Tag Archive - Generation Y

Exploring the Online Characteristics of Generation F/Y, and Their Implications-Part 2

June 26, 2009 in Ministry-Theology, Technology-Social Media with 2 Comments

2535690506_060bdbf328
[image by jakeoneil]


Last week I posted Exploring the Online Characteristics of Generation F/Y, and Their Implications-Part 1. This series was born out of my fascination with the great article, The Facebook Generation vs. the Fortune 500. And for the first post focused on the first “online characteristic” of this generation, All ideas compete on equal footing.

Today I want to take a look at another characteristic:

2. Contribution counts for more than credentials. When you post a video to YouTube, no one asks you if you went to film school. When you write a blog, no one cares whether you have a journalism degree. Position, title, and academic degrees—none of the usual status differentiators carry much weight online. On the Web, what counts is not your resume, but what you can contribute.

I’m really curious about this characteristic and whether you agree or not? I still think some credentials are important, and some even necessary to certain vocations. But I do think it’s becoming less important. I tell my wife quite a bit that I’m not even sure college will be relevant when my daughter turns 18. Training schools, apprentices, self-learning, etc. But who knows. I have some credentials that are relevant to my work. My M.Div. isn’t necessary in some church circles, but it was helpful, and pretty much required for the denomination I have been in the last 8 years. My MSMFT is necessary though if I want to practice as a marriage and family therapist in any state.

But with the explosion of online collaboration, contribution and socializing, this need to justify ourselves through credentials seems to be collapsing. This is an especially strong point of tension in many churches. Online is a place where the junior high kid who posts a funny video, or the college student who makes a film, or the young adult who writes a blog…has as much credentials, and quite possibly as big of a listening and watching audience as does the pastor preaching on Sunday morning.

I think where this tension will become more apparent is denominationally. Many denominations have huge barriers for ordination and participation in certain leadership structures. Not everyone is going to be willing to jump through those hoops, and I think those who will be willing to do so will continue to shrink. That’s why I think denominations like the PCUSA will continue to shrink up, losing more and more bright and future leaders to other forms of church structure and ecclesiology.

Are credentials important in your church?

Does the need for these credentials exclude leaders who could participate more fully in the life of church ministry?

Exploring the Online Characteristics of Generation F/Y, and Their Implications-Part 1

June 19, 2009 in Ministry-Theology, Technology-Social Media with 5 Comments

3391480957_f4559775aa
[image by jblyberg]


As I mentioned yesterday, I thought it might be a good idea to explore more thoroughly the “online characteristics” that come out of Gary Hamel’s article, The Facebook Generation vs. the Fortune 500.

Now, anytime we try to generalize things about the Church…it is often just that. A generalization. Lots of churches may exhibit these qualities, and many churches don’t. But let’s start the conversation and see what happens.

So let’s begin with the first characteristic:

  1. All ideas compete on an equal footing–On the Web, every idea has the chance to gain a following—or not, and no one has the power to kill off a subversive idea or squelch an embarrassing debate. Ideas gain traction based on their perceived merits, rather than on the political power of their sponsors.

Now, if you have spent anytime in the Church…on staff, volunteering, or just attending, this becomes pretty obvious, pretty quickly. Not all ideas compete on equal footing, and often many ideas aren’t even allowed to enter the conversation. Where I have often seen this played out is in the ideas between staff/church members of different “ranking”, i.e. ordained vs. non-ordained, associate vs. executive, senior pastor vs. youth pastor, volunteer vs. staff, etc. Though this is not to become a versus situation, it often breaks down into that when ideas are not allowed to be shared and considered equally among all staff members, volunteers and attending members.

I have struggled a lot in my time within the PCUSA denomination the last 8 years. I have intentionally chosen not to be ordained, but that automatically at times leaves me out of the conversation with those who are ordained. It has often been a place where ideas don’t, and can’t compete on equal footing. Not only can ordination become a roadblock, but so can seniority, gender, age, education, etc. This just isn’t typical in mainline denominations, but it’s pretty typical in non-denominational Bible churches as well.

But one thing the Church needs to understand is that it makes ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE to the younger generations that all ideas can’t be encouraged, shared, and taken very seriously. The ideas coming from the junior high ministry (whether student or staff) are just as important and valuable as those on the senior staff and elder boards. Why? While pastors, deacons and elders are in rooms sharing ideas, often excluding others, younger generations are online changing the world. Starting groups, meeting in person, and transforming the communities around them.

So why would they want to come to Church and participate, when those in leadership don’t allow them to actually participate. Participation for the younger generations doesn’t meet just kowtowing to senior leadership, but actually contributing and participating in not only the brainstorming and decision making process, but in carrying it out also.

For the younger generations, the Church can often just be seen as “red tape.” Nothing is more discouraging than a person bringing a great idea to senior leadership, and having that idea shut down (if it’s even heard) as it navigates it’s way through the CEO/Business Management models that most churches operate from. Pretty soon, these people just take their ideas online where there is no “red tape”, and start changing the world…without the Church.

So how can you…how can the Church encourage an environment where all ideas compete on equal footing?

One of the things we attempted at my last church (Bel Air Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles) was Blue Sky/storyboarding meetings, which was basically an adoption of Disney’s Imagineering develops new rides. I’ve heard different rules for the meetings, but the basic idea is that all ideas are to be shared, and there is no such thing as a bad idea. When all ideas are shared, eventually the best ones will naturally rise to the top…but at least they have the opportunity to be shared and discussed in an open environment which has often not the been the experience of many people in the Church.

What are some practical things that can be done in the Church to encourage this process?

Exploring the Online Characteristics of Generation F/Y, and Their Implications for Ministry

June 18, 2009 in Ministry-Theology, Technology-Social Media with 7 Comments

This world of social networking is a world of little to no hierarchy, and the leadership that exists is one that is centered within the groups in the online communities, and encourages a leadership style that is horizontally structured, striving to give equal voice to everyone involved. In terms of its impact to the world outside of it, these online social networking sites encourage a bottom’s up style of leadership, where change comes from grass root movements within the sites and moves out into the world. If a student does not feel empowered in any of the relationships that exist in his or her day to day life, they are going to find it online where there are little to no rules, and no parental control or authority to tell them what, when or how to do something. Students are masters of their own universe and they shape their profile and identity around the idea that they are valuable to the group and can offer meaningful opinions.

This is crucial for youth workers to understand. Most churches operate using a hierarchical approach, where structure and authority are organized in a top-down manner. In most cases, this means that the voices that are given the most importance and are usually the most heard are those of the senior pastor, the ordained staff or those in positions of employed leadership. This is not the case for MySpace or Facebook. Everyone has a voice and place along the continuum of leadership in these communities. When Nouwen states that “The way of the Christian leader is not the way of upward mobility in which our world has invested so much, but the way of downward mobility ending on the cross,” I would argue that online social networking sites offer in terms of leadership a trajectory more aligned with downward mobility than most church structures. This is what happened in our ministry in 2006 when one of my students decided to create for us a Facebook profile without my knowledge. This is often what scares most youth workers away from these sites, knowing that they can’t control what happens online, and that the power and position they hold in the real world, means sometimes nothing in the virtual world. But looking back over the last year I am thankful that he took the initiative and didn’t feel like he had to get approval through me. (The New Media Frontier: Blogging, Vlogging, and Podcasting for Christ)

That’s what I wrote about two years ago in my chapter Navigating the Evolving World of Youth Ministry in the Facebook-MySpace Generation. As you can see, I think the combination of the online world and Generation Y/F has huge implications for ministry. On Tuesday I posted Values of Generation Y/Millenials That Will Help Transform Work and Church, and it got some good reaction online via blogs, Twitter, as well in some personal conversation that I had. And then yesterday, ChurchCrunch commented on the post and topic with Hiring, Managing, and Keeping Staff from the Facebook Generation.

So I’ve decided to look at this issue at length, and in depth a little more. There are lots of issues here that intrigue and excite me. Leadership and management styles. Generational stereotypes, especially around Generations Y/F. The leverage of technology and social media in reshaping all of the above. As I mentioned, all of these things have HUGE IMPLICATIONS FOR THE CHURCH.

So over the next few couple of weeks I’m going to look again at the article The Facebook Generation vs. the Fortune 500, and I’m going to revisit the 12 work-relevant characteristics of online life that Gary Hamel says represent this Generation F (Y, Millenials–whatever you want to call them). But I’m going to look at each one through the lense of Church, ministry, theology, and see what we can learn, and why this generation is often at odds with those current generation of leaders pastoring churches today.

In case you forgot what the 12 characteristics are, here is the list to refresh your memory:

  1. All ideas compete on an equal footing.
  2. Contribution counts for more than credentials.
  3. Hierarchies are natural, not prescribed.
  4. Leaders serve rather than preside.
  5. Tasks are chosen, not assigned.
  6. Groups are self-defining and -organizing.
  7. Resources get attracted, not allocated.
  8. Power comes from sharing information, not hoarding it.
  9. Opinions compound and decisions are peer-reviewed.
  10. Users can veto most policy decisions.
  11. Intrinsic rewards matter most.
  12. Hackers are heroes.

I look forward to exploring this topic with you.

The Values of Generation Y/Millenials That Will Help Transform Work and Church

June 16, 2009 in Ministry-Theology, Technology-Social Media with 19 Comments

I saw a tweet yesterday by Joel Black in reference to a blog post by Alan Hirsch regarding Leading Gen-F. Alan’s post was in reference to this great article, The Facebook Generation vs. the Fortune 500 by Gary Hamel.

In the article, Hamel says this:

The experience of growing up online will profoundly shape the workplace expectations of “Generation F” – the Facebook Generation. At a minimum, they’ll expect the social environment of work to reflect the social context of the Web, rather than as is currently the case, a mid-20th-century Weberian bureaucracy.

If your company hopes to attract the most creative and energetic members of Gen F, it will need to understand these Internet-derived expectations, and then reinvent its management practices accordingly. Sure, it’s a buyer’s market for talent right now, but that won’t always be the case—and in the future, any company that lacks a vital core of Gen F employees will soon find itself stuck in the mud.

With that in mind, I compiled a list of 12 work-relevant characteristics of online life. These are the post-bureaucratic realities that tomorrow’s employees will use as yardsticks in determining whether your company is “with it” or “past it.” In assembling this short list, I haven’t tried to catalog every salient feature of the Web’s social milieu, only those that are most at odds with the legacy practices found in large companies.

Hamel goes on to list these 12 characteristics as follows (read the article for the explanation of each one):

  1. All ideas compete on an equal footing.
  2. Contribution counts for more than credentials.
  3. Hierarchies are natural, not prescribed.
  4. Leaders serve rather than preside.
  5. Tasks are chosen, not assigned.
  6. Groups are self-defining and -organizing.
  7. Resources get attracted, not allocated.
  8. Power comes from sharing information, not hoarding it.
  9. Opinions compound and decisions are peer-reviewed.
  10. Users can veto most policy decisions.
  11. Intrinsic rewards matter most.
  12. Hackers are heroes.

Great stuff…and I totally agree with his conclusions.

I’m technically of Generation X, but I definitely think (in many ways), operate, and feel at home with Generation Y or Millenials. This is probably due to the fact that I have worked in youth ministry for 15 years–the last 7 in Los Angeles as a college pastor to USC, UCLA and LMU students primarily. They have some interesting philosophies on leadership, managment, work, etc. that I share with them.

Continue Reading…