wfn.org | 'Millennial' generation poses challenge for church

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

Sept. 11, 2000  News media contact: Thomas S.
McAnally·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.     10-71B{402}

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) -- The United Methodist Church can't "out-entertain"
other groups in society that are trying to reach a booming new generation of
young people, but it can "out-relationship" them.

That's the counsel of the Rev. Craig Miller, director of new congregational
development at the denomination's Board of Discipleship in Nashville. Miller
spoke at the first meeting in decades of churchwide employees who work with
young people. About 40 staff members representing eight agencies met at
Henry Horton State Park near Nashville Sept. 5-8.

Miller, author of NextChurch.Now: Creating New Faith Communities and a
specialist in generational studies, said healthy relationships are among the
short and long-term needs of the "millennial" generation, those born between
1982 and 1999. This generation, just beginning to enter college, will be
larger than previous  "baby boomers" and "postmoderns," he said, and will
set trends for the next 20 years.
 
Local churches and campus ministries are uniquely suited to provide small,
intimate settings where young people can be in meaningful relationships and
where they can develop their own spiritual gifts and understandings, Miller
said. The church must act quickly, he said, since studies show that
individuals make decisions about faith and values before the age of 25. 

To serve the millennials, Miller said local churches must rediscover
classical disciplines of prayer, daily devotions, Bible reading and acts of
mercy. "Churches must listen to God and stay centered on disciplines that
sustain the human spirit through the test of time." 

Churches can tap into the millennials' desire for spirituality by offering a
ministry where they can experience the grace of God, he said. "Children
develop relationships in planned settings, not just by running around the
neighborhood."

United Methodist Sunday schools that now focus on "getting knowledge" must
shift to spiritual disciplines, and worship must be planned with the input
of young people, he said.

The sheer number of millineals will pose a greater challenge for some U.S.
areas than others, particularly in the West and South, Miller noted. The
growth of high school graduates will increase 66 percent in the next 10
years in Nevada and 40 percent in Arizona, he reported.   States with an
increase of more than 20 percent include Florida, North Carolina and
California.   "If we were to operate like commercial businesses, we would go
to conferences in those states and make sure a strategy exists for ministry
with young people," he said. 

Representatives reported on what their respective agencies are doing related
to ministry with young people. Linda Bales, Dayton, Ohio, staff member of
the churchwide Shared Mission Focus on Young People, noted that the
definition of youth and young adult varies, particularly on the global
scene.  

While youth in the United States are generally understood to be from age 12
to 18, and young adults are 18 to 30, she said in some other countries the
youth category extends to 35.  

A 19-member team that guides the Shared Mission Focus met for three days
following the interagency consultation. The Shared Mission Focus, with a
four-year budget of $3 million, was approved by the 1996 General Conference
as a way for the denomination to give greater attention to needs of people
in this age group. Delegates to the most recent General Conference in May
voted to continue the initiative for four years. The Shared Mission Focus
will propose a comprehensive plan for ministry with young people for
consideration by the 2004 General Conference in Pittsburgh.

Offices of the Shared Mission Focus will be moving soon from Dayton, where
the organization has been administratively linked to the General Council on
Ministries, to Nashville, where five agencies of the church that have staff
working with the concerns of young people are already located.
Administrative linkage will be shifted to the Board of Discipleship. 

"Accessibility to a number of staff working with youth and young adults made
it attractive for us to make this kind of move," Bales said. She expects to
have the offices moved by Jan. 1.

The initiative has made at least three major contributions to the
denomination, Bales told United Methodist News Service:

·	"It has provided a forum for real, intentional collaboration among
general (churchwide) agencies around ministries with young people, something
that wasn't in the forefront of our work but which grew out of our common
concerns and work together."
	
·	"The church allocated significant money for grants to projects
across the church around the world. These grants served as catalysts for
enabling ministry with young people. Even when we had to turn down funding
for a project, it got people to thinking about what they could do."
	
	
·	"We now have a clearer understanding of the importance of working
globally, and we have learned we need to broaden our definitions. Here in
the United States, youth are more concerned about relationships, peer
pressure, disenfranchisement, but outside the United States youth are often
concerned about war, famine and political strife."

During their meeting, the Shared Mission Focus team members heard reports
from dozens of pilot projects that are being funded. Team members also
identified "learnings" from the projects. Among these, it was noted that
some of the most successful projects are proposed and successfully
implemented by small churches. While the projects must be initiated and
guided by young people, one project was guided by a "grandmother figure,"
which prompted team members to affirm the value of intergenerational
efforts.

During the interagency consultation, staff members agreed to closer
collaboration in the months ahead with the help of an e-mail listserv.
Plans were also made to create a Web site that would include various youth
and young adult programs, projects and initiatives as well as a calendar of
activities.  

As a gesture of the common spirit generated during the meeting, staff
members agreed to promote during 2001 the denomination's Seminar Program on
National and International Affairs based in Washington and New York. It was
chosen because participants said it was one of the most exciting but
least-known programs for young people in the denomination.   

The seminars, jointly sponsored by the Board of Church and Society and the
Women's Division of the Board of Global Ministries, have dealt with issues
such as violence, racism, economic justice and conflict resolutions. In the
past, they also have focused on international hotspots such as Vietnam, the
Middle East and South Africa.  

Churchwide programs for youth and young adults represented at the
consultation included the United Methodist Youth Organization for high
school-age youth and the United Methodist Student Movement for college-age
individuals.    

During the Shared Mission Focus meeting, concern was expressed that young
people who have graduated from high school but who are not in college are
inadequately served by the church. 

"People graduating from these networks ask, 'Now what?'," observed Jorge
Domingues, staff member of the Board of Global Ministries in New York.
"There is not a place where we can come together to talk about how we
participate in mission and engage ourselves in the life of the church."

The 2000 General Conference approved the development of a churchwide plan
for young adult ministry. How the study will be conducted and funded has not
been determined, according to Bill Crenshaw, staff member of the Board of
Discipleship. The proposal for a young adult organization was initiated by
people from the Rocky Mountain Annual Conference and came to the 2000
General Conference as a legislative proposal from the National Youth
Ministry Organization, now the United Methodist Youth Organization. At the
conference, the proposal was broadened from creating an organization to
conducting a study of young adults.

The interagency staff members agreed to meet next year in Washington.  

The first meeting of the new 2001-2004 governing team for the Shared Mission
Focus is scheduled for early 2001. Membership of the new team will increase
from 19 to 23, primarily to accommodate more international members. During
their final sessions here, Jeff Quick of Friendswood, Texas, and Lillian
Smith of Nashville were honored for serving as leaders of the Shared Mission
Focus during the 1996-2000 quadrennium.   

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United Methodist News Service
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