Communicating with Youth

One of the most exciting challenges in youth ministry is creating lessons that are experiential. I rarely have a student come to me and say, "that lecture on Luke chapter 2 really challenged me." I do however have students repeatedly say, "last year's mission trip was amazing, I can't wait to go again." Or, "ever since we went on that retreat, I've been trying to recognize how I can share my faith with others." Experiences teach.

The Bible is filled with stories that teach experiences. The disciples were first challenged by the experience Christ presented. Students today are longing for community, they long to be a part of a story that they can personally make their own. In order to meet that need as a youth minister I need to also recognize that the world today is Post everything! It is:
Post National: It is more diverse than every before. Students go to Japan for class trips, they play video games with students in other countries, and restaurant menus are offered in Spanish and English. Globalization is a huge influence on this generation. There is no longer the fantasy of a land far, far away.
Post Rational: Truth is trumped by experience. If students do not experience God's presence in their lives, the authenticity of the Bible as God's Word is not understood. Science is no longer air tight seal. Mystery and myth are just as easily accepted. They do not want a God that can be dissected and defined.
Post Sexual: Thanks to programming like MTV and several reality based TV shows on sexuality, youth don't recognize the same taboos of previous generations. It isn't uncommon at all for a student to sit at the same table as a bisexual, a homosexual, and a heterosexual and everyone can voice their opinions openly and with little judgment.
Post Racial: Subburban students listen to rap, hip hop, and other music that traditionally was popular in a more Urban setting. Color and culture is a means of identifying personality types, but it is no longer a class definition.
Post Traumatic: Students are not easily shocked. Horror films outsell comedy. They've experienced war, suicide, depression, cancer, hurricanes, tsunamis and more. Their reality is often more abrasive and awestruck than fiction.
Post Contemporary: There is a preference of one worship style to another. An issue current church leaders spend hours debating will be completely irrelevant in the years to come. Worship is about response and community not preference. Spirituality meets them in nature, online, in texts, in a coffee shop it is not bound to organs or chord charts.
Post Christian: Church is no longer the starting point. Students have friends that practice spirituality through a variety of religious traditions. Religions have have sub branches, i.e. "I'm a Christ follower, not a Christian" or "I'm a nonpracticing Muslim" or "I'm a nonkosher Jew."

What trends have you seen in youth ministry? I'd love your opinions, challenges, thoughts on the above.