My Trip to the Mall

For my adolescent development and culture class, I had the unfortunate project to go to the mall and observe teenage culture at the mall. I realized again that I do not ever want to go to the mall again. Here are my report...

As I walked in to Macy’s department store for my three hour escapade to the Greenwood Park Mall in Greenwood, IN, I was unprepared by what I was going to find there. Today’s mall is very different from the mall I grew up going to. As I walked through the hallways, sat in the food court, and ducked into the “hot” stores, I began to notice many things about the adolescent culture of today. There were things to celebrate, there were things to decry, I discovered two major ministry implications the church must address. Let us look at these thoughts in detail.

One major item from my trip to this retail center that I believe needs to be celebrated was the “global community” that was on display. I first noticed this when I sat down in the food court. There were five restaurants. One was “Subway” and the other four were ethnic. There was a China Place, a Thai food place, and a Cajun place; the fifth one was a pizza restaurant, but its name was “Pizza Di Amore.” I thought, “Wow, the world really is flat.” My thoughts were strengthened when I started to walk through more stores. Almost every store had for sale items from other countries. The music store “FYE,” for example, had a candy rack. They had the things that you would expect like “Snickers” and “M&Ms,” but at least half of the candy bags for sale were from different countries with letters on them that I could not understand. This should be celebrated because students now have awareness of the size and scope of the people on God’s earth. They are more apt to appreciate the work of foreign missionaries who slave away in other countries to bring them the Gospel. Also, they are likely to understand more clearly what Heaven will look like (people from every tongue and tribe and nation).

The mall offers this disparaging issue. I received this revelation in the store Hollister. It was with Chap Clark’s book Hurt that I walked into this, the pinnacle of all teenage stores. To start with, there was no noticeable sign above the entrance; there were no “sale” signs in the windows or in stands near the entrance to welcome patrons in. The whole store is an enigma. The floor is raised two steps at the entrance as if to say, “This store is on a whole new level.” Then, you walk through the aisles filled with blaring music that sounds like it is straight from a rave. Whoever designed the lighting in this place must be a genius. Every other store in the mall is brightly colored and their items are easily located; Hollister is totally dark, except for a few strategically placed spotlights highlighting the clothes that they sell. In addition, in every other store, I was greeted warmly by a person who wanted to know if there was anything that they could help me with, not so with the purveyors of sweatshirts and denim of Hollister. Every single person working there, all in their late-teens or early twenties ignored me, totally. There was even one point where an employee saw me coming and completely turned his back to me. I left Hollister with a feeling of sickness and dread and I could not help but compare this store to “The World Beneath” as described in Clark’s book. There was sadness about the place that I could not really put my finger on until I was back into the brightly lit corridors that smelled of cinnamon roasted almonds. One theme that was overriding to me was, “You are too old; you are not welcome here.”

The mall is obviously very popular amongst teenagers. As I meandered through the hall ways, I saw many “clusters” of them aimlessly roaming the halls, “hanging out” in the food court, and shopping the overpriced “retro” t-shirt racks. There are several ministry implications and many things that need to be addressed by the church to the “Hollister Generation.” Let us focus on two areas, since I believe these to be the areas that need the most attention.

First, it is no secret that the mall is driven by teenagers looking to buy expensive “stuff” that they cannot afford and which they do not need. Consumerism is a disease that has infected our students’ lives and has had major ramifications on their spiritual health and the health of our churches as a whole. Why should they be generous when being generous means that they cannot afford the newest fashions or gadgets? Why should they care about making church, which is run by and caters to adults, a priority when they have the mall which is open at their convenience and caters to their every whim? With the massaging chairs, the endless selection of clothes and gadgets, the lure of people at your beck and call willing to “serve” you at the mall; church can often take a back seat. We must go to war against this consumerism. We must preach against it. We must lovingly help students to rip this addiction out of their lives.

Second, how do we minister to the “Hollister-shopping” generation? With the “World Beneath” atmosphere on full display in this, the most popular of teenage shops, this store reinforces the idea that students today feel abandoned by adults and are seeking to retaliate against the norm for that abandonment. The whole idea of community with adults seems to be lost on this generation; this is bad because the major goal of student ministry is to provide just that. We must figure this out; we need to invest our resources into figuring out what it means to provide community to a generation who says they do not want it.

In conclusion, I was surprised by the mall of today. While I celebrate the idea that the different cultures are revered by this generation, I was disturbed by the store Hollister and its non-welcoming and “World Beneath” atmosphere. The Church, if it wants to remain relevant, must attack consumerism and seek to be a place that loves students and is willing to invest many resources into becoming a place and a people willing to love and reach out to students. There is much competition for mid-adolescent loyalties and the Church must be willing to go to students to seize their hearts and minds for Christ out of the grasp of the evil one.