Gen2Gen: Sharing Jesus Across the Generations

Part I

Who Are We?

Getting Older and Younger at Warp Speed

Craig Kennet Miller

Children’s Brains and the Invasion of Media

Melanie Gordon

A Place at the Table

Shannon Daley-Harris

Generation?

Jasmine Ying Miller

Why I Live In Community

A Young Adult Story

Abby Parker

Smack in the Middle

Raising Children and Caring for Parents

MaryJane Pierce Norton

Boomers

A New Kind of Aging?

Richard H. Gentzler Jr.

Legacy

Living a Life of Significance

Richard H. Gentzler Jr.

Getting Older and Younger at Warp Speed

Craig Kennet Miller

No one doubts that we are in the midst of a great upheaval that is disrupting the workplace, education, the church, and personal lives. While the advances in digital technology receive much of the credit for these changes, underneath the surface of our culture a great transformation is taking place as America’s six generations move into key points in their life stages. Issues like immigration, education, health care, the divide between rich and poor, and gay rights are all impacted by a culture that is getting older and younger at warp speed.

Social Security is an issue because the baby boomer generation is moving into retirement. Education is an issue because the leading edge of the iKids generation is entering middle school with a different mind-set than any generation before it. The economy is an issue because millions of ready-to-work millennials are entering the workforce at a time when companies are downsizing.

Like all other institutions in society, the church in America is greatly affected by the generational shifts that are transforming the way we come to believe, the way we communicate, and the way people form relationships with others.

Recent research has shown an accelerating growth of those who are religiously unaffiliated. From 2007 to 2012, the total number of people in a group now called nones has increased from 15 percent to 20 percent of the United States population. Among those ages eighteen through twenty-nine, the number of unaffiliated accounts for 32 percent.¹

The emergence of a large population of young adults who have no connection to the religious life of local churches is a great challenge to leaders of congregations. While churches have been able to sustain themselves by creating effective ministries with older adults, their inability to bridge the gap between generations is leading to decline, especially among smaller congregations.

The great challenge for these churches is finding a way to navigate societal and cultural change in a way that will allow them to cast a vision of the future that includes all generations. As we look forward, here are five trends that are shaping the values, beliefs, and relationships of people across the American landscape:

1. Six Generations at Transition Points in Their Life Spans

While much attention is given to racial/ethnic, gender, and religious diversity; there is another category of diversity that cuts across the board and has a deep impact on the lives of people in the United States. Because people now live longer, we find ourselves interacting with six unique generations, each with their own life experiences and values.

Generations are cohorts of people who have experienced life-changing national or international events that shaped their values, beliefs, and views of the future. Like individuals, generations are most deeply affected by events that happen before the age of twenty-five.

Think of our oldest generation, the GI generation, whose members will be ages eighty-eight and above in 2015. Few would dispute the idea that the Great Depression of the 1930s and World War II had a deep and lasting impact on their lives. Most experienced the economic effect of the depression in their youth and childhood, and the soldiers who fought in World War II came primarily from this generation. For them thriftiness, patriotism, and faith in God were primary values that were forged in their youth and young adult years.

The Generations in 2015 graph shows us that each generation is entering a key transition point in their life spans that will impact American culture for the foreseeable future. (A full description of each generation can be found at the end of this article.)

Members of the youngest generation, the iKids generation, are still in their childhood and early teens, where parents and family have a great influence in their lives. What defines this generation is digital devices such as smartphones and tablets that have introduced new ways of relating to knowledge and connecting with others. Whether at home or at school, this is a generation that wants to be online with the latest tech gear, from iPhones to iPads and from the Nintendo 3DS to Xbox One.

The leading edge of the millennials are hitting their early thirties as they focus on finding jobs and establishing the relationships that will nurture them in the long run. In the past people hit cultural norms for adulthood before the age of thirty: full-time work, marriage, owning a home, and having children. Millennials are approaching these markers much later in life, with some never seeing these states as something to obtain. Younger millennials are in their youth boom years as they make their voices heard through music, YouTube videos, art, and the wider culture. Older millennials are challenged to find their place in a society where parttime jobs are the norm and a slow economic recovery inhibits their opportunities. Issues related to economic disparity, job stability, the escalating costs of college, gay rights, and immigrant rights are at the forefront of their consciousness.

Postmoderns are now in their middle-adult years as they look for a balance between work, home, and leisure; have children; and form families in a multitude of configurations. Postmoderns who have children are focused on issues related to school performance and look for ways to make sure their own children participate in activities that will enhance their lives, including sports, academics, and the arts.

Baby boomers are in the midst of a generational wake-up call whether they like it or not as they confront issues related to aging. Like the millennials who have found it hard to find jobs, the Great Recession of 2008 hit fifty-something boomers the hardest, with men at the spearhead of job losses that cut across all types of workers in both blue-collar and white-collar industries. Many who saw their homes as an investment now find themselves underwater (the values of their homes are less than what they owe the banks). While many futurists thought leading-edge boomers would embrace retirement, older boomers who have work are instead intent on keeping their jobs as long as possible to make up for the losses from the Great Recession.

Pioneers, who were the first generation to embrace the teen years in the 1950s and invented rock and roll, are now in their retirement years. For them age is not as important as health. Someone who is healthy at eighty-one may be more active than a seventy-year-old who is dealing with a long-term illness. As long as pioneers have their health, they look for ways to stay active with their families, in their communities, and in their places of worship. Taking care of their spouses and families and managing finances are key issues at their stage of life.

The GI generation, members of which have been called the greatest generation, is now at the ebb of life. For many in this generation, memories both good and bad are constant companions, and a longing for what they once had is at the forefront. Questions of legacy and faith are key for them. Many find themselves disconnected from their churches because they have moved to be closer to children or they can no longer drive to church.

Vital congregations are ones in which all generations are active participants in the faith community. Local churches provide one of the few locations in the community where people of all generations gather and interact with one another. One of the greatest gifts the church can give to its participants and its community is a place where the different generations are celebrated for their stories, history, and love for one another. The church is also the place where people can experience the grace of Jesus Christ as they encounter people of all ages.

2. The Cultural Generation Gap

One message that rings clear from the 2010 US Census is that the United States is becoming increasingly diverse. Even more clear is the indisputable fact that the younger you are, the more ethnically diverse your generation is.

While 80 percent of adults ages sixty-five and older are white and 73 percent of people ages forty-five to sixty-four are white, in 2011 reports suggested for the first time that minority, nonwhite children two years of age and younger were in the majority.

This signals a dramatic change in the way we will think about the United States in the future, as this trend will not reverse itself but will only keep growing.

In the chart on the next page, titled Children 17 and under by Ethnicity, we can see the dramatic change in ethnic diversity that has occurred since 1980. While the number of whites is expected to decline from 74 percent to 51 perent in 2020, the number of Hispanic/Latinos is estimated to grow from 9 percent to 29 percent of the younger population. The number of Asians is expected to double, growing from 2 percent to 5 percent; and the number of blacks is expected to remain almost the same, decreasing slightly from 15 percent to 14 percent. All other ethnic groups are also forecasted to show growth, from 1 percent to 6 percent. This includes Pacific Islanders, Native Americans, and those who identify themselves as being of two or more races.

These numbers point to something that is critical for understanding the United States’ cultural landscape: we now live in a country that is experiencing a cultural generation gap. Those old enough to remember the generation gap of the 1960s between the younger boomers and their parents remember it as a battle of ideas over the Vietnam War, the use of drugs, civil rights, and women’s rights, but it was primarily a battle between older whites and blacks and their children.

Source: ChildStats.gov²

Today’s generation gap is vastly different because the population of young people is a multiethnic mix with parents who come from many different life experiences. In 2009 it was reported that 24 percent of all children seventeen and younger lived with at least one immigrant parent. In some states this is much higher. For example, in California 50 percent of all children have at least one parent who was born outside the United States.

A closer look at the figures points out another vital piece of information: 86 percent of children born to at least one immigrant parent were born in the United States. These second-generation children are United States citizens. While a language other than English may be spoken at home, most of them are much more comfortable speaking English. Thus, even within cultural groups of Koreans, Mexicans, and Russians, there is a gap between parents and their children. The parents still harken back to the values, beliefs, and worldviews of the countries where they were born, while their children are being raised with an American worldview.³

While the diversity of the population grows, the same cannot be said of The United Methodist Church. The article Church Membership Tops 12 Million reports the racial/ethnic breakdown for United Methodists in the United States. The report concluded that 91.2 percent are white; 5.9 percent are African American/black; 1.1 percent are Asian; 0.9 percent are Hispanic/Latino; 0.4 percent are multiracial; 0.3 percent are Native American; and 0.2 percent are Pacific Islander.⁴

As a result of the differences between those who are in The United Methodist Church and those who are outside The United Methodist Church, churches in the United States, especially in areas where there is a high level of immigration, find themselves completely cut off from the younger population.

The generation gap between young and old is much more pronounced today not only because of the age difference, but also because of the cultural gap caused by the diversity in family upbringing.

The challenge for the church is not only to understand these shifts in population but also to embrace them. Even in churches where you would expect it to be easy to connect to young people, it can be difficult to reach out to the young people in their particular communities.

For example, when Miguel and Liliana Padilla came to serve Bethel UMC San Angelo in the Rio Grande Conference, they found themselves in a small Spanish-speaking congregation made up of people who were primarily over the age of forty-five. They were told it would be an easy congregation to serve because they spoke Spanish as everyone did in the church. But there was a problem. There were no children, youth, or young adults in the church. Surprisingly, the second-, third-, and fourth-generation Latinos and Hispanics who lived in their community did not want to come to the church because they all spoke English and did not understand Spanish.

So Miguel and Liliana decided to reach out to the youth by offering a confirmation class in English. But some of the members were against it. One person said, Why waste your time with those three teenagers? They have been coming to church since they were kids. Their mom speaks Spanish, but they do not speak or understand a word of Spanish. Another said, This is a Spanish church. We should be teaching them Spanish and then teach them about God.

But as pastoral leaders, they knew they had to do what it took to reach the kids in their neighborhood for Christ. After working with two teenagers for a year, the youth started inviting their friends to the English ministry. Now, more than twenty-five teenagers meet twice a week for worship and study.

As Miguel reflected on this experience, he said, They wanted to go to church because of the example that their mom gave them, but they did not want to go because they felt left out by their own people, who thought they had to learn Spanish. But when the opportunity came to relate with them, they took it and grew, not only in their spiritual journey, but also in their relationship with God. Sometimes we have to take the first step in order to reach those who are looking for a chance to fit in. When we first started I had to chase down the kids to get them to come. Now they chase us down to ask us when they can come to church.

Another revelation that has come recently is this: Many of the youth who did not speak Spanish now want to learn it so they can better communicate with their pastor and the other leaders of the church. Because Miguel and his wife welcomed the youth into the church, these teenagers now want to learn about their own heritage.

Along with the cultural generation gap, we must also consider another major factor that impacts the lives of old and young alike: digital media.

3. Constant Change

It was one of those moments. While my daughter was in China during a summer internship, we found that the best way to communicate with her was to use Skype. When we were visiting my mom and my sister in Southern California, I decided to set up my computer so my mother, who was celebrating her ninety-second birthday, could talk with her twenty-year-old granddaughter. I hooked up a couple of small speakers to my laptop, got my daughter on Skype, and set my mom in front of the screen. You should have seen the look on her face. It was like we had put her on Mars. She was afraid she would break something. She couldn’t believe that she was talking to someone in China. She literally didn’t know what to do. She is hard of hearing, so I picked up one of the small speakers and held it to her ear. She grabbed hold of it and held it to her ear like it was a telephone. Then it made sense to her and she could talk.

If we all stand back for a moment and analyze that scene, we can uncover some amazing truths. For my daughter, it was no big deal to talk with live video and voice to someone who was two thousand miles away, not to mention crossing the political divide between China and the United States. When I was in college in the 1970s, no Westerner could even get into China to see what was going on. Now, we were talking directly to an American who was doing a college internship with a Chinese company. During the summer my daughter would regularly talk with us on Skype, as well as with a friend who was in Italy at the time. To top it off, the video calls were free.

My mom, however, is from a generation whose members grew up in the Great Depression of the 1930s, battled in a war that killed millions in Europe and Asia in World War