Halo 3; Youth Group / Culture and Radical Discipleship.
A debatable content.
Youth ministers across the nation are hosting “Halo 3″ nights to attract male youth. Big Screens. LCD projectors. Links. Xbox 360. Don’t bring any chips or popcorn- keep your greasy hands off these controllers! 4 T.V’s. 16 friends. Screams. Boo’s. Big guns. Swords. Explosions. Make your own Character! The boys get together…and for the first time ever youth group memver “Joe” brings his friends for the first time to youth group. Overnight party. Let’s get started on HALO 3. Herrrrrre we go.
The problem: the video game happens to be rated “M”, and youth must be 17 to purchase the game.
hmmmmmmmm….
Let me be the first to say that I can’t WAIT to try Halo 3. I’m 20 years old with 7 months left of umm…not being “hitched”. lol. I have to put in as much video tiime with the boys as POSSIBLE.
My personal question becomes, with the Rating MATURE in mind, would I play it with High School Youth?
Possibly.
Middle School Youth? No- definately not.
Still- The question remains: are Youth Pastors/ leaders compromising their message to become “revelant.”?? I personally want to be radical in my discipleship- I want kids around me to be transformed through Christ’s love. I want peace, passion, perserverance. I want those around me to see that I am a living testimony….NOT a “preaching testimony.” I do NOT want the World to conform them and mold them. Yet…I know that these games share laughter, smiles, growing relationships, and may lead eventually to deep conversation. What’s more is, some kids who stick themselves in front of game systems barely EVER play with others. We’re talking 12-16 people!
Am I willing enough to bring the unchurched in the Church by hosting a HALO tournament with explosions, attacks and war? Am I willing enough to bring the unchurched and risk the reality of someone swearing if they’re blown to smitherines after a huge missile takes them out?
Interesting.
My first reaction is “LET’S BE RADICAL”
My second reaction is “LET’S BE RELEVANT”
…where is the line…
or is there one???? What do YOU think? Halo 3 with our Youth or Not?
Filed under: Culture, The Church, evangelism, fun, radical | Tagged: discipleship, Halo, Halo 3, marriage, middle school, radical, Xbox 360, youth ministry, youth pastor
I don’t believe Halo 3 is a great tool for bringing the unchurched into youth group, and I think that the churched don’t need it either. I’m a parent, I’m supposed to think like this. Violence, aggression, abusive language - teenage boys already get all this stuff tons of other ways. We don’t need to jump on that band wagon. Teens are obsessed with booze and drugs too - but noone’s about to start up a beer night once a month at youth group, right? What about sex - maybe a co-ed sleepover, so everyone can “do” it in a church environment…don’t think so. To bring the unchurched in, we need to find ways to be in the world without deviating from our core values. So, for example, have a video games night but use games that are races or competitions in ways that don’t conflict with our values - and there are plenty out there - maybe not as hot as Halo 3, but if you offer free food, and have the sound cranked up really high, they’ll be fine. I don’t believe swearing is much of an issue. Churched kids are for the most part in school, which means they hear swearing all the time, and probably swear plenty themselves. For the most part, swearing is not used abusively, and that is when I draw the line - to direct any kind of language at another person with the intent to be abusive is not ok. To use swear words to fit into an environmnet is more like wearing bellbottoms to avoid looking like a geek - not necessary, but not harmful either. More creative language within a youth group setting would be preferable, but excitable words slipping out are a non-issue. I’m good with radical and relevant, but it must fit your/our core values. What kind of message are we sending if it doesn’t?
So, I went and checked out wikipedia about Halo 3 and I have to say it looks like a great game, albeit warlike!…this is a lesson in getting the facts straight before shooting off my mouth/keyboard - still, the M rating is a big red flag - an organization that has nothing to do with “church” has deemed that the material may be inappropriate for immature people. A similar issue on a lesser scale came up for my daughter the other day - she was at a pathfinder meeting (girl guides for teenagers), that was a potluck dinner at someone’s house. At 8pm, 15 minutes before the meeting was due to end, the older girls turned on the tv to watch “Beauty and the Geek”. The leaders deemed the show inappropriate for the younger girls (age 12)and they were made (my daughter included) to go play on the lawn outside(it was cold out) till parents came to pick up at 815. Guess how my daughter felt about this. Guess how I felt about this. How could the leader have handled this another way? Different gender, same kind of issue…
I think it is ok, I liked the first Halo and wouldn’t mind playing the third one. I think that many are a bit hypocritical about the violence, they watch it at the movies don’t they? I do think that Churches need to respect the rules however. You have to be 17 to purchase the game but even some 17 year olds are not mature so if you catch my drift maturity is in the eye of the youth leader. Whether he makes the decision to make 17+ or 12+ it’s up to him and consent by the parents I think is advised.
I think your all sort of wrong cause Halo 3 is a very fun game I used to run the Halo nights at the church and everyone has seen a little blood its not that bad the game brings kids together and teaches them things and eventually you can just say time for a break and have everyone come to a prayer or a group meeting and do some scriptures or something in that manner these kids will learn things thats why halo nights and video game nights are important and we should have them