Transcript Slide 1

Ma ke a d i ffe r e n c e
w h e re ve r y o u a re
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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
20th/21st 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
‘Silent’ or ‘Builder’
A relatively conservative generation
who both protected and built on
their parent’s achievements –
‘building’ a ‘future’ after WW2
‘I work hard because it’s my duty to do so.’
Brief Guide to the Generations.
‘Boomer’
1940’s -60’s
‘Boomer’
Children of the 60’s they espoused
largely liberal progressive ideals,
throwing off the constraints of
previous generations.
‘Work is self – fulfilling; it makes me feel
important.’
Brief Guide to the Generations.
‘Generation X’
1960’s -80’s
‘Generation X’
They challenged the progressive
optimism of previous generations.
Saw huge rise in divorce rates,
unemployment, the spread of Aids.
-Disenchanted with ‘progress’.’
‘I work to fund my lifestyle.’
Brief Guide to the Generations.
‘Generation Y
1980’s -2000’s
‘Generation Y’
A generation adept at multi –
tasking, focussed on pleasure
seeking but also entrepreneurial
with a ‘can do’ attitude.
‘My work will help to change the world.’
‘Generation Y’
Focus on Gen 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
In need of purpose?
‘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.’
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‘[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.
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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
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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
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Kouzes and Posner first law of
leadership.
‘If you don’t believe in
the messenger, you
won’t believe the
message.’
The Leadership Challenge
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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.
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Intergenerational mentoring….
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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.’