Gen Y Roundtable

a Biblical thought...
Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. (Proverbs 31:30)

a Book thought...
Most knowledge-based enterprises aspiring to long-term success in rapidly changing times will need to spend at least 20% of their resources on preparing for the future. This involves
investment in individual and organisational learning, in innovation, and in market research. Many really resilient and adaptable organisations already spend up to 30% on just two of these: learning and innovation. (p180)
a Dave thought...
Generation Y has been a topic of conversation in The Salvation Army now for a number of years. Yesterday we gathered over a dozen people around a table to discuss the challenges of working with this generation with the desired hope by the end of the year to develop a strategy. It was healthy yesterday to have representation from social programs, E plus, PR, as well as our DY's as we each shared our observations with this tech savvy yet justice minded generation.

We have 4 mission intentions in this territory of Caring for People, Transforming Lives, Making Disciples, and Reforming Society. I shared yesterday my observation in the corps setting that all 4 intentions need to be present but interestingly each generation seems to value one over the others. Boomers are big on Transforming Lives, as they like to see stats about how many are being saved and the Salvation meeting was the most important event of the week. Gen X (my generation) grew up with bible study groups and I have now been in some sort of cell group for over 20 years and even though we have not seen a great deal of Salvation meetings, so Making Disciples is the intention that best describes us. Gen Y though is very much focused on Reforming Society as what happens in the church is not what attracts them to the Salvos but rather what changes we are making in the world because of our connection with God.

Just a thought.