Tag Archive - Millennials

Internet ADD and the Fulfillment of the Great Commission

May 3, 2012 in Culture with 5 Comments

Many are bemoaning the Millennial Generation’s inability to focus and think deeply.

But what if their Internet induced ADD is actually a good thing and possibly even a catalyst for fulfilling the Great Commission?

“Perry Hewitt, director of digital communications and communications services at Harvard University, says this evolution is positive. “It seems easy to decry the attention span of the young and to mourn the attendant loss of long form content—who will watch Citizen Kane with rapt attention when your Android tells you Rosebud was a sled? On consideration, though, the Internet has brought forward not only education, but thinking. While we still want to cultivate in youth the intellectual rigor to solve problems both quantitatively and qualitatively, we have gotten them out of the business of memorizing facts and rules, and into the business of applying those facts and rules to complex problems. In particular, I have hope for improved collaboration from these new differently ‘wired’ brains, for these teens and young adults are learning in online environments where working together and developing team skills allows them to advance.”

“Technology by 2020 will enable the youth to ignore political limitations, including country borders, and especially ignore time and distance as an inhibitor to communications.” – Pew Internet Findings

 

 

You can see the potential through existing tools like Skype.

Take two of my least Tech-savvy friends for example:

One is 33 years old. Not exactly a digital native (he still doesn’t have a facebook account) but he walks into a staff meeting last week on the phone with a STINT’er in China. A free phone call. On his cell. Via Skype. With someone in China.

That wouldn’t have been possible 2 years ago.

A call on a land line (the only possible way) just 15 years ago would have cost $15.

In 1930 a 15 minute international phone call would have cost $1500.

In 2012 it’s free. With video. On a mobile device.

Another friend, who is 62, every week uses Skype to have 10 separate video Bible study appointments with friends in East Asia (with non-Christians and Christians).

 

If this is how old folks are using technology for the glory of God, imagine the potential for Digital Natives.

 

I, for one, am excited about the future of Missions led by complex-problem solving, hyper-connected, borderless Millennials.

 

photo courtesy of Ed Yourdon

Catalyst Dallas – Craig Groeschel

May 14, 2011 in Leadership, Ministry with 1 Comment

Craig Groeschel spoke on intergenerational leadership – how older leaders can work with younger leaders. I mostly took notes on the part that applied to me as a relatively young leader. :)

A few abridged notes:

  • When you delegate tasks you create followers
  • When you delegate responsibility you produce leaders
  • Tim Elmore: told emerging generation to pick one word that starts with the letter ‘E’ to describe themselves. Most common answers:

Exceptional
Excellent
Extraordinary

  • Number one word employers used of this generation: Entitled
  • You can’t speed up maturity
  • We tend to overestimate what God intends to do in the short run
  • We grossly underestimate what God will do in the long run if we remain faithful
  • Most common question from 20-somethings: How do I lead up
  • Craig asked his pastor: Why did you let me lead up?
  • Answer? Because you showed me honor
  • Honor publicly results in influence privately
  • The emerging generation often doesn’t show honor
  • Our leaders have been chosen and equipped by God
  • Honor – to treat as valuable, esteem
  • The lack of honor for the older generation in the ministry limits what God can do
  • If you want to be over, you need to learn to be under with integrity
  • I have great hope for this younger generation
  • This generation is the most cause driven, mission minded generation in the history of the world
  • They ache to make a difference in this world
  • You see something you don’t like and it disturbs your soul and it lights a fire under you
  • And you’re willing to say “not on my watch. I am not OK with this”
  • You’re willing to walk away from the so many materialistic traps that my generation got caught up in
  • But you feel entitled: You need to understand what you deserve – you deserve hell
  • When you understand that, it frees you from entitlement

Are we a Post-Christian Culture?

May 11, 2011 in Culture, Ministry with 9 Comments

There are three things that will define ministry over the next decade:

  1. Unprecedented Access – to products, services, ideas, and worldviews

  2. Alienation – New levels of isolation from family, from community, from each other

  3. Authority – New questions about who to believe and why – what has claim on our lives?

I’m at Catalyst Dallas this week. Honestly, I was a little underwhelmed today by the content at the Labs. I’m sure it will improve as the real conference starts tomorrow.

Here’s my notes from what I thought was the most insightful Speaker today: Dave Kinnaman, President of The Barna Group (author of unChristian).

His main question: Are we a Post-Christian Culture?

  • 83% self-identify themselves as Christians in America
  • 8% of Americans are evangelical (based on correct answers to 8 theological questions)
  • Most Americans have a broadly Christian perspective
  • 75% have made a personal commitment to Christ
  • 3 out of 4 Americans believe the resurrection is literally true
  • We are a very Christianized culture but not a Christ-following ones
  • Are we post-Christian – yes and no

Our role in ministry: to introduce them to the God they think they know


1. Unprecedented Access to products, services, ideas, and worldviews

  • His 6 year old son doesn’t even know how to spell but yet knows that Google has all the answers to any question (I wonder if. . . – we go right to the internet)
  • Does your church feel in tune with the times when it comes to access?
  • Have students twitter or text in questions and answer them in the service
  • You Lost Me – new book. Young people feel that science is very accessible but the church is not
  • University of Phoenix is largest University in the U.S. – around 500,000 students
  • Whether it’s legit or not, online is where people are going

2. Alienation – New levels of isolation from family, from community, from each other

  • % of people born with unwed mothers:

1960 – 5%
Today – 42%

  • % who have completed major life transitions by 30 (leaving home, finishing school, financially independent, getting married, and having a child)

1960
77% of men
65% of women
Today
46% of women
31% of men

  • It’s a different cultural reality today than it was 50 years ago
  • Who’s working with these people who are starting “adulthood” later?

 

3. Authority – New questions about who to believe and why – what has claim on our lives?

  • Confidence in Leaders 1966 vs 2007

Congress – 42% vs 10%
Major Companies – 55% vs 16%

  • How can we as a church thrive as an authority-centered institution in an anti-authority culture?

 

Three Takeaways:

1)    Authority – The response to that is one of revelation

  • Do we really have a sense of God speaking to us?
  • The Bible is more than a textbook, or an owner’s manual
  • It’s a living breathing document, a revelation from the Living God instructing us in how to be on Mission with Him

2)    Access – response is one of vocation

  • Young people are leaving the church because they don’t feel that the church is giving them a calling
  • They never connected how the Bible applies to their major, their vocation
  • Reconnecting the idea of our vocation to the bible
  • Our faith matters outside of Sunday AM

3)    Alienation – the response is our presence

  • Presence can be facilitated via technology (not always being physically present) – twitter, email, etc
  • We can respond to their questions quickly and be more accessible

 

What do you think about those three: Unprecedented Access, Authority, and Alienation?

What will it look like for us to minister to college students in light of these three?

Music as an Influencer – Music Monday

February 7, 2011 in Culture, Music with 4 Comments

In the book The Millennials, authors Thom and Jess Rainer share the greatest influencers on young people. Parents and friends occupied the top two spots. Number three was a little surprising- Music.

Music outranked religious beliefs, TV, and the Internet in terms of influence on their lives.

This is the iPod generation. This generation of college students can scarcely remember life before the iPod (which came out a decade ago). Music is constantly pumping through their earbuds and inevitably has shaped their lives.

So get some good (free or cheap) music below and consider it cultural exegesis:

  • Get a $2 free MP3 credit from @amazonmp3 – Enter code VDAYMP3S (expires 2/14)
  • 16 free songs (Spoon, Sleigh Bells, Deerhunter) from Spin Magazine’s Best of 2010. Get it, if only, for the amazing Yeasayer song- Ambling Alp . [Sorry - this one is expired]
  • A (just okay) free 14 Song Valentines Mix from @amazonmp3 (but worth the click, if only, for the Band of Horses song)
  • Fleet Foxes(who make beautiful, harmonic music) is giving away a free song from their new album
  • And a couple noteworthy albums on Amazon’s $5 albums for February:

The Suburbs by Arcade Fire — One of THE best 3 albums of 2010!! Get it!

Fumbling Towards Ecstasy by Sarah McLachlan — a guilty pleasure from college days! One of the Best. Albums. Evah.

Young People will Change the World

February 4, 2011 in Culture, Ministry with 9 Comments

Two thirds of Egypt’s population is under the age of 30.

 

Tim Elmore, a leading Christian thinker on Leadership among emerging generations, wrote a blog post this past summer (based on his book Generation iY) with two stunning facts. At the time I read them I was a bit skeptical, but the recent events in Tunisia and Egypt have proved him right:

FACT: In the next fifteen years, half of the world’s population will be 21-years-old or younger.

FACT: When there is a bulge in the youth population, there is always violence.

Gunnar Heinsohn, a social scientist at the University of Bremen (Germany) writes that when 15–29-year-olds make up more than 30% of the population — violence occurs.

Today, there are 67 countries where a “youth bulge” exists. (That is, populations where more than 30% are young adults or kids.) 60 of those countries are presently in civil war or are experiencing mass killings.

Of the 27 biggest “youth bulge” nations, 13 are Muslim. Those kids will find expression, even if they take it out on the rest of the world.

The New York Times reports the recent Egyptian protests have been driven primarily by the Youth of Eqypt.

In our own country, this generation of Millenials (age 10-30) is the largest American generation (larger than the Baby Boomer generation).

This generation, whether here in the U.S. or around the globe, will change the world.

It underscores, now more than ever, the need to reach this generation with the Gospel – here in the U.S. and on college campuses around the world.



photo courtesy of Sarah Carr