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Leadership & Life
The X Generation
Mal Fletcher
If we in the Christian churches are serious about changing cities, regions and nations for the Kingdom of God, we need to take a long-term, strategic, generational approach to influence.
Being generational involves more than setting up youth and childrens' departments in a church. It means building on the past a platform for the future. It means building strategies for growth on an understanding of the fundamental differences between the major generations we are called to reach.
There are three major generational blocks in the major cities of our age. Baby Boomers are generally recognized to be aged between 37 and 66 years. The generation that follows them, known most often as "Generation X", after a book by Douglas Coupland, comprises people aged 18 to 36. And Generation Y -- or the Millenials -- are aged up to 17.
I minister in over 20 countries on four continents in a year, some more than once. I am privileged to see some of the world's truly great churches. One thing is clear to me: the most underrated, under-utilized and misunderstood generation where the church is concerned is Generation X.
Generation X -- people in their 20s and 30s -- is the most creative, resourceful and dynamic of all the age-groups we can reach and the one which can carry Christian leadership and influence to a whole new level.
This is a generation which is "wired". Raised to interact constantly with technology, it is able to adapt fast to new media and opportunities for communication.
It is a visual generation, learning as much or more from images as it does from text. Joel 2 would suggest that this is an ideal generation to carry a great outbreak of spiritual power.
And it is a "real" generation. Raised on a constant diet of TV, movies and advertising it is quite adept at telling the real from the fantasy -- the "put on" from the sincere. This is a generation that is not impressed by performance alone -- it looks for reality.
For all its strengths -- and these are just a few -- people in this age group often find themselves frozen out of any real decision-making roles in local churches and as a result keep their considerable resources and talents to themselves.
This is partly because to us Boomers, who occupy the major leadership positions in most churches and movements, GenX-ers look like younger versions of ourselves. They dress fairly conservatively, they speak well and many of them have families. We assume they're as happy as we are with the way things are run -- by us.
Underneath, though, GenX-ers think in quite different ways, have different needs and are resourceful in ways Boomers can only admire. We desperately need them in the church.
The values of Generation X have been shaped by the following influences.
1. Rapid Change through Technological Advance. This is a "wired" generation, raised on fast-tracking media and familiar with the saying, "the only constant is change itself."
2. Moral Ambiguity. If we are truly "monkeys who got lucky", then truth is a subjective thing, something you shape for yourself as you go along. All lifestyles are equally valid.
3. Existential Thinking. Mass media, pop culture and often higher education all lend weight to the prevailing philosophy that, in the absence of absolute truth, the best human beings can do is enjoy life and pile up as many good or "meaningful" experiences as possible.
Responding to these influences, Generation X is marked by the following characteristics. (Of course, these are generalizations, but they are helpful in giving us an overview):
1. Boredom. The search for meaning through experiences and relationships will not satisfy forever the deep human longing for spiritual purpose.
2. Confusion. If all roads lead to the same place, why am I still searching for a truth that is, in the words of the X-files, "out there"?
3. Resignation. What looks like apathy is sometimes a sigh of resignation: "Oh well, I can't change anything really important. So why bother getting excited about it?"
4. Alienation. Poor nurturing has left many GenX-ers with a profound sense of being cut off from other people by social structures. This is a generation largely suspicious of institutions and status symbols.
To reach and enlist the support of this resourceful and needy generation our message and our strategies need to feature:
1. An Emphasis on Reconciliation. Generation X clings to icons like Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa and even Princess Di -- all of whom it sees as being reconcilers. We need to break with our institutional thinking, with all its emphasis on titles and symbols of personal success, and become more relational.
That does not equal the absence of structure. It just means we need to get more accessible with our structures, and not use them as shields behind which to hide our own insecurities as leaders.
Part of modeling reconciliation involves us building alliances with other groups in the community, and forming really lasting covenants with other church leaders.
2. A Positive "Spin" on Truth. More than ever, we need to communicate grace and truth together -- without "political correctness". But we must show that God's moral laws are not first proscriptive but descriptive. God's moral laws are not arbitrary rules given to stifle our individual creativity. They are boundary lines that mark out the borders of safe behavior, so that we can lead a full and productive life from start to finish.
You also show that real truth is a relational thing. The most important truths in the universe are not discovered first through education, but through revelation. We don't grow in character or truth by following prescribed rules, but by walking in relationship with God.
3. A Leadership Structure that Needs GenX Creativity. Nothing attracts resourceful people like a vision -- and a leader -- big enough to accommodate their dreams and strategies, someone who is not threatened by their way of doing things.
Throughout the world today, wherever the church is emerging into real influence in a city, there is a drive to reach out to and accommodate Generation X.
Mal Fletcher is founder/director of Next Wave International, a mission to the contemporary cultures of Europe. His work takes him to TV studio's, nightclubs, festivals, the internet and many other places frequented by Generation X.
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