What is the Millenial Generation About?

I’m taking this from a post I wrote last week at my blog, www.rhettsmith.com. It received quite a few comments and some interesting dialogue. I’m curious about your thoughts on the Millenial Generation, and what was said in this interview.

Here are some observations on the Milennial Generation from the Hugh Hewitt interview with Morley Winograd and Michael D. Hais….authors of Millenial Makeover: MySpace, You Tube, and the Future of American Politics.

Whether you care about politics or not, this generation is already influencing and will be transforming everthing they interact with.

And whether you agree with them or not, they bring some much needed ideas. I’m especially interested in how they are influencing the Church, which is not talked about here. But that’s for other posts. Just know that what is discussed here is obviously influencing the Church.

Now here are some very brief observations on some of the summaries that authors make in the interview. I didn’t really organize it…but peruse the observations made by the authors. Very interesting.

• Millenials are people born between 1982 in 2003 (at least as defined in the US).
• Largest generation in American history. 1 million more than the previous largest generation…the Baby Boomers.
• Twice as many Milennials as Gen X’ers
• Most ethnically diverse generation in American History…40% are either African American, Asian or Mixed Race; 20% have at least one immigrant parent.
• Generation “least bound” by gender and role restriction.
• Half of Millenials that are in college are female; first time in history.
• Highly socially tolerant generation.
• “Civic Generation”…lineal descendants of the last Civic Generation the GI/Greatest Generation (i.e. Depression, WWII, etc.)
• See a need for a greater economic equality in the country…respond to economic injustice. Will be interested in re-distribution policies to make economic inequality to go away.

 

The Power of Story in Youth Ministry (Intro)

Stories. They are all around us. In books, movies, television shows. As children, we learned through stories and as adults we gravitate towards good ones. Every photo album, every friendship, and every family is filled with stories. Stories give meaning to our lives and provide the context for the unfolding events that we are in.  With news and information at our fingertips, an entire nation has been able to see first-hand the unveiling story of the OJ Simpson case, Columbine, 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and so on. We tune in and want to see what happens next, we talk about it with our friends, and we become immersed in the story. We are a story-driven culture.

 

Yet why is it that we do not harness the power of story in our preaching, evangelism, discipleship, and leadership?

Jesus was a storyteller who spoke in narrative form every time he had a crowd gathered around him.

Why then do we preach a 3-point sermon, evangelize with the 4 spiritual laws, disciple following 5 easy steps, and lead our ministries with a purpose statement that is also an acronym for some catchy word?

It is so tempting for us to zoom in on propositional truths because it is easy. The problem is that in doing so, we miss the big picture of God’s Story throughout history. In the same way that we can’t stand an inch away from a Picasso painting and think that we fully understand it, we can’t focus on a couple key truths about God and be satisfied. We must step back and see the big picture, the beautiful sweeping strokes of God’s limitless love and overarching masterpiece of creation, the fall, redemption, and restoration.

I heard Donald Miller recently say at a conference, “evangelism is about communicating to somebody a better story than the one that they are already living. The problem is, the Church isn’t telling a very good story.” The unfolding story of God’s redemptive love, rescue, and reconciliation is so much more powerful than a list of bullet points about things a Christian should and should not do.

Over the next 5 posts I want to explore with you the power of storytelling within the context of youth ministry. Specifically, I want to focus on:

(1) How storytelling is the most effective mode of communication to the millennial generation
(2) The necessary elements of storytelling
(3) The need to understand and be able to communicate your own story
(4) The need to understand and be able to communicate the biblical Story
(5) How Jesus gives us an example for how we should preach, disciple, evangelize, and train leaders

Until then, I will leave you with 3 myths and 3 truths about the power of story that are found in a book I highly recommend, “Reconnecting God’s Story to Ministry” by Tom A. Steffen:

Myth 1: Stories are synonymous with fiction
Myth 2: Stories are for children
Myth 3: Bible stories and theology are unrelated

Truth 1: Storytelling is a universal form of communication that transcends cultures.
Truth 2: Approximately 75 percent of the bible is narrative
Truth 3: Jesus taught theology through stories