During the Spring of my Sophomore year of college, I finally was able to sit down and view the 1980's classic movie The Breakfast Club. I know it is shocking that I either had not seen it yet or had a huge desire to watch a movie that takes place in a detention room 99% of the movie. I had a group of friends who also had not seen it and far too many encounters with references to it that I had to check this out. Sure enough, after I finished viewing the movie I realized that every single person in Youth Ministry should see that movie. I know they say that youth ministry changes around every 5 years just as youth culture is so often changing, but there are some universal themes all throughout that movie that I think are vital.
I would like to begin with, naturally, the beginning of the movie. We have this ragtag group of very distinct high school students in detention on a Saturday for a variety of reasons; and we meet the teacher in charge who seems to represent a general view that adults had of teenagers. This movie points out how easy it is to look down on teenagers and think that they are much less than what they truly are. I was intrigued by the fact that the teacher seemed so worried that those teenagers would one day be the leaders of the world and yet seemed to look down on him; often times I believe it is easy to fall into this trap. We need to be aware of adults and even ourselves at times falling into this because this only feeds into false identity building for young adults. Each one of the members of the breakfast club had their own issues that they covered up with their actions and attitudes, that were mistaken for just not caring; the actions of the adults in this film only encouraged the teenagers defensive attitude.
Next I would like to talk about community. No matter what the time period is, I believe that the Breakfast club is a wonderful example of what true community is like...or what it is meant to be like. Each person was different, each person had their own story but they all connected on a common ground. They all had to be in this detention for one reason or another and as we learn later on in the story they all have something (or many things) that they are struggling with. It is in community that we learn the deep dark secrets about those we would never expect and it is in community that they, and we, bond to create lasting friendships that will strengthen us in life.
This ties in beautifully with my next theme and it would be that we all have our own story and you never know someone else's whole story. We learn this as throughout the movie we slowly find out why each person got detention and how each person has parent issues back home: whether they be divorced parents, abusive parents, over-perfectionist parents, and so on. This is such an important theme in youth ministry because every student that we come in contact with in our ministry has their own backstory and reason for why they are the way they are. There is no way to truly know a person so it is vital to take that time to get to know them.
The end of the movie is just a perfect example of how creating the right community changes people, brings them closer together, and just as Claire gave Bender her earring, we all take something with us from those we encounter in community. It may not be something physical like a diamond earring, but they become a part of our story and leave a part of themselves with us. All of these themes and more are more than enough reasons for watching The Breakfast Club, heck even say its "work" because you're doing research. It may be a pretty raunchy movie, but its worth it; not only is it worth it its authentic because I guarantee either your students or their peers act rather similar to those in the movie.
My prayer tonight is for God to give us the gift of discernment when it comes to the movies we view.
Grace and Peace.
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