So will you join me on March 31st to fast and pray for the Millennial generation? They have so much to offer–so much potential. They are creative, they are passionate, they are looking for something to believe in. A recent poll of 18 to 24 year olds here in the US showed that this age group feels they are here on this planet to solve world problems, to accomplish something, but they just don’t know how to get started. They want to be constructive and to contribute. They are motivated, goal-oriented and have a desire to be optimistic. It is our responsibility to show them something to believe in, something authentic, and they will be willing to jump on board and participate whole-heartedly. They deserve our best efforts to hang on to them, fight for them, interecede on their behalf. It is through our prayers that the curse of this Culture of Death can be broken. I’m asking the Lord to give them revelation, wisdom and knowledge so that they might hear His voice behind them saying, “This is the way,walk in it.” My prayers are that they’ll know God’s will and His way and that they will have a sense of compulsion to follow Christ above all else. I think about Jesus quoting the prophet, “Out of the mouth of babes and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger” (Psalm 8:2 ESV). I pray that this generation will, through God’s strength, still the enemy and the avenger. I want to close with Mary’s Song found in Luke:
His mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
According to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever.
Peace.
Teri,
As a college chaplain, I am with you 100%. I share your burden. I also see the reality that you write about before me, on a daily basis.
A few days ago, the day your first Millennial blog appeared, I was talking to a student about church. She said that she felt the church had ostracized her generation, made them into a special interest “group” that needed special “youth” activities, yet had little to do with them on a personal level. She said she longed for older people to just spend time with and hang out with, and how she perceived the separation of youth from the mainstream church culture as a reflection of the older generation’s lack of interest or concern for them.
This amazed me. Here we are, running around, trying to give these kids fancy programs and entertaining youth groups, when perhaps what they really want is emotional investment and relationships with us. They want belonging. I told her how helpful her comments were, for I too, had begun to wonder if at 45 I was getting to “old” and “unhip” and irrelevant to work with her generation.
Dan Kimball was at our campus a few weeks ago, and he shared that it was a vicar in England who was in his 80′s that befriended him and led him to Christ and discipled him.
Chap Clark wrote a book called Hurt about this generation. I haven’t read it yet, but I know he writes about how this generation feels abandoned. Your blogg, and this student’s comments, is prompting me to go and buy it.
I’ll be fasting on the 31st. THANK YOU!
(By the way, I found your list of shootings absolutely haunting…was there really NO incidents of school shootings before your first date? Did it really go from absolutely nothing, to a steady stream of killings, that quickly? It makes me wonder just what IS happening to us/in us/through us?)