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.

                                  This month's emphasis: Loving Homosexuals as Jesus Would by Scott Chisolm
                                 "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities,
against the powers of the dark  world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."  Eph. 6:12
The current 22-40 (approx) 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 month's emphasis: Finding Purpose in Pain - Evelyn Husband lost the love of her life, space shuttle
 commander  Rick  Husband, in a national tragedy. A year later, she shares her message about God's
 healing hand.
The current 41-60 (approx.) year olds who have a strong set of ideals and traditions, and are very family oriented. They are fearful
of the future, politically conservative and active and fairly socially liberal.  If you were born during the years 1946-1964 you are part
of the 73.1 million people that make up the Baby Boomers generation.

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 a prohibition of the nineties the eradication of
smoking from every environment." (The Death of the 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 61-78 (approx.) 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 at 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 79 (approx.) 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).