September Testimonies

Six Generations...One Savior 
For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness
continues through all generations.  Psalm 100:5

Now That I'm A Christian!

What We Believe
(It's The Best)

Discipleship
 (Another Jesus?)

The Physical
A Harmless Diet or Dangerous Eating Disorder?
 

The current 12 year old children and younger.  If you were born in 1991 & later years, you are one of the approximate 50 million children that make up the Z Generation.  The majority of Generation Z will be able to use a computer and the Internet before they start school. The classroom is also expected to get a facelift due to the constantly changing technology. In the near future all classrooms will have access to the Internet and an unprecedented amount of information. These children will have a very different learning experiences then that of their parents. It is said that Generation X'ers embraced computers in high school and college, while Generation Ys were introduced to them in primary/secondary schools. Now Generation Z may be computer literate before they reach school.

Their link to Crisis will be the vulnerable seeds of society's future that must be saved while the emergency is
overcome and the enemy defeated. They will be the Crisis era's fearful watchers, tiny helpers, and (if all goes well) fortunate inheritors. Tethered close to home, they will do helpful deeds like recycling, keyboarding, or tending to elders, the circa-2020 equivalents of planting World War II victory gardens or collecting scrap metal. The New
Adaptives will look on adults as competent and in control. Crisp rights and wrongs will be a common adult message, unquestioning compliance the expected response. New Adaptive kids will not be encouraged to take chances or do things on their own. Naïveté and sweet innocence will be presumed to flow from those of tender age. In a reverse
from the Unraveling, deviancy will be redefined upwards. Youth sex, abortion, and substance abuse will remain at
low levels. Parental divorce will be restigmatized, and public talk about family matters will be newly taboo in the
media. Unlike today, the bulk of the family disruptions will be involuntary, the result not of personal choice or dysfunction but of Crisis-era forces utterly beyond the family's control.

The current 13 to 18 year olds who can be very materialistic, selfish, and disrespectful. They are very aware of
the world and very technologically literate. They are trying to grow-up too fast, and have few good role models
to look towards.   If you were born during the years of 1984-1990 you are part of the 61.7 million people that
make up the Millennial generation.

 
This month's emphasis: Goin' Vertical - Parents & Youth Leaders, can you relate to this counselor's question of "am I getting through?"  Singles - Do you trust God enough to let go and let Him have control?
The current 19-37 year olds who live in the present, like to experiment, and are looking for immediate results.
They can be selfish, and cynical, and depend a lot on their parents. They question authority and feel like they
carry the burden of the previous generations. If you were born during the years 1965-1983 you are part of the
72.2 million people that make up GenX.

The Survivors have an identity problem. They have been called the "X-ers" as an alienated, lost generation
Of course, these labels have been created by whom? Their older generation! In reality, the Survivors are
in general quietly pursuing a place for themselves in our society. In fact, they are smart, literate and
making their way, even in the face of the naysayers among the Boomers. In Death of the Church, author
Mike Regele reflects on the demographics, suggesting that the Survivors might be best characterized as
"neglected." He further ponders:

Regele goes on to argue that "neglected" is not finally the right word to characterize this generation
because they are coping and learning valuable lessons:

Regarding religious preferences, the Survivors have simultaneously increased and decreased their
involvement. The largest percentage has decreased (38%), but three out of ten have increased. Like
the Boomers, they like diversity but are not especially interested in the mainstream denominations.
Their preferences are higher than the Boomers in "nondenominational" (10% vs. 8%,) but they do not
share a preference for the New Age category. They look to more conservative groups such as Adventist,           Mormon, or Pentecostal.

Finally, in viewing the Survivors, they are the most comfortable of the adult generations in the
cyberspace reality of the Information Age. They are the rising generation of "techies" or cybernauts of
the Internet, and in the future they will be the "insiders" in cyberspace as the Boomers look in and depend
on their expertise.

This generation is well into being the main actors in the North American cultures of the U.S. and Canada. They
are idealistic, indulged, affluent, risk takers, and also more "be- ers" than "doers." The 1960's saw the cultural
crossover from the Builders' "doing" to the Boomers "being." The sixties began with the peak and ended with the beginning decline of institutional, denominational and congregational worship attendance and affiliation. "Be- ins" began; the New Age commenced. The Church and its leaders, all either Builders or Silents, could not figure it out.
It was demonstrated how indulgence leads to narcissism and idealism to "the true believer." In came all of the left
wing and right wing experiences of politics and religion as new forces organized for the expression of the TRUTH.
For instance . . . The last idealist generation gave us Prohibition. The current Boomer idealists will give us
aprohibition of the nineties the eradication of smoking from every environment." (The Death of t:he Church, p. 130) The code word for this generation is spirituality, the focus on the quest for spiritual meaning. As the religious phenomenon of this decade, it is the quest of the Boomers and into the next generation. They are demographically characterized regarding religious preferences:

_ There is no single mainline Protestant denomination with which Boomers have an above-average preference.

_ The span of preferences is much greater than for either the Builders or the Silents before them. The highest affiliations are in "New Age" religious groups and "no preference/interest." (The Death of the Church, p. 132)

Finally the Boomers are the first Information-Postmodern generation. The Builders lived in the Industrial Age, and
the Silents are caught in between. The Boomers begin the new millennium as the new generation of leaders who
have at their disposal a talent and need for ideals and vision as if on a quest. They have technology to bring about
a new unity based on spiritual truth. The danger also inherent in our mentality, is narcissism/self love and a tendency
toward hubris/arrogance caused by excessive pride and "true believers."

The current 58-75 year olds who were very hard working, economically conscience, and trusting of the government. They were very optimistic about the future and held a strong set of moral obligations. If you were born during the
years of 1927-1945 you are part of the 39.8 million that make up the Silent generation.

The Silents were too young for WWII, and many were too old for Viet Nam. If they were in the military or
government, they were the ones who processed the war hated by the Boomers. Typically the Silents are the
in-between generation. They are characterized as adaptive because they are facilitators. "Unlike the builders
before them and the boomers after them, both of whom (each in their own way) push for everything, this
generation quietly facilitates life or least tries to. (The Death of the Church, pg. 119) They are loyal, not
perceived as creative, although, this observation is not actually true. They are anxious, feel somewhat cheated
by their elders and by the younger generation. The Silents have served what the Seniors have built and then
found that the world changed. As a result they feel disoriented, lost and squeezed. Reluctant to change further in
work life, they frequently retire early. The Silents represent the highest affiliation among the major
denominations. They are over-represented in the Episcopal Church. (The Death of the Church, p. 123)

Most congregations in North American are graying. The shifting of demographically defined age groupings is now
being reflected in most congregations. We see entire congregations where the average age is 60 years and older
facing their corporate mortality in a few years. This reality calls for those of us concerned with the vitality of
the church to look at generational theory.

The current 76 and over are the generation that did not buck authority, and that is where they went head-to-head
with their children, the Boomers.  If you were born in 1926 or earlier you are part of the 19.9 million people that
make up the Seniors generation.

Seniors, more accurately identified as the Builders, are the model generation of civic values, volunteerism and the optimism of young adults coming out of the Depression and WWII. They built many of our major institutions and
built them big, welding enormous political and economic power, even now at a time when the big, bureaucratic
structures fail and crumble. They were and are the "doers," the "can do" generation par excellence. The structure
of all our denominations, the Episcopal Church in particular, has come from this "just do it" generation.

The above information is from Generations: Implications for Evangelism; prepared by the Rev. Ronald L. Reed, Rector at
St. James Episcopal Church, Wichita, KS and by students at Colorado College.  

The Generation Z information was adapted from an article written by Christina Dobbins for American Demographics Magazine on 9/27/00.  Information was also adapted from William Strauss and Neil Howe, The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy (New York: Broadway Books [Bantam-Doubleday-Dell], 1997).