Is it all Hype?

I'm concerned about Christian youth. I see teenagers with Christian t-shirts listening to Christian music everywhere. The question is whether they are celebrating God or just succumbing to hype and marketing. The message of these shirts and music is typically "we are a radical generation" and "we will change the world". It seems like Christian marketing is more concerned with making the youth feel that they are different and more special than everyone else, while at the same time, trying to make them feel that they fit into secular society.

In short, they are trying to convince teens that it is "cool" to be a Christian.

I think it's great that teenagers are excited about God. I think it's great that they're excited about "changing the world". But my fear is that it's all hype with nothing but discouragement waiting around the corner.

This comes mostly from personal experience. I'm only 23, and just a few years ago, I was the teenager wearing the Truth and No Fear t-shirts. Church leaders, Christian music, and books were continually telling us that we were the generation that would change the world. Of course, we were excited. I mean, we were going to see the end of the world. Jesus would return, the Tribulation would cover the world, and my generation would be raptured into heaven rather than die like others that came before us.

But something happened. We grew out of it.

Hype dies. It is created, it grows tremendously, it becomes huge and exciting, and then it dies suddenly. In every generation of youth, there is a point where church attendance drops off, where kids raised in the church stop caring about God. I think this is one of the reasons why.
They grow up and they live their lives like everyone else. They get a job, a family, and a mortgage. The revolution dies.

I'm worried about today's youth because I don't want to see the same thing happen to them. I want them to be excited and Jesus and His salvation. But to make them feel like they're the ones that will change the world just sets them up for disappointment. They'll feel like they've been lied to, and they'll fall away from the Lord.