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Few would argue that growing up in today’s world is not only markedly dissimilar but significantly more problematic for today’s youth than for preceding generations. Today’s world is more complex, the issues are more critical and ministry to this generation in the new millennium is much more challenging.

Every year since 1998, Beloit College, (Beloit, Wisconsin, USA) has prepared a list of things that differentiate the frame of reference of entering students from that of their teachers, coaches and mentors. It is designed to provide a cultural and generational snapshot to faculty and staff as they prepare to welcome the new students.

After all, students of 18, for whom the fall of the Berlin Wall was a topic of their parents’ conversation, know little of the fears of the Cold War and nuclear annihilation. For their younger teachers, Watergate is a distant memory; for their distinguished senior professors – the ones with a pile of vinyl LPs in the closet – the Crash and the Depression probably shaped their lives.

Young students see the world differently and the list is a reminder of just how significantly differently their intellectual framework is. Cultural references familiar to professors, might draw blank stares from their students. As Beloit College professor Tom McBride, one of the list’s creators says, “It is an alert for those of us who may be suffering from hardening of the references.”

The following abbreviated “Mindset List” may remind us that a generation, along with their rapidly changing worldview, comes and goes in the blink of an eye. (The full list can be found at http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2014.php  ):

1. Few in the class know how to write in cursive.
2. Email is just too slow and they seldom if ever use snail mail.
3. “Caramel macchiato” and “venti half-caf vanilla latte” have always been street corner lingo.
4. John McEnroe has never played professional tennis and Doctor Kevorkian has never been licensed to practice medicine
5. Clint Eastwood is better known as a sensitive director than as Dirty Harry.
6. They never twisted the coiled handset wire aimlessly around their wrists while chatting on the phone.
7. DNA fingerprinting and maps of the human genome have always existed.
8. Cross-burning has always been deemed protected speech.
9. Unless they found one in their grandparents’ closet, they have never seen a carousel of Kodachrome slides.
10. They’ve never recognized that pointing to their wrists was a request for the time of day.
11. Reggie Jackson has always been enshrined in Cooperstown.
12. Czechoslovakia has never existed.
13. Second-hand smoke has always been an official carcinogen.
14. “Assisted Living” has always been replacing nursing homes, while Hospice has always offered an alternative to the hospital.
15. Russians and Americans have always been living together in space.
16. The dominance of television news by the three networks passed while they were still in their cribs.
17. Nirvana is on the classic oldies station.
18. Someone has always gotten married in space.
19. There have always been women priests in the Anglican Church.
20. J.R. Ewing has always been dead and gone. Hasn’t he? 
21. A purple dinosaur has always supplanted Barney Google and Barney Fife. 
22. Ruth Bader Ginsburg has always sat on the Supreme Court.
23. They have never worried about a Russian missile strike on the U.S.

We must first understand this generation and its culture if we are to present the redemptive message of God’s Word in a meaningful context. You don’t have to buy into everything they say or do but you must understand their realities. Understanding their fears, opportunities, dangers and world-view will help us to respond and lead strategically. Don’t lose sight of your objective - to have an impact on this generation with the life changing truth of the gospel!

Stay the Course,

Greg Morris

Gregory K. Morris, Ph.D., is the founder and president of Leadership Dynamics, a non-profit corporation committed to the training and development of Christian leaders and their organizations and is available for new clients. He has authored In Pursuit of Leadership, a study of leadership principles in the life of Moses. For more information, visit LeadershipDynamics.org or his blog at LeadershipDynamics.wordpress.com