Generation Y follows Generation X. This is the group of young adults born (roughly) in the 1980′s. Churches have for the large part stuggled to reach this Generation.
They are argue that the goal of our existence is to be happy; it is the ultimate aim in life. This is not a pure hedonism, but rather a quest for enjoyment and a desire to minimize the things which will make that goal hard to achieve. Life is “basically OK”, and you don’t need God to make sense of it. In this book, then, the authors suggest that young people today are:
+ Overwhelmingly ignorant of Christian things
+ Pragmatic and Secular in their outlook on the world
Don’t appear to have a large spiritual vacuum in their life which needs filling
+ Value friendships above almost anything else.
+ They are typified as having no “meta-narrative” – a big story to make sense of all of life.
There is nothing new here of course. I don’t feel that we should be overly intimidated by the way in which young people articulate their outlook on life. Is there less spiritual awareness? Probably. Does that mean that the Gospel is no longer their greatest need? Of course not. Do we need new techniques to reach Generation Y? Probably not. What we do need is imaginative relationships which help young people see the credibility of Christians and the Gospel. In this respect, there is nothing new. But there is a huge challenge to reach a whole generation that is remarkably ignorant and doesn’t know it or care. We must rise to the challenge. We can promise them true happiness, but only when they see themselves in the meta-narrative of God’s story; a story which has its beginning and end in Him.
Extract from “The Edge” issue 1 (see www.fows.org) by Simon Vibert – a discussion starter
