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TechnoratiDALLAS, Texas – Millennials are a passionate, optimistic, global thinking generation of youths capable of transforming the world, declared the head of an organization training emerging leaders.
(Photo: AP Images / News-Courier, Kim Rynders)University of Alabama Huntsville student Rebecca Purcell joined a ''silent protest'' against the Ku Klux Klan Saturday, Sept. 15, 2007, in Athens, Ala.
However, current mission leaders must understand the culture of this generation in order to harness their passion to change the world for Christ.
“The world they are growing up in is fundamentally different than the world we grew up in,” said Dr. Tim Elmore, founder and president of Growing Leaders, who spoke on the first evening of a three-day gathering of mission agencies. The Mission Exchange, formerly the Evangelical Fellowship of Mission Agencies, is holding its annual conference Sept. 17-19.
“Yes, in some ways it is the same and salvation, thank God, is still there, but the world culturally speaking is so different,” said Elmore, who also helped found the leadership training ministry EQUIP.
He pointed to the generational cultural differences such as the fact that one of the top rappers in the music industry is white, the number one golfer is black, the tallest player in the NBA is Chinese, and Russia and China have lobbied for peace.
“And the French think we’re arrogant,” joked Elmore to the crowd. “Now this is a whole new world to the one that I grew up in!”
The leadership expert emphasized the need for relevance or using what is cultural to say what is timeless.
Jesus is a prime example of someone who used the agrarian culture of his time to express the timeless truth of God’s love, Elmore pointed out.
He used to the acronym EPIC created by theologian and futurist Dr. Leonard Sweet to summarize the generation in terms of how to communicate with them:
Experiential – The generation prefers to be communicated through experiences. They much rather be communicated through videos than simply a lecture.
Participatory – They want to participate in the outcome. That is why reality TV such as American Idol is so popular. Millennials get to vote and decide who stays on the show.
Image rich – They are an image rich generation. A recent survey found that the Millennials watch 35 movies for every 1 book they read.
Connective – This generation is connected relationally and technologically. They like to do thing in a community and stay connected online.
“The one reason why they think they can change the world is because they are already talking to the world,” commented Elmore. “They have already been to websites, emails, Facebooks, MySpace and all these other stuff.
“So it’s not out of the realm of believability for them because they already talked to people in China and Indonesia,” he added.
Connecting to this generation is important because the Millennials make up about half the world’s population, pointed out Elmore. The average age in both India and China is mid-20’s.
“It’s just a very young, young world,” emphasized Elmore. “If we are serious about the Great Commission we have to be serious about this generation.”
The leadership guru also listed 10 characteristics of the Millennials: Continue »
