Monday, October 23rd, 2006
On Friday afternoon I was part of a panel responding to Dean Hoge’s lecture on young adults in the Catholic Church.
Dean’s a Presbyterian who’s been lecturing in sociology of religion at the Catholic University of America in Washington DC for thirty years. He was part of the team that published the 1994 book, “Vanishing Boundaries: The Religion of Mainline Protestant Baby Boomers”. On Friday Dean was presenting research on Catholic young adults in the United States, to an audience consisting mostly of Catholic educators and youth ministry staff from Brisbane.
There were some eye openers for me. The top two values in a 1997 survey of Catholics 20 to 39 years old, relating to Catholic distinctiveness, were belief that God is present in the sacraments (no surprise), and a charitable efforts toward helping the poor (interesting). Fourth on the list was devotion to Mary the Mother of God. Emerging values identified in teenagers and young adults included a commitment to short-term projects and a strong will to protect the environment.
Dean took us through a national sample of American Catholics held in 2003, looking at issues of individual conscience and Catholic teaching, ethics relating to homosexual acts, abortion, pre-marital sex and birth control. It was clear that there was a strong delineation between Pre-Vatican II Catholics (63 years and older) and post-Vatican II Catholics (40-62 years of age). Young adults (18-39) were quite similar to the latter. Clearly a lot of the difference was related to generational change, particularly in the emergence of the Baby Boom generation.
Dean talked about the challenge faced by liberal denominations like the PCUSA and Uniting Church in Australia when it comes to identity. As denominations we highly value individual capacity for discernment, education and decision making. We are loathe to tell young adults what to do and believe. Some young adults stay around for that very reason. However many drift off because they perceive to be vagueness in doctrine and distinctiveness. The Uniting Church in Australia does not have much connection with the narratives told by the Methodists, Presbyterians and Congregationalists in earlier years. We focus so much on being accessible and inclusive to Christians of all varieties that we’re in danger of being a generic brand, standing for nothing much.
My response included a reference to brand loyalty among emerging generations. People like Kevin Roberts at Saatchi and Saatchi prefer to talk about love than loyalty, thus the phrase “Love Marks”. We see that at work in the emotional connection many young Australian Christians have with Hillsong. I referred to Pope John Paul II and his inclusion in the Love Marks web site, between Pop Secret (pop corn) and Porsche. We have the challenge of nurturing passion that goes beyond consumerism, modelling this capacity for love in our own lives. I pointed out that organisations like Greenpeace found a following in the Baby Boom generation when a group of people now in their late sixties committed themselves to sharing their vision with students and workers ten years younger than themselves.
Young Adult Catholics: Religion in the Culture of Choice (2001) at Amazon.com
Dean Hoge is pictured below (left) with my fellow panel members Selina Harris (Sunnybank Catholic Parish) and Paul Mergard, (right) photographer and Salvation Army church planter in West End, Brisbane.
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Friday, January 13th, 2006
A 2003 mailing from the Barna Group reveals as much about the Barna Group as about small churches. The heading downplays small churches because of their lack of fast growth. However we see some of the first signs of Barna’s engagement with an emerging disinterest in large churches.
Barna puts this down to two factors -
1. Early adults without children don’t need a program-style church.
2. Busters tending to be turned off by the impersonal nature of large Boomer-led organisations.
There are a few other reasons that Barna doesn’t put his finger on. Perhaps we’re seeing a growing cynicism over approaches to church that require seven days a week commitment to a campus-focused church rather than to family and local community. Large churches are often led by pastors who are highly driven to produce results - results measured in numbers attending worship and programs.
Small Churches Struggle to Grow Because Of The People They Attract
September 2, 2003
(Ventura, CA)
The United States is dominated by small churches, with the average church attracting less than 90 adults on a typical weekend. The greatest attention flows to large churches, especially the 2% of churches that attract more than 1000 adults in a typical weekend. A new study by the Barna Research Group, of Ventura, California, shows that there are both demographic and theolographic reasons why small churches stay small and large churches grow larger. While some church growth can be attributed to geographic location and population growth, the Barna study indicates that there are fundamental dynamics at work that keep small congregations from growing numerically as well as several basic factors that contribute to the numerical expansion of mid-sized and large churches.
Overall, the research found that the typical Protestant church has 89 adults in attendance during an average weekend. In total, 60% of Protestant churches have 100 or fewer adults on a typical weekend, while slightly less than 2% have 1000 or more adults. Examining the figures in terms of where adults attend, however, the statistics show that about four out of ten church-going adults (41%) go to churches with 100 or fewer adults while about one out of eight church-going adults (12%) can be found in churches of 1000 or more adults.
Demographic Drawbacks for Small Churches
Based on a study of the church-going habits of 4501 adults randomly sampled from the U.S., the Barna survey discovered that small churches (defined as average weekend attendance of 100 or fewer adults) are more likely than either mid-sized (301-999 adults) or large churches (1000 or more adults) to draw people who are not college graduates and are more likely to appeal to people with lower household incomes. George Barna, director of the study, suggested that a �downscale� demographic profile often correlates with less aggressive growth patterns in organizations and a limited number of effective leaders.
Surprisingly, the research showed that adults under 35 years of age are more likely than are older adults to attend small churches. Barna cited two dominant reasons for this pattern. The first is the relative absence of children among younger adults. This impacts one�s choice of a church because providing children with a quality ministry experience is one of the main reasons why many Americans attend a church, and larger churches typically offer more programs and opportunities for children. The second reason why younger adults are more likely to attend a small church relates to the Baby Bust generation�s disinterest in participating in Boomer-led organizations and in large-scale enterprises. Busters are more interested in being personally known and connected, which many believe is more difficult to accomplish in larger churches.
Theolographic Limitations in Small Churches
The study also found that small churches have some theolographic limitations � that is, their spiritual beliefs and practices reflect challenges that are less prevalent in larger congregations.
The data revealed that small churches have a lower proportion of attenders who are �spiritually active,� which was defined as individuals who attend a church service, read the Bible, and pray to God during a typical week. This paralleled a finding that showed small church attenders are less likely to claim that their religious faith is �very important� in their life.
In addition, the research showed that adults affiliated with small congregations are less likely to be born again, less likely to believe in salvation by grace alone (i.e., not by good deeds), and less likely to have an orthodox view of God (i.e., holy, creator, ruler of the universe, alive today). The report indicated that such views undermine a solid theological foundation for congregational growth and may suggest that other spiritual perspectives that conflict with the Bible are common in smaller churches.
Mid-Sized and Large Churches Attract Aggressors
Demographically, mid-sized and large churches attract a higher proportion of �upscale� adults � those whose education and income levels enable the church to take more risks, be more aggressive in marketing, and draw resources from deeper pockets and broader backgrounds. Barna also noted that upscale individuals are more often comfortable with leadership requirements and decision-making, and tend to be more excited about organizational growth. He pointed out that large churches, in particular, appeal to Baby Boomers � one-quarter of church-going Boomers (25%) attend churches of 500 or more adults, compared to just one-sixth of church-going Busters (17%) � and Boomers are infamous for equating success with growth and large-scale operations.
One of the most intriguing patterns emerging from the study portrayed mid-sized churches as having the highest proportion of born again believers. Barna suggested that many mid-sized churches grow numerically because their born again members actively invite non-born again people to the church. This often has the effect of swelling the church�s numbers so that it reaches the �large� category while simultaneously diluting its born again proportion.
Larger Congregations Are More Conservative Spiritually
Adults attending mid-sized and large churches are more often people who are conservative in their theology as well as their social and political views. �Conservative people more often play by the rules,� commented Barna. �That helps to explain why mid-sized and large churches are often more solid on the theological foundations: those congregations are populated by people who want to know the biblical boundaries and expectations, and then are eager to work within them. Their energy and tangible resources are more focused and the result is more productive ministry.� The researcher also said that sociopolitical conservatives outnumber liberals by a three-to-one margin among church-going adults.
Hope for Small Churches
In spite of the obstacles revealed in the research, small churches have tremendous potential. �These insights simply identify some of the critical challenges that the average small church has to address,� the California-based researcher stated. �Small churches play an important and valuable role in the religious landscape of America. They reach millions of young adults who have no interest in a larger church setting. They have tremendous potential for building strong community, as well as spiritual foundations. And small churches often grow into larger churches once they develop significant internal leadership and creatively overcome their resource limitations.�
Barna also questioned the value of growth for its own sake. �Jesus did not die on the cross to fill up church auditoriums,� he cautioned. �He died so that people might know God personally and be transformed in all dimensions of their life through their ongoing relationship with Him. Such a personal reformation can happen in a church of any size. After all, the goal of every church should not be numerical growth but spiritual health and vitality.�
The tracking research conducted by Barna Research indicates that small churches will certainly remain prevalent in America for the foreseeable future. �Megachurches draw media attention, but they collectively account for less than one out of every four adults in church. Given the values and goals of people in the two youngest generations � the Busters and Mosaics � we anticipate mid-sized churches becoming a more significant force in the future, with many of those churches spawning new congregations rather than expanding to become megachurches. However, large congregations are here to stay and meet the needs of a specific segment of the population. If church leaders can maintain a focus on transformation rather than numbers, then we could enter an era of healthy churches at all sizes and shapes and shed the unhealthy spirit of numerical competition that currently distracts many churches.�
Research Source and Methodology
The data described above are from telephone interviews with several nationwide random samples of adults conducted from January 2002 through May 2003. In total 4501 adults were interviewed in studies that explored church attendance, spiritual beliefs and practices, and demographic correlates. Nine demographic factors and sixteen theolographic factors were compared across seven levels of adult attendance at Christian churches. The size levels examined were less than 50 adults; 50 to 100; 101-200; 201-300; 301-499; 500-999; and 1000 or more adults.
The maximum margin of sampling error associated with the aggregate sample is �1.8 percentage points at the 95% confidence level; the maximum sampling error for the subgroups of church size ranged from a high of �6.7 percentage points among those attending congregations with 201-300 people to a low of low of �3.2 percentage points among those attending churches of 50 to 100 adults. All of the interviews were conducted from the Barna Research Group telephone interviewing facility in Ventura, CA. Adults in the 48 continental states were eligible to be interviewed and the distribution of respondents coincided with the geographic dispersion of the U.S. adult population. Multiple callbacks were used to increase the probability of including a reliable distribution of adults.
The data regarding average church size was drawn from telephone surveys conducted by Barna Research among a national random sample of 1202 Senior Pastors of Protestant churches. That sample has a maximum margin of sampling error of �2.9 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.
�Born again Christians� were defined in these surveys as people who said they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today and who also indicated they believe that when they die they will go to Heaven because they had confessed their sins and had accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. Respondents were not asked to describe themselves as �born again.�
�Theolographics� refers to the spiritual practices, beliefs and self-identification of individuals.
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Friday, January 13th, 2006
I’ll be posting a few reports from the Barna Group over the next week, taken from the bi-weekly Barna Update. George Barna’s work over the last twenty years has been dominated by Baby Boomer values, tied closely with conservative Evangelical theology, church growth principles and the principles of growing mega churches. However the Barna Group’s research among younger pastors and Christians has been leading George to rethink his approach. His latest book, Revolution, takes seriously alternatives to the traditional local church. More on that later…
A New Generation of Pastors Places its Stamp on Ministry
February 17, 2004
(Ventura, California)
Following the Baby Boomers has not always been easy for the Baby Bust generation. Busters (currently ages 20 to 38) have typically lived in the shadow of Boomers. But, according to a new study from the Barna Research Group, there are reasons to pay attention to the perspectives and practices of Busters who are currently serving as Senior Pastors of Protestant churches.
For one thing, Busters� presence in the lead pastor role is � pardon the expression � booming! The number of Busters who serve as senior pastors has doubled in just two years from about 22,000 to more than 45,000 (out of 324,000 Protestant senior pastors). Even more significant is their courage and creativity in charting new courses for the churches they lead. They are experimenting with communication methods, ministry priorities, education, and many other aspects of their church-based work.
The Barna study highlighted five ways young pastors are beginning to shape their church�s ministry differently than was done by preceding generations of clergy.
1. Young pastors are experimenting with approaches to effective communication.
In a world where image is king and attention spans are declining, the research shows that young pastors are more likely to experiment with new approaches to teaching and preaching. Compared with older pastors, Buster pastors are more likely to use drama (32% to 21%); more likely to show movies, videos, and DVDs (30% to 21%); and more likely to tell stories (28% to 13%). The study also indicated that young pastors more frequently use art, music, and interactive dialogue as part of their efforts to communicate biblical truths. These multi-media and experience-laden forms of communication appeal to younger, often postmodern people, who tend to reject external sources of authority in favor of relying on their own experiences and feelings to interpret reality.
Consequently, many of these young pastors also focus not just on communication techniques, but also on the communication environment. Some of these leaders even tinker with the lighting, with the look and feel of the room, with the seating, and with relational interaction to create a setting that better facilitates their efforts to communicate.
2. Young pastors� perspectives about their churches and their ministry skills are different than their predecessors.
Another area in which young pastors seem to differ from older pastors is in how they describe their churches. Young pastors are more likely than Boomers to describe their churches as seeker-driven (45% to 33%) and as theologically conservative (93% to 80%), while less likely to depict their churches as fundamentalist (33% to 40%).
Young pastors are also more likely than their predecessors to say that their primary skill in ministry is leadership, administration, or management (18% of Buster pastors identified one of these skills, compared to 12% of Boomer pastors and 5% of Builder pastors). They also gave themselves above-average marks for motivating people around a vision, which is an activity closely related to leadership ability.
On the other hand, these young leaders gave themselves comparatively poor ratings when it came to pastoring, shepherding, and counseling. Both Boomer and Buster pastors described themselves as particularly ineffective at fundraising and at evangelism.
3. Young pastors are less likely to pursue traditional seminary education.
Despite their self-identified characterization as �theologically conservative,� Buster pastors are not taking the conventional path of ministry education. Less than half of Buster pastors (46%) currently have a seminary degree, compared to two-thirds of Boomers (62%). Part of this gap stems from the fact that some pastors obtain their seminary degree later in life.
However, many young pastors are avoiding seminary due to their growing skepticism about its necessity and relevance to their ministry. Past studies have also shown that a growing number of large churches are training congregants for full-time ministry from within, rather than sending people off-campus for more traditional academic training for ministry. Many of those church-trained leaders apprentice within the mother church, then are sent off-campus to plant a church. By staying within the nurturing framework and support system of the mother church, the nascent leader has no compelling reason to attend a seminary.
4. Young pastors are more attuned than are older pastors to the cultural battle for the hearts and minds of young people.
Another mark of Buster pastors is their heightened sensitivity to the cultural bombardment facing kids and teens today. The research showed that young pastors were significantly more likely to affirm that children are being influenced by magazines, by their peers, by television (including special mention for MTV), and by the political domain. In comparison, Boomers and Builder pastors were more likely than were Buster leaders to believe the church has significant influence in the lives of children and youth.
5. The ministry priorities of young pastors have shifted from those of their predecessors.
Perhaps because of their increased sensitivity to media influence, Buster pastors (46%) are more likely than are Boomer pastors (30%) to prioritize ministry to families, youth, and children. The study showed that Buster pastors are also focusing more attention than do their predecessors on spiritual growth, discipleship, and Bible study (37% to 27%).
However, many of the ministry priorities of Buster pastors are quite similar to those of the Boomers: both groups are equally likely to prioritize teaching and preaching, evangelism, and worship.
Out With the Old?
David Kinnaman, Vice President of Barna Research and director of the study of young pastors, commented on the findings. �Young pastors are basically cutting and pasting from fresh ideas as well as from established wisdom to form a new, era-appropriate portrait of church leadership. A handful of the young leaders are making huge changes in their ministry approaches when compared to older pastors, but most Buster pastors are simply tinkering with the style � not the substance � of ministry.�
Kinnaman noted that Buster pastors have embraced some new practices related to worship: for instance, they are less likely to use choirs or organs, and more likely to use a turn-and-greet portion of the worship service. However, few Buster pastors have implemented much change in relation to music style. Only one in four Buster pastors offers contemporary music, while most use traditional or blended worship, which is similar to the proportion of Boomer-led congregations using those styles. Kinnaman explained, �Many young pastors seem to struggle to find balance in worship and music. They admit they do not always see eye to eye with their worship leader. And their expectations about what facilitates true worship � and even how to assess whether true worship has occurred � seems to be in a state of flux. The bottomline is that young pastors have to identify God�s unique vision for their church�s worship and music, rather than trying to cater to people�s preferences or their church�s traditions.�
�Another challenge facing Buster pastors is the fact that even as they work to cover the basics, many may be allowing other important priorities to slip. Young pastors are actually less likely than average to say their church prioritizes community, missions, service, social action, or prayer. Surprisingly, the �missing� priorities of young pastors are some of the exact elements to which members of the young generations (Busters and Mosaics) gravitate.� Kinnaman observed that �without increased emphasis on these areas, many churches � even those led by young pastors � will find it very difficult to appeal to young people who deeply desire relational authenticity, service to the poor and disadvantaged, globally minded activity, and spiritual depth through prayer.�
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Sunday, January 8th, 2006
Rick Richardson wrote “Preaching Across the Great Divides”, an article in Leadership Journal Spring 2005 (pages 47 - 49) focusing on ways to close today’s ethnic, gender and generation gaps.
Rick talks about the lessons he’s learned in inter-cultural communication as he’s talked with African American, Asian American, Hispanic groups. While most of the focus of his article is on obvious cultural differences he provides parallels for people attempting to cross gender and generational barriers.
Rick’s seven learning points:
1. Acknowledge the trust issues. If there are previous hurts, don’t attempt to gloss over them.
2. Use their heart language. Rick gives examples of the family orientation of the Hispanic culture and hip hop music for young people.
3. Honor what they honor. Rick writes about cultures that honor time (punctuality) and cultures that honor event (process).
4. Become a good storyteller. Stories can communicate where propositional truth fails to connect.
5. Cultivate cultural ‘informants’. Rick cites Brenda Salter McNeil’s practice of honoring everybody who has brought her to a particular community, as well as significant leaders.
6. Learn how they affirm. Rick contrasts the quiet politeness of the Koreans with the overt call and response approach used in African American contexts.
7. Do what you came to do. Preachers have the privilege of communicating in ways that encourage and challenge. Rick encourages us not to neglect that privilege.
Rick Richardson is Director of Masters in Evangelism and Associate Professor of Intercultural Studies and Evangelism at Wheaton College. At the time of writing he was the associate director for evangelism with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. He is an ordained priest with the Anglican Mission in America.
Rick is the author of books on evangelism, spirituality, sexuality, healing prayer, and experiencing God. He is the co-author, with Brenda Salter McNeil, of The Heart of Racial Justice: How Soul Change Leads to Social Change”, IVP, 2004. He’s currently researching ‘Evangelism and the Emerging Culture’, along with ‘Spiritual Capital and Short Term Mission Projects’. He has a book ready for publication, “The Mentor Model of Evangelism: New Pictures and Practices for Sharing Our Faith.”
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Sunday, January 8th, 2006
Chris Seay confesses to generational arrogance in his Counter Culture column at Leadership Journal, Spring 2005. (Vol. 26, No. 2, Page 13)
In his article, “A Casualty in My Own War“, Chris writes about his response to antagonism from an older pastor soon after the establishment of University Baptist Church in Waco, Texas, back in 1995. The local pastor wrote a scathing article about the new start-up in his church newsletter. When Chris called the man to talk it through he encountered a bitter rejection over the phone.
Chris writes, “I look back now and realize I adopted a new posture after that day, my wit sharper, my attitude more jaded, and my mind more skeptical about boomer pastors. My opinions and preferences were cementing into dogma, and without knowing it I was becoming the very thing I hated in others.”
Through the 1990s, Chris admits, he found himself attempting to talk down the approaches taken by the previous generation of ‘church growth practitioners’. Finally he realised that large numbers of people actually enjoyed the contemporary worship style offered by such churches. “If they didn’t mind our worship sounding a bit like Wilco or Coldplay, then theirs could relive the glory days of Neil Diamond.”
Chris is now pastor at Ecclesia, Houston, Texas. In his article he reflects briefly on walking through a transition that is now more about substance than style. He says that living out a gospel that unites rather than divides is easier said than done, particularly when we feel we’re under attack.
I found Chris’ honesty encouraging. I too remember moments when older pastors publicly criticised work I’d started or was working in. Actually, it still happens. But it’s not just older pastors. Developing alternative approaches to church and Christian faith can be threatening to younger leaders as much as older.
Chris is the author of The Gospel According to Tony Soprano, (August 2002), The Tao of Enron: Spiritual Lessons from a Fortune 500 Fallout, (December 2002), The Gospel Reloaded: Exploring Spirituality and Faith in the Matrix (June 2003), and Faith of My Fathers: Conversations with Three Generations of Pastors aout Church, Ministry, and Culture, (September 2005). He was a contributor to Stories of Emergence: Moving From Absolute to Authentic (February 2003) and is working with Brian McLaren to publish “The Dust Off Their Feet: Out of Oppression Comes Success” (June 2006).
I’m looking forward to the publication of the Dust Off Their Feet book which will connect the learnings of the first century church with the explorations of the emerging church conversation in the 21st century.
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Sunday, January 8th, 2006
I’m reading through some back copies of Leadership with articles relating to generational diversity. The Spring 2005 issue takes as its theme, “Bridging Barriers”, and includes three articles with reference to generational culture.
The first article is online at Christianity Today: “A Mad Multi-gen Strategy that Works, Dude - Bring generations together and reduce 20-something dropout, by Mike Breaux.
Breaux, in his late 40s, joined the staff of Willow Creek Community Church, Barrington, Illinois as teaching pastor on September 1, 2003. He was previously pastor at Southland Christian Church in Lexington, KY. Before 1996 Mike was involved in planting a church in Las Vegas and served as pastor in Rochester, IL, Cincinnati, OH, and Harrodsburg, KY.
As a youth pastor Mike made a silent vow that if he ever got to be a senior pastor he would do ‘Youth Ministry For Big People’.
The first opportunity to apply the ‘YM4BP’ principle was a church of 150 in Harrodsburg, Kentucky. One of the first challenges was to model and encourage a culture of openness across all ages. Mike tells the story of Russ, a reformed gambling addict, who helped his church in Harrodsurg talk about real struggle and real questions.
Mike provides cautions for churches that constantly segregate their members by age or generation. He says that churches that remain unchanged by new generations grow out of touch, ineffective, and inwardly focused. They also soon discover an absence of 20-somethings. He says that we need to include teens and 20-somethings in visible ways.
Mike talks about the importance of leaders spending time with each of the generations in ways that relate to their culture. He says that moderns and postmoderns can coexist � with humility, mutual submission and respect for different strengths and passions.
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Sunday, October 30th, 2005
At the third session of the Generations in Conversation course we took as our text the recent meeting of the Queensland Synod, held on the Gold Coast in September. Our goal was to reflect on the ways in which generational values were exhibited in the planning of the meeting, as well as in the responses of those in attendance.
We began with the first event, the convocation of clergy. One of the members of the reflection group had taken a leading role in the planning and leadership of the day. The goal was to develop an atmosphere of mutual respect, achieved as people in specified ministries told their stories with honesty, referring to their own issues rather than the issues of others. We reflected on the cynicism held by many beforehand that turned to gratitude and expectation through the day. Authenticity was the value of the day - a value that made the event accessible to those from younger generations. It was an intergenerational event that was marked by story telling and listening rather than sermonising. Was it counter-cultural for older generations?
We wondered how the event might have developed if it had been around tables rather than in rows. Would future convocations focus on specified ministries or would future generations focus on leadership in other ways?
We moved on to the Synod celebration and induction of the Moderator. The group was not so gentle with this event. There was a sense of disappointment that this event did not live up to its potential to provide an experience that modelled intergenerational and multicultural celebration. In one sense there were clear symbolic moments that attempted to include many people. Language was spoken without verbal translation - a sign that we were moving beyond tokenism.
But the overall feel of the event was that of a post-War generation. The seating arrangement perhaps mitigated against the development of a sense of accessibility. The space was far too large. There were far too many seats. People in the back half of the congregation would have felt like observers rather than participants. Group members commented on the proportion of pre-prepared text, spoken, printed and projected, to drama, conversation.
So what would this group do if it was developing an intergenerational induction of moderator in the future? We reflected on the recent Assembly in which formal proedure was brought alive by weaving into it an ongoing story told in dance, drama and visual imagery. We thought about the need for a space in which people would be part of the experience rather than ‘watchers’. We would develop a number of points around the room at which action was happening. We would think about the educational process as we planned, integrating worship with engagement, thinking, dialogue and the asking of questions. We would attempt to do so develop multi-sensory engagement tying together touch, taste, hearing, smell and sight.
From Saturday morning on, Synod members sat around tables, with mints to eat, coffee and tea to drink, and the capacity to draw, converse and listen during the proceedings. We noted how life-giving this had been for younger representatives.
We looked at one of our participants sketches, outlining the faces of about twenty Synod members. We noticed that she had chosen mostly older faces. Many of them wore glasses. We considered their relaxed face muscles and how easy it was for younger people to assume that they were feeling unhappy or angry when in fact they were merely relaxing. We noted that there were very few obvious tattoos or alternative hair styles. They were mostly white. Why, I asked, do we send “elders” to Synod? Perhaps we want to value the reliable, respected, steadfast and loyal members of our congregations, knowing that they have developed the capacity to see the ‘big picture’.
There were ten youth representatives on the list of Synod members. Only six turned up. Four had other calls on their time at the last minute. On reflection I remember that many of the older members also pulled out in the last few weeks. We wondered why many of the youth representatives did not engage in the activities or networking made available to them. Later in our conversation we thought about the ways in which the ‘mobile generation’ communicate. Perhaps we needed to be looking at the ‘flash crowd’ approach in which mobile phones are used to mobilise and coordinate gatherings in the minutes before rather than days before.
Twenty somethings affirmed the setting of tables, appreciating and using the opportunity to get up for a drink whenever needed. They related well to the idea of ‘communal munchies’. But we heard that the younger generation would have related to a more ‘to-the-point’ shorter experience. We noted that those from older generations were more interested in debating process. Younger ones just wanted to get on with it. David Pitman’s explanation of process at the beginning was helpful, particularly when outlining the peramters of acceptable behaviour. The involvement of Gen Xers in the multimedia department had led to a sense of humour that lightened the mood of the gathering.
We looked at the ‘Time of Listening’ in which people from migrant ethnic groups, many of them young, were invited to talk at tables about how their group viewed the issue of homosexuality and ministry. We found that the interaction with other people was significant for all. However the underlying agenda seemed to widen the gap between people of different ethnic groups. We reflected on the hard line taken by the two Tongan ministers and wondered how much their agenda had been affected by their seniors in the Methodist church in Tonga. We wondered about the young people who had been told to express the party line. Was this an example of colonialism and serfdom? (See next post on Doing Theology Ourselves). However we were impressed by the capacity of thirteen and fourteen year olds to communicate with older people as they struggled to express themselves in response to theological questions. “This is what our church has taught us”.
So how would we want to take the next step in a time of listening between people of different ethnic origins? What would it look like for emerging generations? Perhaps we would be careful to distinguish listening for the sake of decision making process, with its capacity for manipulation, and listening for the sake of encounter of the other. We noted that NCYC (National Christian Youth Convention) in 2011 would be held in Queensland. How would we start now to build a foundation for a multicultural expression of worship, prayer and community?
We considered the Presbytery reports. They have become dynamic pieces of communication over the years, partly because of their budget but also because of their brief of inspiration. We noted the danger that reports could become technically brilliant but substantially bankrupt. We acknowledged that written reports provided detail while visual reports provided inspiration. But substance for us would be found in evidence of intention and effective action.
We noted the lack of decisions to be made. What would the Synod gathering be like if we were to honestly share our engagement with the future?
Many people did not attend the guest lecture. Why? We could see that many people had felt exhausted after the first full day of business and were keen to explore the night life of the Gold Coast. But what would we do to inspire participants to engage in a process with the guest speaker? What would the engagement with the Guest speaker look like? Maybe she/he would be on at a more high-profile time.
We finished with the recognition that the Synod gathering was continuing to develop. And we would have a role in empowering emerging generations in that process.
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Sunday, July 31st, 2005
Spent yesterday afternoon with a workshop of church leaders considering healthy relationships in regional churches (generally churches over 150 people).
We started with two tastes of culture guaranteed to bring generational conflict to the surface.
We looked at the Carlton Draught Big Ad, considering the fact that thousands of people have seen this short film on the internet, before its official release on television. As expected, I got a bite from one or two who could not understand why people spend so much time online. “How can you have real community with people who aren’t in the same room?”
We worked through material by Schewe and Meredith, considering the move from mass marketing towards one-to-one marketing. Schewe and Meredith break down the generations into smaller cohorts, helping us read generational differences with more subtlety.
We looked at the values of people who came of age in the years after World War II - values linked to ‘building a future for our children’.
The second half was spent looking at the sociological approach to congregational life provided by Jackson Carroll and Wade Clark Roof. On reflection, some of the material was too technical. If I present that material again I’ll try and present it with my own words and examples.
One of the ‘ouch’ points of the afternoon was the lesson given by George Barna on large regional churches and younger generations. He points out that large churches are preferred by older Baby Boomers. Busters, he says, are often too busy to get involved in the busy program and worship life of such churches.
From my observation it’s also about values. Younger generations tend to favour environments characterised by flexibility, intimacy, honesty and humility.
Barna provides a summary of generational differences in relation to activities, faith, and self descriptions at his site, The Barna Group.
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Tuesday, June 28th, 2005
Thomas H. Troeger in 1996 wrote “Ten Strategies for Preaching in a Multimedia Culture.” Thomas is on the faculty at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado, USA, focusing on preaching and communication.
Troeger starts by clarifying his terms. By preaching he does mean preaching in the sense of verbally communicating with congregations. By ‘multi media culture’ he means the world of audiovisually oriented people.
Quoting Pierre Babin he seeks to develop effective communication characterised by resurgence of the imagination, the importance of affective relationships and the dissolution of national and cultural frontiers.
He acknowledges the potential for distortion and resistance in engaging with emerging culture. Neil Postman, in Technopoly, wrote, “A preacher who confines himself to considering how a medium can increase his audience will miss the significant question: In what sense do new media alter what is meant by religion, by church, even by God?. Troeger responds with the continued call to take the risk of translation into new media. He appeals to what Andrew Walls has called ‘infinite translatability’ of the Christian gospel.
Troeger provides ten strategies for communciating with media savvy people, without the use of any television or computer screens.
1. Assume there is more to the story. Troeger points us to the legends developed around the magi who visited Jesus as an infant. Likewise the stories spun around Noah. He gives us his own sermon on the married couple who received large quantities of wine from Jesus at their wedding, enough to preserve for special occasions throughout the rest of their lives.
The other nine strategies:
2. Create a parable
3. Play with an Image
4. Write the Sermon as a Movie Script
5. Use a Flashback
6. Reframe a Sacrament
7. Let a little child lead you
8. Play a game
9. Listen to the Muffled Voices
10. Compare Translations
I appreciate Troeger’s avoidance of associating multi media culture with young people. Likewise his care not to assume that mature Christians will grow out of thinking in terms of movies, music, story and play.
I’ll be drawing on some of Troeger’s pointers as I work with the Uniting Church in Australia’s national Lay Preachers’ Conference this week. The topic: “Same light, new light switch: Preaching for new generations”.
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Friday, June 24th, 2005
I have just come across Peter Sheahan’s research blog, focusing on Generation Y and the workplace. Peter’s an entrepreneurial Gen Yer living in Sydney, Australia. He’s made a mark with his business that helps members of Gen Y and leaders of large companies work together more effectively. His book, Generation Y: Thriving (and Surviving with Generation Y at Work) was published last month.
Peter’s Workshop topics are:
1. The Y Factor - Thriving (and Surviving) with Generation Y in the Workplace
2. Cracking the Talent Code - Turning your Potential into Profit
3. Building a Profitable Personal Brand -Stand out from the Competition by building the Brand called YOU!
4. Creating Mind Blowing Customer Experiences
Aqualung blogs about attending Peter’s workshop on Gen Y in the workplace. He wonders if Gen Y are exclusive holders of the cutting edge approaches to work that Peter’s talking about. After all, Aqualung says, Tom Peters (Boomer) and Davd St Lawrence (pre-Boomer) are advocating similar paradigm shifts. David comments that every generation of workers has its share of spoilt whingers, hard workers and entrepreneurs.
I’ll post a review of Peter’s book as soon as I can get hold of it and read it!
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