Hope of the Church - The Gen - Y

Your people will volunteer freely in the day of Your power; In holy array, from the womb of the dawn, Your youth are to You as the dew. Psalm 110:3 (NASB)

When God in its sovereignty starts a movement there will always be an army of volunteers. They will volunteer freely and God's movement will never suffer lack and will have a dynamic positive inflow of workers. The army will serve with youthful vigour and will bring refreshing, like the morning dew to the movement as well as to those who are impacted by it!

But then let's take a look from another fresh angle, God's "youthful" and "dewful" people may just formed a God's movement with a Godly purpose and vision. The same way as when God started the movement, here the army of God seems to take the initiative. The brought what they have as well as who they are and parlayed it into a powerful movement.

The word "youth" here is more of a figure of speech referring to the motivated army of God (of all ages) serving with youthful enthusiasm and strength. But then it won't be difficult for me to have a literal interpretation of the word "youth". The young people especially the Gen - Y (aged between 18 and 31) can easily fit into the phrase, "Your youth are to You as the dew." All young people are important to any movement. They are the energy and the encouragement. And it is so easy for any church to miss this generation if we are not intentional in our efforts.

Gen - Y are characterised by at least these 5 common traits and we better leverage them for the Kingdom's sake.

1. They are digital natives.

They are the generation with the most tech brains and inclination to handle the tech tools of this age. Gen - X and the Boomers have to learn and navigate through these difficult waters in order not to come out short. Honestly, if we feel threaten by them and suppressed them it will be of no use as they will be able to open other doors of opportunities with or without our help given their skills and talents.

Engage them where they are. Use and showcase their innate talents and skills. The church will definitely need their talent in the sound, light, music, social media, communications etc etc. They are out there. Open doors for them to serve. Removed our stuffy and suffocating management, procedures, work styles and structures. Think digital scalability and opportunity rather than physical encumbrance and lack of resources.

2. They are trusting and optimistic. 

Who is not when they grew up well-provided and the most educated. When they are first thrust into the job-market they are idealistic and are ready to change the world with the best tools in hand. These tools are scalable digitally meaning there is no physical limitations and the sky is the limit. Let us build warm, trusting and genuine relationships with them. Don't take advantage of them and ride them as a donkey for they will wise up and we will lose that chance of a great relationship.

Policies of containment, curtailment, glass ceiling will drive these Gen - Y away. Dream with them. Open doors and believe in them. They best we will offer to them is to try to understand and learn they language of their tech and hearts and from there we will be able to surf with them through the complexities of today's world and learn to solve them together. It is not without the generation gap but at least a steady bridge is built to accommodate a two-way flow of trusting communications.

3. They are quick learners. 

Those that take their opportunities and work hard will move fast in matrix and project-oriented organisation. They don't want climb corporate ladders. It is only one route with one ladder. They rather spread their influence and burnish their reputation through quick take-up of new technologies and ability to function as a team. They can handle multiple responsibilities and answer to more than one superiors. The more web space (I mean spider matrix web) they have the better they will showcase their talent.

The  Boomers who understand them will appreciate these Gen - Y and will promote them faster and give them quicker and better raises. This will raise the ire of the Gen - X especially for those who are in the 40's and have become a deadwood and a liability to the organisation. This is compounded by the top management who is mostly boomers seeking to oust these Gen - X and replaced them with Gen - Y.

4. Google is their coach. 

Manuals are their instructors. Observe the Gen - X and Boomers. They talked a lot about trainers, mentors and coaches. These Gen - Y don't need any of these human detractors. They get on with it quietly learning and upskilling. Another obsolete work for the word for Gen - Y is the word term "course". The older generation will go for a course for anything new that requires learning and as usual they are more concern with fighting for a worthwhile "cause".

These Gen - Y may not be comfortable with the old buzzwords but we can rally them with "causes" and grandiose ideals and provide group mentoring and discipleship so that they have strong fundamental and platform for a long and lasting ministry.

5. They are communitised through the social network.

They tweet, we chirp (or cheap). They humanised themselves through social media while we hide through our masks. They rally in causes they believe in and quickly mobilised thoughts and signatures while we sit back and blamed society. They moved as a community and are very mobile. They jumped from causes to causes as our complex and sophisticated society comes out with more and more problems and issues.

We need to come out of our provincialism and insularity to engage them on societal wide issues and even issues of a global perspective. We can't hide in the walls of the church and play church while the world is changing and these Gen - Y want to engage the world and change the world through communitised efforts. Is the church having causes that are worthwhile and fulfill these criteria? Sometimes it is in the language our projects are couched in that need adjustment or maybe it is patronising attitude towars the younger set that drives these Gen - Y away.

Let's pray today that in the day of God's power the Gen -Y is there to offer their youthful strength and dewful encouragement.

Reference and adaptation from:
Randy Conley - http://leaderchat.org/2013/01/24/four-considerations-in-building-trust-with-millennials/

Hot, Lukewarm and Cold

15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.  (Revelation 3:15,16)

HOT
(10%, 0.7 billion)

Know Jesus And Want Jesus

• Great Commission Christian
• Pray, Give and Go
• Hot for God/ God chasers
• Resisted the devil and submitted to God
• Act on their faith / Bear fruits
• Passionate about their faith
 
Action: Win the lukewarm and the cold

LUKEWARM
(20%, 1.4 billion)

1. Know Jesus But Do Not Want Jesus

• Lost their first love / Back sliden
• Deny their faith / Gone rogue / Sleeping with enemy
• Post modern faith
• Conform to the world. Entice by worldliness. Rom 12:2
 
Action: Repentance and Revival

2. Do Not Know Jesus But Want Jesus

• Nominal / Professing Christian
• Christian out of habit/tradition/family practices / own set and structures of beliefs
• Want to know God on their own terms
• Can be real stiff-necked and stubborn
• Religiosity / Legalistic
• Faith is in their mouth not heart / Faith in their head and not heart
• Head/mind knowledge vs heart faith
• Missed knowing God by 9inches.

 Action: Renewal and some to be Born Again

COLD
(70%, 4.9 billion)

1. Do Not Know Jesus And Do Not Want Jesus
(30%, 2.1 billion)

• Heard the Gospel but rejected it
• They are lost, unsaved, irreligious, and cold.
• Stone cold dead and honest about it

 Action: Need evangelism

2. Do Not Know Jesus Because Have Never Heard of the Name Jesus 
(40%, 2.8 billion)

• Have not heard the Gospel
• Exposed only to Indigenous pagan faith
• No chance as yet as never heard the gospel

Action: Need Missions

World Population of 7 Billion in Missions' Snapshot

The world's population had passed the 7 billion mark in Oct 2011. If I may divide the 7 billion into 4 Groupings using standard statistcis made available by missiologists it will simply look like this.

• 40% Unsaved that needs missions (2.8 bil),
• 30% Unsaved that neeeds evangelism (2.1 bil),
• 20% Nominal and Lost First Love Christians that needs renewal and repenrtance/revival respectively (1.4 bil),
• 10% Great Commission Christains who will Pray, Give and Go (0.7 bil).

I have added under the Nominal Grouping another segment called the Lost First Love Christians. They need revival and repentance to move back into the Great Commission Christian Grouping.

Forming Successful Partnerships

Lasting, mutually satisfying and God-honouring partnerships are keys to the missions' harvest. Knowing the face and the place are crucial first steps toward establishing a partnership in the missions field. The first impression and careful preliminary observations will give the Missions Director a lot of clues as to the potential success of the relationship that is about to be formed.

Six crucial observations to be made:

1. Are we on the same page in terms of vision and ministry? If not keep looking rather than settling with one that is bound for breakdown along the way.

2. Are we comfortable with their Board, leadership team and structure? Look for transparencies, accountability in their structure and men and women of integrity of serve in it.

3. Are they honouring and taking care of the field workers?

4. Are they just interested in aggressive marketing of their ‘products and services’ without trying to understand our vision and philosophy of ministry? 

5. Take in a big picture of their past history as well as what they have in store for the future. In short check their background and also their outlook of the future. Some are long on past success but short on present projects.

6. And finally, is there a future for the partnership envisioned? Be honest as at times short-term interest overwhelms our philosophy and convictions.

How far we move beyond the initial meetings will depend on the above 6 questions. There is also the consideration of magnitude and depth of the partnership to be built. Some are one-off while others may be short- mid- or long-term. These will be translated into a budget which reflects the potential partnership.

Vetting will takestime. There is an exchange of confidence and friendship. It goes beyond the dollar and cents. So the best way to build up the partnership will be doing a small pilot project together to gauge and build trust and working relationship. We will quickly come to grips and reality of this partnership very quickly when we work together.

By working together on a pilot we allow issues to surface and we determine if this working relationships is workable or due to differences on vision, operational, leadership perspective etc it will not go far. Then finish the pilot on a high note and terminate partnership and move on.