© licc all rights reserved mend the gap spirituality of gen y

© LICC All rights reserved

Mend the Gap

Spirituality of Gen Y


‘My generation need to be heroes.’

Does Laurie speak for the young people you know?

What do the other generations ‘need’ to be…30’s to 50’s, 50’s to 70’s, 70 +?

Can you connect with Tasmin’s objections to Church?

What can we do to appeal to/ make disciples of millennials?


‘If we lose this generation of young people it will not be because we’ve made Christianity too difficult but because we’ve made it too easy.’

Tony Campolo

‘With an increasing number of young people we are starting with almost complete ignorance of the Christian faith. We start a long way back and should expect it to take time.’

Graham Cray

‘The distance between the world views of the Church and generation Y leads us to conclude that prior mission to young people is now required. Prior mission is about encouraging imagination, going beyond clichéd symbols and catchphrases, and allowing young people to articulate their own questions. Prior mission starts with the reality of who young people are and the questions they are asking.’

Making Sense of Generation Y


Contact: initial point of contact.Nurture: developing the relationship after initial contact.Commitment: inviting some form of commitment.Growth: Developing understanding of Christian faith.


‘The distance between the world views of the Church and generation Y leads us to conclude that prior mission to young people is now required. Prior mission is about encouraging imagination, going beyond clichéd symbols and catchphrases, and allowing young people to articulate their own questions. Prior mission starts with the reality of who young people are and the questions they are asking.’

Making Sense of Generation Y


‘The distance between the world views of the Church and generation Y….’

Exists internally as well as externally – is there a ‘one size fits all’ Church?


‘If we don’t disciple people, the culture sure will.’ Alan

Hirsch

‘The exclusivity that characterised both youth culture and the Christian youth culture in the last few decades has largely collapsed.' Pete Ward


We’re failing to address the dominance of a secular worldview within young people.

Clifford Geertz

Culture is the ensemble of stories we tell each other about ourselves.

Stories connect us

What are the ‘stories’ that connect the different generations?

Matures – over fiftiesGen X – 30-50

Millenials – under fifties


Stories shape us

WorldviewThe Big story that drives:

AttitudesBehaviour

ValuesApproaches

Beliefs

God

A B V A B

John F Kennedy

All man’s problems were created by man, and can be solved by man.

Secularism

A B V A B

God

A B V A B

Secularism

Enthusiastic Enthusiastic DualismDualism


• What channels are our young people absorbing the story of God through?

• What channels are they absorbing the story of secularism through?

• Where are the stories in conflict, where are they overlapping, in terms of behaviour which story dominates?


Five years ago children spent four hours and forty minutes

in front of screens a day. Today that figure is five hours

and twenty minutes.


Happy Midi Narrative

This world, and all life in it, is meaningful as it is. There is no need to posit ultimate significance somewhere else.

Happiness is the goal of life; this is simply self-evident.


Happy Midi-Narrative.

Implicit is this world view is the belief that the universe and the social world are essentially benign.

Although difficult things do happen in life, there are enough resources within the individual and his/her family and friends to enable happiness to prevail.


Similar results in the US

‘A recent report of the National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR) indicates that sixty percent, or the majority of American teenagers – who are overwhelmingly mainline Protestant and Roman Catholic – hold attitudes toward religion described as ‘benign positive regard.’ In other words, they believe religion is good, but inconsequential.’


‘Most religious communities central problem is not teen rebellion but teenagers benign ‘whateverism’’

Christian SmithNot ‘is it true?’ but ‘what difference

does it make to me?’


Learning to own God’s story is more about

the culture we create than the curriculum

we teach.

Four stages of

faithJohn Westerhoff

Experienced

• Experienced faith: a faith that is nurtured in infancy continues to early childhood ‘an experience of primary caregivers as role models for a Christian way of life. It is important that the actions of these models of the Christian life be congruent with their words so that young children develop a sense of trust in their relationships and participate in the religious experience of their caregivers.’

Affiliated

• Affiliative faith: when a child/ Christian is exposed to larger community, school, church, etc. ‘a time when children learn the stories of faith and discover what it means to be a member of a faithful community. Children see others trying to follow God’s will through the joys and challenges of their life.’

Searching

• Searching faith: moving to adolescence. ‘young adults are testing their beliefs and trying on alternative perspectives of faith and identity. Their expanded experience in the world raises questions about authentic relationships, and a search for deeper meaning often calls forth service.

• Owned faith: growth in faith continues in middle and older adulthood as persons come to an owned faith in which belief and action are one, as they become living witnesses to what it means to be a Christian.

‘Westerhoff’s theory described the movement from a Christian lifestyle first imposed by external authorities, such as parents or teachers, to an internalized faith that has become assimilated into identity and lifestyle.’


Evidence that Christianity is simply not ‘taking root’ or

moving towards ‘owned faith’.• Church attendance 10-14’s lowest of any age range.

• 8/10 18-30 year olds in America leave faith by age 23 – 5/10 UK. British youth agencies noting increase in young people leaving faith after attending year out courses.

• Blurring of Christian and ‘happy midi-narrative’ values, eg no sex before marriage is no longer a ‘given’.

• Academic institutions and para church organisations having to adapt courses in order to make up for the severe shortfall of Biblical understanding of attendees.


‘you cannot pass on what you have not experienced.’

Are we reaping the results of generations in the church who have not been discipled so they don’t know how to disciple?

Is this what’s created over dependency on professionals/ resources?


What does ‘good’ youth involvement in church look like? (12-18’s)

Christian maturity isn’t necessarily to do with age so what does a ‘mature’ Christian ‘look’ like at any age?

For the month of september your teaching slot on a Sunday morning is going to be given over to small group discussions. The groups are a cross age mix from 12 through to 80 - what subject(s) would you look at? How would you make sure everyone gets their say?

What are the points of tension when it comes to young and old in church – where are ‘generational’ clashes most keenly felt?

Which Bible passages would you go to find good models/ teaching about intergenerational relationships?

An after lunch chat…

What does a curriculum that focuses on worldview in, worldview out look like?

If young people aren’t ‘owning faith’ by late teens having grown up in church then the problem lies in local church culture but how do we create a culture of disciple making where non exists?


Why the problem has arisen:

• Blamire: because disciple making hasn’t been robust we couldn’t deal with overt materialism.

• Over dependence on professionalism means disciple making ‘muscles’ have never developed. (this also means not enough ‘disciple makers’ to do missional church effectively.)


Solutions:

• Same as MTG stepping up adult education.• Creating mentor culture twinned with• Recognition that modelling is key – switch

from positional to personal authority.• If disciple making is a long, in depth

process that focuses on smaller numbers then employing youth workers for this role becomes unsustainable.

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