Nor Cal / Nev College Ministries

Talkin’ ‘Bout Generations

When we talk about today’s students, we’re trying to identify the characteristics that distinguish this crop of students from previous ones. In other words, we’re talking about generational issues. It is possible to make too much of generational distinctives; after all, people are people. However, it is certainly possible to give too little credence to generational distinctives. Before we look at the unique attributes of this generation, we’ll spend some time discussing the Biblical, sociological, and common-sense underpinnings of generational theory.

What Does the Bible Say About Generations?

Actually, quite a bit! Many people have noticed that God frequently views nations and tribes as collective units capable of bearing guilt. Not as many people are aware that God frequently refers to generations in the same way.

God places great importance on the idea of a generation as a unit to which we both belong and bear responsibility for. Joshua’s generation illustrates this particularly well. This is, of course, the generation that refused to go into the Promised Land for fear of the native peoples: “And the LORD’s anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness for forty years, until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the LORD had disappeared” (Numbers 32.13, NRSV). In Deuteronomy 1.35, God refers to them as “this evil generation.” In Deuteronomy 32.5 He calls them “a perverse and crooked generation.” Finally, He names them a generation “in whom there is no faithfulness” (Deuteronomy 32.20).

Although I have only chosen the one example, the Bible is replete with them. In the Old Testament the word for generation (dor) is used 166 times. In the New Testament genea is used 43 times.

What does this mean? That God clearly has no problem with identifying generations as distinct entities. God seems to feel that it is legitimate to group people with their peers over and against other generations.

What Does Research Tell Us About Generations?

In the last few decades a lot of research has been done on generations. Most of the research has been driven by marketing concerns, although some non-profit research (usually government-funded) has been done as well.

The most comprehensive and insightful treatment of generational dynamics was published by William Strauss and Neil Howe in 1991. Their work, Generations: The History of America’s Future 1584 to 2069, is an outstanding analysis of the American generational dynamic.

They have identified a cyclic structure in which one sort of generation produces another of a given type and so on. Their cycle runs as follows: an idealistic/prophetic generation begets a reactive/nomadic generation which produces a civic/heroic generation which conceives an adaptive/artistic generation.

What Does Common Sense Tell Us About Generations?

Stop and think for a second: what has made you what you are today? What factors have shaped you? How would you be a different person if you parents’ marriage had worked out differently? If you hadn’t gone to school? If you’d never been to church? Just thinking for a few minutes makes it obvious that our environment has a huge influence on us. However, we know that in our own lives these shaping influences do not always manage to define us. Other influences are able to neutralize or overcome them completely.

All that generational theory does is take this common-sense idea and combine it with the notion that birth cohorts are exposed to similar environmental influences: these are the things that bind them as a generation.

However, the same limitations apply to generational influences as apply to personal influences. Every member of every generation is unique in the way that they have responded to these shaping influences. The important thing to remember is that they have encountered them and reacted to them in some way.

So What Is Today’s College Generation Like?

This generation is called by many names: Gen Y, the Net Generation, N-Gen, the Baby Boomlet, the Baby Boomerang, and the Blasters. The most popular moniker seems to be Millennials. Whatever you call them, certain facts about them are undeniable.

They Are Diverse
The thing that most distinguishes the Millennials from other American generations is their diversity.

Although 74% of America as a whole is white, only 67% of Millennials are. These numbers will continue to shift throughout the Millennial lifespan—in 1994 more Hispanics than Whites were added to the American population.

They are not just racially diverse, they are also ideologically diverse. Coca-Cola® Company has done some very thorough research into what makes the Millennials tick. They conducted the “Teen Planet Survey,” a worldwide study of 27,000 12-19 year olds. (see http://www.ivyjungle.org/ for an article summarizing this research)

They identified seven “clusters” into which youth fall (percentage values are for the U.S. only):

• Thrills & Chills: 28% They value fun, friends, irreverance, and sensation. They worry about having someone to love, unplanned pregnancies, and not looking attractive.
• Bootstrappers: 26% They value achievement, individualism, optimism, family, and religion. They don’t worry a whole lot about making friends.
• Quiet Achievers: 10% They value success, anonymity, optimism, and community. They are disappointed in the educational system.
• Resigned: 9% They value their family and friends, and not much else. They have low expectations of life. They worry about the economy, not being treated with respect, and failing to get a college degree.
• World Savers: 9% They value the environment, relationships, humanitarian concerns, fun, and children. They worry about AIDS, war, racism, and finding true love.
• Upholders: 7% They value family, tradition, and custom. They are relatively uninterested in money.
• Anonymous: 10% Not easily categorized.

However, there’s a lot that it doesn’t tell us. To answer any practical questions about what it means to be a generation or what distinguishes one generation from another we must turn to the social sciences.

They Are Similar
Even though they are diverse, they are still a generation. There are many characteristics that bind this generation together. In the same study, Coke® identified ten generational unifiers:

1. Self-Reliance They tend to feel that the outcome of their life is in their hands.

2. Love of Family Very recently this value began to ascend in prominence among youth.
3. Global Icons Certain products and personalities enjoy worldwide recognition (Coke, Nike, Michael Jordan, MTV, etc) and form the basis for a global youth culture.
4. Consumerism They are very savvy shoppers. They are incredibly resistant to marketing campaigns. What works best is micro-marketing.
5. Americentric Hollywood and American culture in general have a global audience. The world youth idolize things American. (see global icons)
6. Itchy Feet Moving to another country is not a big deal for these kids. They will be roamers all their lives. This is fueled by the Internet.
7. Mediavores Media—in particular music—are vitally important to this generation.
8. Unabashed Fun Seekers No surprises here.
9. Hope In contrast to popular wisdom, today’s teens are very optimistic—or at least they perceive themselves that way.
10. Question Tradition Teens are generally not content to leave things as they are—even the conservative ones dislike the status quo. Being conservative just means they like the trajectory. They are braced for change.

They Are Spiritual
Today’s teens are very spiritual. Although secularism is still the dominant worldview of the intelligentsia, youth are remarkably resistant to it. However, it is important to realize that this spirituality does not always translate into commitment to religious organizations. They are into experiencing the supernatural, and they will do whatever brings them such experiences. It is easy to get them to dabble in your group, it is hard to get them to commit. For example, in a November 1999 survey, George Barna asked teens to rate the desirability of various descriptions of themselves in the future. Being “personally active in a church” placed 16 out of 19. Barna’s research shows that while 7 out of 10 teens engage in some church-related activity, only 1 out 3 plans to continue once on their own—in other words, once they’re on our turf. They make good on their plans, too. A full 1 out of 8 bolt between their graduation day and their first day of college, to say nothing of those who show up at college with good intentions and get distracted.

Barna has some insightful words: “The research discovered that religious participation by teens is often motivated by relational opportunities rather than by the promise of spiritual development. The possibility of making and retaining friendships outstrips their commitment to deepening their faith. The relative lack of interest in maintaining church ties in the future reflects their experience with churches to date. Specifically, they do not perceive churches to be particularly helpful.”

This experience-oriented spirituality pervades their culture, and can be clearly seen in the music that shapes their lives. How important is music to teens? Between seventh and twelfth grades, the average teen spends almost as much time listening to music as the entire number of hours spent in school since kindergarten. By graduation, the total is around 10,500 hours. (Eugene Roehlkepartain “Teenagers’ Media-Saturated World”, 1992 http://www.search-institute.org/)

Every month what's hot with teens changes, but groups like Evanescence, Lauryn Hill, Creed, and Lifehouse speak to the spiritual hunger in this generation's hearts.

This same trend can be seen in movies like the Matrix and the Passion of the Christ.

It is important to remember, however, that this generation is biblically illiterate. They are into spirituality, and they have warm feelings towards Jesus, but they know very little about him. They know even less about the Bible.

60% of students aged 13-18 described themselves as “committed Christians” in a poll conducted by the Barna Research Group in October 1997. In a subsequent November 1999 study measuring beliefs, only 4% qualified as evangelicals: meaning they affirmed the following: that their faith is important in their life today, they have a responsibility to share their beliefs about Jesus with non-Christians, believe Satan exists, believe that salvation is only through grace, believe Jesus lived a sinless life on earth, and describe God as the all-knowing, all-powerful Deity who created the universe and rules it today. http://www.barna.org/

They Are Relationally Oriented
Nothing is quite as important to this generation as relationships. Their friends and family are everything to them. Howe and Strauss predicted that the coming Civic generation (the Millennials) would place a high premium on community and togetherness. They seem to be largely correct.

This generation is very confident of their ability to form and sustain lasting relationships. While we may look with skepticism on this claim, we have to remember that it is their belief.

The Internet is becoming a very important relational tool. Email allows students to keep in touch with friends from high-school or last semester. The Internet is used both to maintain existing relationships and to create new ones. You will even see students beginning romantic relationships over the Internet.

They Are Nurtured
Contrary to popular wisdom, today’s children are better cared for than any generation in American history. This is part of the generational cycle: Prophets and Nomads nurture their young Heroes: they won’t let them be treated the way they were as kids. This is the generation that grew up with “Baby on Board” stickers.

While the Xers were growing up, virtually all movies about children cast them in a negative light. Remember “Children of the Corn?” Today, movies about kids portray them in an overwhelmingly positive light—even able to outsmart adults (“Dennis the Menace”, “Home Alone”). In fact, if you visit the Internet Database of Movies, every entry in the category “Kids Outsmart Adults” was released after 1990. Hardly a year goes by now that Disney doesn’t release a movie to reach the kids market because they know parents will take their kids to see it. In fact, Disney now has serious competition! Boomer & Buster parents are very attentive to their children.

This has had a marked influence on this generation. In contrast to the Busters, they feel very little alienation from their parents. In Strauss and Howe’s thesis, by the way, this is the factor that causes generations to turn out the way that they do—how they are nurtured. The last generation that was this nurtured was the generation that fought in World War II, which has also won 2/3 of all American Nobel prizes.

This is not to claim that all is well with Boomer families. The number of kids coming from broken families is only going to increase as time goes on. The point is that they are still very connected to their families. They feel good about their families even though their families are fragmented.

I’d like to add, by the way, that this is their core pathology. As a group, their self-esteem is too high. They’ve been told their whole lives they can do whatever they want to.

They Are Postmodern
Postmodernism is a word that gets thrown around a lot: it’s basically a fuzzy term that means whatever you want it to mean. Ironically, that’s a great introductory definition of postmodernism.

It is important to make a distinction between postmodernism as a philosophical movement and postmodernism as a cultural reality. Philosophical postmodernism is a scholarly movement which is in serious decline. You might encounter it on campus, but it will not be a daily thing. Cultural postmodernism, on the other hand, will affect your ministry at every level.

What is cultural postmodernism? Most fundamentally, it is a tendency to reject absolutes—moral, logical, religious, whatever. Postmodern students have a gut reaction to any claim that seems exclusive, comprehensive, or intolerant—they dislike it. At a practical level, this most often manifests as a radical skepticism. Arguments are treated with extreme suspicion, because students know that anyone can make anything sound good if they’re clever enough.

In addition, many students are capable of holding totally
contradictory opinions without significant mental tension.

Here’s one for you: Britney Spears. Former Mouseketeer turned international sex symbol. Do you know what song she sang to land her recording contract? Jesus loves me. She’s an outspoken Baptist who says that she reads her Bible nightly. She also did a virtual striptease at the MTV Video Music Awards. For her mixed message, MSNBC awarded her the “Virgin Slut” award. Here’s what she has to say to those who criticize her: (this is in response to the 4/15/99 Rolling Stone magazine photos) “That wasn’t me, that’s not my personality. I was like a little girl playing dress-up, you know what I mean? When I saw the pictures I was like, ‘Wow!’ Then all this negatives stuff came out about it, and I was like, ‘Well, that’s their opinion. I’m a Christian. I go to church.’ But my mom taught us, ‘Don’t be ashamed of your body. It’s a beautiful thing.’” (Teen People 2/99). In another interview with Rolling Stone she said, “What’s the big deal? I have really strong morals, and just because I look sexy on the cover of Rolling Stone doesn’t mean I’m a naughty girl. I’d do it again… I thought the pictures were fine.”

For a great example of a postmodern mind at work, consider Moby: a very popular artist who was just on the MTV Campus Invasion tour. He has a reputation as a “Christian vegan”, which he feels is a shame (he’s no longer self-identifying as a Christian). But listen to some of his statements in an interview on Beliefnet: http://www.beliefnet.com/story/23/story_2346_2.html

Was there a turning point a specific time when you said, "So now I am now longer ...?"
It was more an evolution. I've been wrong so many times in my life that it makes it very difficult to take myself to seriously now. At one point I was a Marxist, and now years later I find myself as a home-owning capitalist. I've gone back and forth on all these things. Now instead of labeling myself, why not accept the fact that my intellectual capabilities are flawed, as are everyone's. The human condition defines us as inherently flawed creatures. There is no way we can understand things on an objective level. So why should we try?

Would you say you work more on an intuitive level, then, as far a spirituality goes?
I think I work more on a …Well one of the reasons I still do love Christ and the teachings of Christ is that they make no claims towards objectivity. Christ doesn't ever talk about the nature of the universe. He talks about the subjective way in which human beings interact with each other, with themselves and with God. And he doesn't really ever talk too much about who or what God is.
So do you meditate or do you pray still?
Oh I pray all the time. My prayers are pretty simple and I have to say that they are usually answered. A lot of times quite specifically too.

Consider his words at http://www.moby.org/info/faith.html

"In my own strange way, I'm a Christian, in that I really love Christ, and I think that the wisdom of Christ is the highest, strongest wisdom I've ever encountered, and I think that his description of the human condition is about the best description or understanding of the human condition I've ever encountered. And although I try and live my life according to the teachings of Christ, a lot of times I fall short. I wouldn't necessarily consider myself a Christian in the conventional sense of the word, where I go to church or believe in cultural Christianity, but I really do love Christ and recognize him in whatever capacity as I can understand it as God. One of my problems with the church and conventional Christianity is it seems like their focus doesn't have much to do with the teachings of Christ, but rather with their own social agenda. So that's why I tend to be sort of outspoken about how much I dislike conventional cultural Christianity."

Ministering to Today’s Students

Evangelism
Relational evangelism is still the way to go. However, you will need to motivate your Christian students—they fear being considered intolerant by their peers. They also fear that no one will want to hear them talk about religion.

In a sense, they’re right. No one wants to hear them talk about religion, but almost everyone is open to talking about spirituality. Most of your Christian students will not recognize this distinction unless you teach them about it. Train them to look for cultural bridges to spiritual subjects. For example, the movies Contact and The Matrix both serve as excellent discussion starters. Encourage them to talk about the lyrics of pop songs with their friends.

Most of all, encourage them to invite nonbelievers to group functions—especially informal hangout times. The most potent witness your group possesses will be your on-campus community. Encourage your students to live in the dorms! Realize that many students will commit to your community without committing to Christ—that’s fine. Once they regularly begin attending your functions it’s only a matter of time.

A word of caution—don’t make a mental assent to absolute truth the litmus test of conversion. Postmodernism is a discipleship issue, not an evangelism issue. It is not a chosen ideology (like Marxism), it is an acquired worldview. Since they picked it up by osmosis, they won’t be able to get rid of it by argument. If you ever meet anyone who claims that the argument “Ah-ha! But is the fact that truth is a relative an absolute truth?” is a comprehensive & viable strategy, tune them out. They read about students too much and talk to them too little.

You are erecting needless barriers between sinners and Christ when you impose an ideological agenda on the gospel. Salvation is not primarily faith in the sense of intellectual assent, it is faith in the sense of trust. The litmus test for conversion is this: does the student trust Jesus, and trust Jesus alone? If they do, He will work relativism out of them over time.

It is important to remember that it is not our job to destroy postmodernism (which is a negative thing), but to construct a Biblical worldview (which is a positive thing).

Discipleship
The most difficult issue you will deal with in discipleship is integration. Today’s students have a remarkably hard time integrating their beliefs and their behavior. You will need to create a relational system that provides immediate feedback and guidance for students. You’ll need to be a bit sneaky—you’re trying to create a formal system that enables informal Christianity to occur. The only structure I’ve ever seen work is small groups, but not all small group systems work equally well. Your small group leaders need to understand that discipleship is a full-time job of which their role as small group leaders is only a part. If they think they’re responsible to mentor their members only in formal meeting times your structure will look pretty on paper but anemic in real life.

You will also need to deal with certain excesses of the postmodern worldview here as well. Students will need to be brought to see the ramifications of Jesus’ claim. Since relativism is a moral absolute for them, it will take time. Be patient. Expect students to have particular difficulty with the following sorts of beliefs and practices:

• The exclusivity of Christ

• The initial physical evidence of the baptism in the Holy Spirit
• Gender/ethnic/denominational superiority

They will also tend to gravitate towards subjective interpretations of Scripture. This is particularly true of those with a Charismatic background. At some colleges English and Art majors will be prone to this as well.

Above all, make sure that you teach doctrinal truth and don’t just minister to felt needs!

A final word, be flexible! Many Chi Alpha groups consider themselves to be masters of discipleship and are unwilling to learn anything from the larger church world. This is sinful and stupid. Our greatest strength will become our greatest liability if we’re not careful.

Worship
Emphasize exuberant worship! This generation craves authentic, experiential spirituality and Pentecostalism is ready to give it to them! In general, don’t tone it down—sincere it up! This is contrary to conventional wisdom. Most church-growth gurus will claim that seekers dislike extended times of exuberant worship. Ignore them: they’re not talking about your target audience. Your worship can be a tremendous testimony to spiritual seekers.

Go high-tech and contemporary as much as you can. Some youth-oriented seeker churches are also reporting phenomenal success with deliberately archaic forms—incense, stained glass, liturgical services.