, journaling, meditation, solitude, service, gratitude, and rest, teenagers can persistently abide in the Lord and continually learn that their greatest identity will always be as an adopted child of God. Youth ministers may help their students in this endeavor. They can intentionally teach about spiritual disciplines, model them in their own lives, and give teenagers the opportunity to practice such disciplines.
But How?
Again, living as a disciple of Christ is not easy, especially as a teenager immersed in cultural pressures. It requires consistent attention and intentional effort. Nevertheless, upon surrendering their lives to Jesus, students must know that “God is working in [them], giving [them] the desire and power to do what pleases him” (Phil. 2:13, NLT). One of the joys of the gospel is that our students do not have to strive to live as Christ’s disciples in their own might. The same Spirit who raised Christ from the dead works in them, leading them to a life of all that is good, beautiful, and holy.
Along with the power of the Spirit, this surrendered life requires a decision. When students choose to partner with the Holy Spirit, they may find a peace and joy that quiets their noisy, weary teenage souls. We pray they will soon find that a life with Christ is the greatest life of all.
Our Biblical Worldview Curriculum helps youth ministers teach their students how the timeless truth and wisdom of God’s word speaks to the cultural narratives of our world.
