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/