Taking seriously sub-cultural identity

With the breakup of the modern period and the subsequent postmodern period, things have begun to radically change. For one, the power of hegemonic ideologies has come to an end, and with that, the breakdown of the power of the state and other forms of ‘grand stories’ that bind societies or groups together in a grand vision. The net effect of this has been the resultant flourishing of sub-cultures, and what sociologists call, the heteroginization, or simply the tribalization, of western culture. Just as we had intuited from the local level at a new tribalism was born in the postmodern era.

People now identify themselves less by grand ideologies, national identities, or political allegiances, but by much less grander stories: like those of interest groups, new religious movements (the new age), sports activities, competing ideologies (neo-Marxist, neo-fascist,) class, conspicuous consumption (meterosexuals, urban grunge, etc.), work types (computer geeks, hackers, designers, etc.) and so forth. On one occasion some youth ministry specialists I work with identified in an hour fifty easily discernable youth sub-cultures alone. (computer nerds, petrol heads, skaters, homies, surfies, punks, etc.) Each of them takes their sub-cultural identity with utmost seriousness and hence any missional response to them must as well.

The above is from the blog of Alan Hirsch. Whilst there is much to debate in the above, the last sentence resonates especially with me. How to take seriously, so as to respond with the Gospel, such sub-groups in a congregation that wishes, the desire of the 'gate-keepers', to be middle-class senior and only respond to those who fit in. In other words, the sheer difficulty of children's/youth ministry, to say nothing of responding to early 'baby-boomers', etc.