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Bridging the generation Gap.

Some women choose to follow men, and some women choose to follow their dreams. If you're wondering which way to go, remember that your career will never wake up and tell you that it doesn't love you anymore.

I’ll keep it short and sweet. Family. Religion. Friendship. These are the demons you must slay if you wish to succeed in business. C. Montgomery Burns The Simpsons

Why ‘Mend the Gap.’ ‘For the first time in history, four distinct generations – matures, boomers, Xers and millennials – are employed side by side in the workplace. With differing values and seemingly incompatible views on leadership, these generations have stirred up unprecedented conflict in the business world. Effective management of this generational divide is vital to longevity and success. In fact it’s the most important demand your company can make of its leaders.’Cam Marston

Mend the Gap: in a nutshell

1. Youth Culture is unique to 20 th/ 21 st century west. We stopped kids working and put them in education – more time spent amongst peers. Psychological focus on teen years creates ‘adolescence’ Post war consumerism identifies new target groups.

From uniform consumerism to pursuing icons of independence – the sixties shrugged off the fifties and with its revolutions in sex, drugs and rock’n’roll, gave youth a whole new language with which to rebel against their elders.

‘You have to try and kill your elders.. we had to develop a whole new language, as indeed is done generation after generation. To take the recent past and restructure it in a way that we felt we had authorship of.. that was our world, not the hippie thing. It all made sense to me it was a uniform for an army that didn’t exist’ David Bowie on Ziggy

Were you a rebel? ‘In terms of girls? Not unlike any other young guy at the time. The pill had just come in. That was a very handy thing. Suddenly women were prepared to sleep with a fellah with no great risk of pregnancy. Now we could all have some fun..

everyone started looking sharper, had a little bit of money in their pockets, there were clubs to go to, good music to listen to… it was like a paradise had been created for young people – a time when everything was switched on at once. There were all these possibilities opening up that our parents could only have dreamed about. Suddenly, our entire world was bright colours.’ Paul McCartney

Advance of ICET creates an ‘incanabula’ from which we haven’t yet emerged.

The Church finds itself in a fresh cradle period.

2. The Church was too ‘inward’ focused to be able to meet the challenge of rapid cultural change. ‘Youth is hungry to envelop with religious significance the yearnings aroused by natural beauty, by artistic experience, and by sexual love. Because there is no living Christian mind to interpret this hunger and to show how it may be fed, the young are led astray.’ The Christian Mind Harry Blamires

3. The Churches solution to managing generational differences ‘youth work’ has, in many ways, helped to sustain the gap between young and old.

Youth culture indicates the existence of a generational ‘wound’ that does not exist in many non-western cultures. It cannot be healed in isolation but only through treating the body as a whole. Otherwise we’ll simply recycle the same problem.

Because we separate off children and young people from ‘adult’ mainstream church does it become more difficult to then bring them back together?

4. Youth work will only ever be a sticking plaster solution to the problem of generational divide until the core of church culture changes. To make disciples of the young we need to make disciples of adults first.

Brief Guide to the Generations. ‘Silent’ or ‘Builder’ 1920’s – 40’s

A relatively conservative generation who both protected and built on their parent’s achievements – ‘building’ a ‘future’ after WW2 ‘Silent’ or ‘Builder’ ‘I work hard because it’s my duty to do so.’

Brief Guide to the Generations. ‘Boomer’ 1940’s -60’s

Children of the 60’s they espoused largely liberal progressive ideals, throwing off the constraints of previous generations. ‘Boomer’ ‘Work is self – fulfilling; it makes me feel important.’

Brief Guide to the Generations. ‘Generation X’ 1960’s -80’s

They challenged the progressive optimism of previous generations. Saw huge rise in divorce rates, unemployment, the spread of Aids. -Disenchanted with ‘progress’.’ ‘Generation X’ ‘I work to fund my lifestyle.’

Brief Guide to the Generations. ‘Generation Y 1980’s -2000’s

A generation adept at multi – tasking, focussed on pleasure seeking but also entrepreneurial with a ‘can do’ attitude. ‘Generation Y’ ‘My work will help to change the world.’

Focus on Gen Y ‘Generation Y’

Digital Natives? We shape our culture and in turn our culture shapes us…

New Philanthropy? ‘Millenials want to end the culture wars; move America’s foreign policy toward a more cooperative and multilateral approach; rebuild a strong, positive role for government; achieve universal healthcare; reform and expand America’s educational system; start the transition to a clean energy economy; and much more.’ Demos ‘An Anatomy of Youth’ Report 2010

‘Purpose is an intention to accomplish something that is at the same time meaningful to the self and consequential for the world beyond the self.’ © LICC All rights reserved In need of purpose?

‘[When it comes to choosing a vocation] the postponements of many young people today have taken on a troubling set of characteristics, and chief among them is that so many youth do not seem to be moving toward any resolution. © LICC All rights reserved

Their delay is characterized more by indecision than by motivated reflection, more by confusion than by the pursuit of clear goals, more by ambivalence than by determination.’ William Damon Path to Purpose © LICC All rights reserved

Bridging the gap.

Bridging the Gap. Positional v Personal Authority: Changing culture through relationship & modelling.

Model the way ‘leading means you have to be a good example and live what you say.’ Kouzes and Posner © LICC All rights reserved

Kouzes and Posner first law of leadership. ‘If you don’t believe in the messenger, you won’t believe the message.’ The Leadership Challenge © LICC All rights reserved

Only 16 per cent of Christians in the UK read the Bible every day. If we’re not being shaped by God’s word, neither will our children be. © LICC All rights reserved

Intergenerational mentoring…. © LICC All rights reserved

Bridging the Gap. Prepare young people for adulthood not for adolescence.

Rites of Passage Culture of succession and apprenticeship

Bridging the Gap. Recognise the importance of the family as a ‘sacred unit.’

Why intergenerational work? Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. Deut 6

Bridging the Gap. As the church family, don’t just pray together, play together, eat together, learn together, work together.

‘It takes a village to raise a child, it takes a church family to disciple a teenager.’