They Matter: An Appeal to Leaders of Young Adults by Marc McCartney

I was born in 1972, so according to a generational chart, I am a part of “Generation X.” Growing up we were called “Gen X” which is a generation without a label, but that was a label in and of itself. We didn’t like that label, so we created our own label - “Busters.” The reason we did that was because everything we received in life was busted. The “Boomer” generation created all this stuff then brought it to us, but it eventually became busted. The family was busted. The church was busted. The economy was busted. Everything we got in life was busted. My gosh—even professional sports was busted and corrupt!

My generation really has some issues. We have some angst to deal with. We’re not happy about everything that has transpired. However, my appeal to you as a leader of young adults is to look beyond that. Look through the outer shell and look into the heart of a generation that can be unleashed. This generation has the potential to do amazing things, but it won’t happen by itself.

The Good
“This is the most high-maintenance workforce in the history of the world…The good news is they’re also going to be the most high-performing workforce in the history of the world. They walk in with more information in their heads and at their fingertips…and sure, they have high expectations, but they have the highest expectations first and foremost for themselves.” Bruce Tulgan in Rainmaker Thinking (Generational Researcher and Expert)

The Bad
“This generation can be described in two words: bored and lonely. Despite the fact that they have more to do (internet, work, etc.) and more ways to connect than any previous generation,” Pastor of a 4,000 member church of 20 & 30 something’s in Dallas.

The Reality
“Gen Y-ers are able to do and learn so much more than I could at that stage. And they’re not looking to have a career like I have, with just one company. So we’ve got to build tools that are not just about retention but about having people develop skills faster, so that they can take on longer opportunities,” Manny Fernandez, National Managing Partner for Campus Recruiting: KPMG.

Businesses understand that their average employee working in the same job will have to be trained twelve times throughout their career. Why would they have to be trained twelve times if they are in the same job? Because everything is changing! It’s going to keep changing and keep changing, and they have to get new training in new skills as they are doing their job.

What wise businesses understand is that this generation is going to respond relationally, not simply responding on technology. Technology is a tool, and this generation can use it in a relational manner, but did you know that the big accounting firms will step on college campuses all across America in search for their future employees? They will even offer paid summer internships just to see if this person has it in them to work for them. They invest relationally before they hire.

Here are five insights we have learned while working with our generation for the last 8 years:

1. Relational trust is huge for my generation.

We want to be known. How come businesses are more personal in their pursuit of us, than the church is?

“It just seems to me that mission organizations are in love with their methods. They are always looking to the way God worked 50 years ago. I’m wondering if they even care about who I am?” a 20-something describing his experience with a well-known mission organization.

2. My generation needs to understand that they don’t have to be a preacher or a singer to be used by God.

While this may be obvious to some people, the 20 & 30-something generation doesn’t fully get that yet. We see on stage the guy that preaches and the girl that sings, and we think that we have to be like them for God to use us. But we’re starting to see that whatever passions, whatever skills, whatever desires we have are there for a reason. The Bible says “whether we eat or drink, whatever we do, do it for the glory of God.” God has given us these skills, and He wants us to use them.

3. My generation has to be pursued.

We have made more than 100,000 phone calls in the last 8 years. We know that only one in ten folks that we call will answer the phone… so we call ten to get a hold of one. Why? Because we are absolutely committed to pursuing this generation.

I can already imagine your questions. Phone calls? Really? I thought you said we were supposed to be relational. Here’s the deal: you have to determine what relational means to your context. Our ministry is helping connect our generation to opportunities to put their faith in action. We utilize video, the web, and live events to spark the relationship and then we follow through on the phones. Other technology like email, blogging and social networking is also utilized, but only after we have established the relationship. Email from someone you don’t know is spam. A friend request on Facebook from a stranger is creepy. We have learned that we can’t just default to mass marketing to pursue our generation… so in our context the telephone is the best way we have found to pursue and do it relationally.

4. My generation doesn’t think they are qualified to serve Jesus Christ.

When we first started calling folks to help them connect to an opportunity we quickly learned that about 70% of the people that we would call would actually connect to an opportunity at their own local church. This was exciting, but puzzling at the same time. Why did it take a phone call from us to connect you to your local church?

We found two reasons. For a small amount of people our phone call simply prompted them to look at the church calendar of events. They just needed a little push. But for the overwhelming majority, they thought that they were not qualified to serve. The rationale was that serving Christ required training and expertise and that they just hadn’t gotten around to that yet. They thought: “that’s me in three years… that’s me after I finish this Bible study… that’s me after I get discipled… that’s me after I get this degree… that’s not me yet.”

They did not see themselves as qualified to serve the Lord Jesus Christ! That’s a problem. We have discovered that we have to help our generation understand that we are on mission all the time. God has given us the mission; it’s time to live it out.

5. My generation compartmentalizes our faith and our life.

As we look around the landscape of churches in the U.S. today we have seen a disturbing trend. There are many 20 and 30-somethings that love God and have a heart for God. They are good people. They are relatively committed to their churches. They listen to the messages of the pastor and nod their heads in agreement. Then week in and week out, they leave their churches utterly unchanged!

It’s inconceivable that we have this faith over here and we have this life over here. We compartmentalize the two and they never come together. That’s a picture of this generation. When we read the Bible, this doesn’t make sense. Faith without works is dead. Faith expresses itself through love. We act on it not because we have to, but because we’re compelled to. Because of the faith we have in Christ, we must put our faith into action. So that’s what we at RightNow are trying to get our generation to understand and to put all the pieces together in this puzzle. We can’t keep compartmentalizing these two. Faith and life must go together.

We feel like we have been on a learning journey for the last 8 years at The RightNow Campaign. It’s not just that we have to pursue this generation. It’s not just that we have to do it relationally. And it’s not just that we have to open their eyes to the mission that God has given them. We have to help them connect all those dots. We believe in this generation. We think God can do amazing things through us. Please lead us.