BH CARROLL THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE

ANCIENT-FUTURE DISCIPLESHIP: HOW MILLENNIAL GENERATION TRAITS SHOULD INFLUENCE DISCIPLESHIP METHODS

A THESIS SUBMITTED TO DR. BUDD SMITH IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN THEOLOGY

BY KEVIN BOYD FEBRUARY 2012

ABSTRACT The purpose of this project is to propose unique theoretical parameters and strategies for discipling members of the Millennial Generation (Gen Y). This relates to a need that is concerning to many church leaders, as this seems to be a generational contingent that is hard to read through traditional approaches. Beyond ways to attract and communicate in worship services, churches must find ways to lead Millennials in spiritual formation and discipline. Chapter 1 will focus on the subject of this project, namely, members of the Millennial Generation. Definitions for key terms and ideas that provide context for this study will be provided to create a basic understanding of generational theory; and the demographic of Generation Y will be introduced as distinct from previous generations. Five irreducible traits will be proposed that describe Millennial perspective and tendencies. Chapter 2 will include a basic discussion of the effects of a postmodern epistemology and culture on the generation. Evidence will be provided that new challenges have been created for professional, military, and Christian organizations in regards to the ways in which they motivate, train, and retain young adults who make up this generational cohort. This chapter will further explore the social research on the perceived values and learning behaviors of this generation. Chapter 3 will provide a sufficient history of movements within Christian discipleship that will provide a solid foundation through which to

interpret the issues posed to the church by the Millennial dilemma. A consistent ancient-biblical form of discipleship will be examined through a quick survey of the Old and New Testaments. These forms will then be contrasted to modern-traditional forms, and defining traits of modern discipleship will be seen as mismatched to the Millennial disposition. Chapter 4 will describe the shifts that must be examined in current philosophies and methods of discipleship and Christian education by local churches. There will be a brief examination of the defining traits of biblical discipleship that are suited to effective spiritual formation of Millennials. The chapter will then take a parallel form to chapter 1 as to provide specific responses to the 5 core traits that are most distinct to the Millennial outlook. This will connect the offerings of an ancient discipling model with the need for a sustainable discipleship program for Millennials.

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CONTENTS

ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION

i 1

Chapter ONE MILLENNIALS........3 Recognizing a Generation..........3 Social/Connected....6 Educated.........9 Activist.....12 Diverse/Tolerant.......14 Spiritual/Non-Religious....16 THE POSTMODERN DILEMMA......19 Postmodern Adults as a Professional Dilemma.......20 Postmodern Adults as a Military Dilemma......23 Postmodern Adults as a Christian Dilemma25 FOLLOW ME: MOVEMENTS IN DISCIPLESHIP...30 Following the Old Testament God of Israel.....32 Following the Messiah.....35 Discipleship in a Modern World......41 SPIRITUAL FORMATION FOR MILLENNIALS....44 Social/Connected..............49 Educated.......51 Activist.........54 Non-Religious Spirituality that is Diverse/Tolerant....56 GENERATIONAL ARCHETYPES ...60 SEMINAL EVENTS FOR CURRENT GENERATIONS..61 PERSONALIZED LEARNING COMMUNITIES ....62 ARTIFICIAL: INTELLIGENCE AND SPIRITUALITY...65

TWO

THREE

FOUR

APPENDIX A APPENDIX B APPENDIX C APPENDIX D

BIBLIOGRAPHY....67

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! INTRODUCTION Discipleship has been generally defined as the holistic learning process in which a student or apprentice becomes like the teacher or master. Throughout the Bible, discipleship is Gods primary method for guiding, shaping, and discipling His people. In the gospels discipleship is not the result of the satisfaction of curiosity, nor is it even the result of a conviction that Jesus Christ is truthone becomes a disciple in the Biblical sense only when one is totally and completely committed to the person of Jesus Christ and His word.1 Today in the industrialized West the church is at grave risk. In the United States, where Christian faith remains very much alive, the crisis of Protestant churches has often enough been documented in quantifiable terms.2 John Leith notes that that external observation has a particular value, but the diagnosis of issues and the methods of renewal must come from within the community itself, and in the light of its own traditions.3 The most ancient of these traditions may be that of intentional discipleship. The events, attitudes, and philosophies that shape culture for a time in any part of the world leave an imprint on the youth of that time. From generation to generation, certain traits characterize the ways that a cohort will !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1 J. Dwight Pentecost, Design For Discipleship: Discovering God's Blueprint For the Christian Life (Grand Rapids, MI.: Kregel Publications, 1996), 14. John H. Leith, From Generation to Generation: the Renewal of the Church According to Its Own Theology and Practice (Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press, 1990), 20.
3 2

Ibid. 1

! respond to truth, and to events along their own timeline. Each generation becomes distinct throughout their childhood and adolescence; and as they come of age, society finds the need to bend towards their learning and leading trends. With this in mind, Christians and churches may need to investigate if their spiritual formation methodology is best fitted to the people that they are attempting to disciple. This is not an invitation to question the content of discipling, but rather the communication structures and educational pedagogy with which discipling takes place. The question that must be asked is How might generational traits influence discipleship methods?. In an attempt to answer this question, one generation has been chosen as a test case. The focus of this study is on the distinctives of the Millennial Generation cohort, the recognized challenges those distinctives are establishing to institutionalized life, and matching a spiritual formation plan that both matches the demands of the biblical calling and meets the needs of the generational characteristics.

! CHAPTER ONE: MILLENNIALS Recognizing a Generation They are called Millennials, Gen-Y, Gen Why?, Net-Gen, Gen Next, Echo Boomers, Boomerangs, Generation Now, and many more monikers. They would prefer that you try not to label them. The fact that so many labels have been attached to this generation is a nod to the diversity, subjectivity, and busy activity of a group that make up over 25% of the current American population. With over 80 million Gen-Yers in the US, they are the largest generation since the Baby Boomers, and are nearly three times the size of their predecessors, Gen X.4 Some debate has been given to the perimeters of the generation, including beginning-birth-years (BBY) between 1977-1982 and suggested end-birth-years (EBY) between 1990-2000. This would indicate that today, Gen-Y would include children potentially as young as eleven, through adults who are around thirty-years-old. This allows for a wide range of developmental stages; consequently, I will for the purposes of this study, agree with the tightest suggested perimeters. William Strauss and Neil Howe, social historians best known for their generational theories, have prescribed a BBY of around 1981, as this represents those students who graduated from high school in the new millennium (hence Millennials).5 Many, including The Pew Research !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 4 Paul Taylor, ed. and Scott Keeter, ed., Millennials: A Portrait of Generation Next (n.p.: Pew Research Center, 2010), 9.

! Center, a non-profit, nonpartisan, fact tank have prescribed 1991 as the EBY.6 With those boundaries in mind, this paper will focus on todays young adults, ages 19-30. Setting this age bracket infers that most current undergraduate and graduate students and many of Americas young service men and women are members of this generation. Many Millennials are publicly and privately employed, and by 2025, they will take over more than 75% of the American workforce.7 In a manner, their numbers define them, in that they will have a huge social and economic impact. Generations are assigned by their familial order, which lends to age brackets, and by their social and cultural cohort, which is nurtured by situations, attitudes, and advancements. Generational theory, or the attempt to define trends of a generation, can explain how society is likely to respond to events along our timeline. Howe and Strauss have offered that Millennials will reject the Gen X pop culture, rebel against Boomer politics, dramatically redefine what it means to be young, and, in time, become Americas next great generation.8 They were raised by later-Boomers, and early-Xers, amongst rapid and vast technological developments, including connectivity to !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 5 William Strauss and Neil Howe, Generations: the History of America's Future, 1584 to 2069, 1st Quill ed. (New York: Quill, 1992), 335.
6 7

Taylor and Keeter, Millennials: A Portrait of Generation Next, 9.

Meredith Lepore, Mind the Gap: Managing the Tension between Generations in the Office, The Grindstone, http://thegrindstone.com/careermanagement/mind-the-gap-managing-the-tension-between-generations-in-theoffice-827/ (accessed October 17, 2011). Neil Howe and William Strauss, Millennials Rising: the Next Great Generation. (New York: Vintage, 2000), back cover. ! 4
8

! people and information that has created a smaller world with increased opportunity. Often forgoing traditional methods of progression, this generation catapults themselves in new directions, with a leaning towards entrepreneurship and creativity, and a desire to transform society. What seems clear of Millennials is that they have developed a distinct way of thinking about the world, and a value system that is personal and unique. Acknowledging generational distinctives and the formative position of these young adults, educational institutions, the secular workplace, and government agencies are addressing the need to redirect educational efforts in order to better meet their developmental needs and take advantage of their hopeful optimism and activism. For institutionalized America to have a transformative affect on the generation, it is vital that clear characteristics are recognized and addressed. Research shows that there are at least five irreducible characteristics that must be understood about Generation Y, each of which are general enough to encompass the most-part of the generation, regardless of ethnicity, family-dynamic, geographic location, and economic and social status, and still specific enough to provide definitive generational tendencies. It should be noted that advancements in technology have provided great influence upon all aspects of Millennial nature. Technology-use may even be the most important mark towards the uniqueness of the generation.9 Technological advancements were constant and rapid throughout the !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 9 Taylor and Keeter, Millennials: A Portrait of Generation Next, 5; 13. ! 5

! childhood of Gen-Yers as breakthroughs in digital technology offered significant affect both in science and society. They have grown up expecting advancing forms of technology to regularly change the way they interact, learn, entertain themselves, and express themselves. The vast impact of technology on Millennials will be realized throughout each of the five characteristics. Social/Connected To declare that Millennials are simply communal may not seem distinctive; they are progressively pro-social, embracing unity and collaboration at the highest value in work and play. They are historys first always connected generation.10 Steeped in digital technology and social media, Three-quarters have created a profile on a social networking site. One-in-five have posted a video of themselves online.11 Many embrace multiple modes of self-expression and connection by exploring multiple online social venues. The Millennials have grown up multitasking, enabled by [their] rapid evolution of consumer electronics and social networking applications that allows them to stay plugged in 24/7. Students and young workers take for granted the ability to connect with friends and family any time, from anywhere, via the Internet or their cell phone.12 Todays young adults see their cell phones and smart devices as vital !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 10 Taylor and Keeter, Millennials: A Portrait of Generation Next, 1.
11 12

Ibid, 1; 28-29. Millennials at the Gates (n.p.: Accenture, 2008), 3. 6

! to life; and few have memories of it being any other way.13 Pew Research reports that 83% of Millennials sleep with a glowing cell phone next to their bedside, in readiness for incoming messages via call, text, social network, or even live video-conference.14 For these who have been raised in a mostly digital era, it would only make sense to embrace the technology that has provided them with the ability to call, txt, Facebook, tweet, bank, listen, watch, read, browse, learn, route, shop, photo, share, play, design, organize, calendar, write, plan, video, follow stocks, news, and write-develop-present data, all from a pocket-sized, wireless device. And for a generation that has grown up using rapidly advancing technologies, frequently disregarding analog for digital, in an age of smaller, faster, smarter, there is no other way to live.15 This always-connected lifestyle has become their normal, and they carry the expectation of instant connectivity into every facet of life.16 While digital and wireless technology has fueled the ease of connectivity, the source of their desire for connectivity may have more to do with their relational upbringing. Ed Stetzer, author, and President of Lifeway Research, believes that relationships are their driving force. Being loyal is one of their highest values, and they have a strong need to belong that is

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 13 Thom S. Rainer and Jess Rainer, The Millennials: Connecting to America's Largest Generation (Nashville, Tenn.: B&H Books, 2011), 43-44.
14 15 16

Taylor and Keeter, Millennials: A Portrait of Generation Next, 6. Rainer and Rainer, The Millennials, 43-44. Millennials at the Gates, 3. 7

! proved through acceptance and demonstrations of appreciation.17 Their parents have often been deemed helicopter parents, referring to the ways they have seemingly hovered and watched over Gen-Ys upbringing.18 This is likely the response of both, later Boomers who have moved their priority from careers to raising their children, and of early Xers who chose kids-first over building a career. This dynamic, paired with nationwide cultural childcare reforms expressed through baby on board, no child left behind, and a multitude of drug-awareness campaigns, held the spotlight steady on children growing up in the 1980s and 90s. As if in response, Family priorities, including being a good parent, having a successful marriage, helping others in need rank among the highest of lifes priorities for Millennials.19 Millennial Generation researcher and author, Jess Rainer, who himself is a Millennial, notes that family and friends are among the highest values currently expressed by those of his generation.20 He describes Aaron, a typical socially-recreationally motivated Gen-Yer, who when presented by his boss with the choice between a raise in salary or an increased number of paid-

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 17 David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, Unchristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity-- and Why It Matters (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books, 2007), 22. Steve Eubanks, Millennials Go to College (n.p.: Azusa Pacific University, 2006), 3.
19 20 18

Taylor and Keeter, Millennials: A Portrait of Generation Next, 18. Rainer and Rainer, The Millennials, 20. 8

! leave days, chose the vacation time, reasoning that time to travel with his brother was more valuable than paying off loans or increasing wealth.21 Rainer emphasizes the growing return to closer connected families, even when existing outside of the nuclear family dynamic. Children and common values have replaced marriage as the family center, and common technologies tether parents to children through broken marriages. As this new familism is being defined and is embracing new forms of role-identity, Family values may well become one of the main distinguishing marks of the Millennials.22 This generation is redressing, and providing a focal point for renewal of the American family. Their pro-social posture and capability has created a generation who expect to be tethered to each other and depend on connection to whomever they consider family. Educated The 1980s brought a widespread public concern that something was wrong with the U.S. educational system, and that change was necessary if the American workforce was to remain internationally competitive. The federal government initiated steps to assess the quality of teaching and learning in Americas school systems.23 The Nation at Risk report of 1983 served as a wake up call that launched the U.S. into an era of education reform in the !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 21 Rainer and Rainer, The Millennials, 38.
22 23

Ibid, 33.

The National Commission on Excellence in Education, A Nation at Risk: The Imperative For Educational Reform (1983).

! public school systems.24 It produced concerns with the content, expectations, time, and teaching of American students, which led to a first wave of general reform.25 Then, In 1989, the nations leaders (among them the self-declared Education President, George Bush) summoned the First National Education Summitin which they set ambitious goals, effectively focusing on the future class of 2000.26 This summit, made up of the President and the nations governors, led to an aggressive state-by-state effort to increase knowledge, skills, literacy, safety, preparedness, and parental involvement. Students and schools across the nation were held to higher standards and measured upon their results. These efforts to improve the education system overhauled the learning environment for children of the 80s and 90s.27 As leading-edge Millennials passed through elementary school, new educational buzzwords appeared: collaborative learning, back to basics, zero tolerance, school accountability, and (especially) standards of learning.28 Throughout the 1990s educational reform remained in the spotlight, as youth-focused agendas were major political platforms.29 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 24 Howe and Strauss, Millennials Rising, 145 The National Commission on Excellence in Education, A Nation at Risk: The Imperative For Educational Reform.
26 27 25

Howe and Strauss, Millennials Rising, 146.

Negp: Goals Work! national Education Goals Panel, http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/negp/page1-5.htm (accessed June 14, 2011).
28 29

Howe and Strauss, Millennials Rising, 38. Ibid. 10

! In direct result to these efforts, parents were forced to become more perfectionist and passionate about their kids education, as they prepared their kids for every level of school. Private schools, charter schools, home schooling, and other educational options grew in number and specialty as parents looked for newer and better forms of education for their children. Millennial students aptitude test scores, high school graduation rates, and college entrance numbers all rose within every racial and ethnic group.30 More than half of Millennials have at least some college education (54%)Millennials, when compared with previous generations at the same age, also are more likely to have completed high school.31 For many, it seems that a college degree is now a requisite for advancement in life.32 In effect, Their rate of receiving undergraduate degrees has surpassed all previous generations.33 This educational awakening, paired the ease at which technology has allowed Millennials to receive information, and driven largely by the demands of modern knowledge-based economy, has put them on course to become the most educated generation in American history.34 And the education they received, while focusing on rules, respect, and !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 30 Ibid, 10; 147-150.
31 32

Taylor and Keeter, Millennials: A Portrait of Generation Next, 10.

Ron Alsop, The Trophy Kids Grow Up: How the Millennial Generation Is Shaking Up the Workplace (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2008), see chapter 3, Apron Strings.
33 34

Rainer and Rainer, The Millennials, 20. Taylor and Keeter, Millennials: A Portrait of Generation Next, 2-3. 11

! responsibility has created more socially aware young adults. Activist Educational and digital awakenings have provided heightened awareness to specific sociological and environmental crises; and the accessibility of information by technology allows for a more personal individual and communal response to such crises. Millennials, growing up in a world seemingly smaller for its connectivity and amass of information and news, are on the forefront of activism. They have even been subtly trained to want to take action in bettering the world. Strauss and Howe compare Millennials to the G.I. generation. The G.I. determination to act on the 4-H motto: Make the Best Better serves as precursor to Millennial attitudes. FDR, on the eve of WWII said we can build our youth for the future. This same attitude and culture was repeated throughout the Millennial childhood, creating what Strauss and Howe have deemed a Hero achetype;35 which is effectually a generation of child-heroes echoing past generations of civicminded heroes, such as the G.I.s John Kennedy, the Republicans Thomas Jefferson, and the Glorious Generations Cotton Mather.36 They have been taught to believe that the world is at their fingertips as parents, teachers, and public service announcements have instilled in them the belief that they can do anything. Their teachers emphasized you can !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 35 William Strauss and Neil Howe, The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy - What the Cycles of History Tell Us About America's Next Rendezvous with Destiny (New York: Broadway Books, 1997), 292-293.
36

Strauss and Howe, Generations, 83-39. 12

! accomplish anything if you put your mind to it. They have the belief and desire to make a difference. 75% of Millennials believe it is their role to serve others; and 6 in 10 expect that they will make some great contribution to the world in their lifetime.37 Even media culture has played a role in feeding the regular-guy-hero mentality by an era of TV, movie, book characters that are wholesome, cleancut kids, that when summoned transform into something beyond the ordinary. The Power Rangers, Harry Potter, NBCs hit Heroes, along with many other characters that have been popularized throughout the age-cycles of Millennials are the fictional models for which these media-driven young adults pattern their expectations of life and community. Marketing firm, Brand Amplitudes recent research project, The Millennial Handbook, notes that Superpowers for ordinary mortals of course is not a new theme, but what makes Potter and Heroes different from, say Superman, is the unique generational angle. Its not just about having unique talents; its about being YOUNG and having unique talents.38 On a less extraordinary scale, cooperation, community, and moral code became ordinary in film. Strauss and Howe note that 13er [Xer] Willy Wonka-style movies had stressed individualism and differences among kids, while Millennial children grew up to films such as The Goonies, An American Tail, Sandlot, Mighty Ducks, and Toy Story, that stressed civic virtues: equality, optimism, cooperation, and !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 37 Rainer and Rainer, The Millennials, 37. Carol Phillips, The Millennial Handbook: A Snapshot Guide to Everything Gen Y (Stevensville, MI: Brand Amplitude, n.d.), 50. ! 13
38

! community.39 It may be that every generation at its young-stage has desired change, but no previous generation has been so accustomed to expect it. Years in advance, parents, teachers, and civic and nationally platformed leaders have planned for Millennials to be the generation that sets right the unraveling that previous generations have created. Living in a helicopter society, amongst constantly emerging make-a-difference campaigns in education, safety, politics, and culture, these young adults have been conditioned and expected to make a difference. As each generation brings with it, change, the childheroes of Generation-Y are stepping into adulthood sensing the dire challenge set before them.40 Diverse/Tolerant Todays young adults are creating their own varieties within every facet of life, including society, politics, arts, sexuality, health, and education; with the effect of blending social norms and expectations so that there is very little considered abnormal. Where as Generation X questioned and rebelled against everything considered normal, GenY is establishing a new normal, in which individuality, diversity, and tolerance are highly valued. Millennials are more ethnically and racially diverse than previous generations,41 with approximately 38% of 18-24 year-olds being non!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 39 Strauss and Howe, Generations, 338.
40 41

Strauss and Howe, The Fourth Turning, 248-253. Taylor and Keeter, Millennials: A Portrait of Generation Next, 9. 14

! white.42 With an ever-growing diverse population, the word minority may no longer have meaning to this and future generations. Members of Generation Y are seemingly very tolerant of the changing landscape; as working and interacting with people outside of their own ethnic group is the norm, and acceptable.43 In result, the generation as a whole has tendencies to be less socially conservative, even when compared to previous generations at the young adult life stage.44 Pew Research has even reported that Millennials remain the most likely of any generation to self-identify as liberal45. A consideration of pop culture in the 1990s reflects a trending diversity within its youth; where previous generations can often claim primary genres of music, movies, and arts, todays young adults were raised on an explosion of diverse styles and expressions.46 With popular culture displaying a myriad of options in every medium throughout the 90s, the children of that decade are comfortable in varieties of social settings and norms. For many, the unique opportunity of creating ones own personal mixture of style and brand has become the preferred genre. In effect, there is not a clear and primary stereotype for this generation. Its in vogue to be different, under !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 42 Carol Phillips, The Millennial Handbook, 5. Generation Y: The Millennials Ready or Not, Here They Come (n.p.: NAS Insights, 2006).
44 45 46 43

Carol Phillips, The Millennial Handbook, 5. Taylor and Keeter, Millennials: A Portrait of Generation Next, 3.

1990s, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990s#Popular_culture (accessed March 23, 2011), 9.9-9.9. ! 15

! the radar, and independent.47 Spiritual, Non-Religious In its noun-form, religious describes a person bound by monastic vows. By this definition, most research indicates that Millennials are the least overtly religious American generation in modern times.48 This does not denote that spirituality is devalued by the generation; but as Barna Research President, David Kinnaman, suggests spirituality is important to young adults, but many consider it just one element of a successful, eclectic life.49 In Kinnamans book (with Gabe Lyons), UnChristian, he emphasizes Millennial individualism and the amass of information available to them as key in understanding their perspective on Christianity. Many of those outside Christianity, especially younger adults, have little trust in the Christian faith, and esteem for the lifestyle of Christ followers is quickly fading among outsiders.50 His research indicates that todays young adults view the Christian community in six broad themes: 1) hypocritical, 2) too focused on getting converts [targets, not people], 3) antihomosexual, 4) sheltered, 5) too political, 6) judgemental.51 Moreover, his follow-up book, You Lost Me, exposes that more than half of Christian twenty-somethings are leaving the !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 47 Kinnaman and Lyons, Unchristian, 19.
48 49 50 51

Taylor and Keeter, Millennials: A Portrait of Generation Next, 2. Kinnaman and Lyons, Unchristian, 23. Ibid, 11. Ibid, 29-30. 16

! Christian church and rethinking faith. His reasons here include: 1) churches seem overprotective, 2) teens and twenty-somethings experience of Christianity is shallow, 3) churches come across as antagonistic to science, 4) young christians church experiences related to sexuality are often simplistic, judgmental, 5) they wrestle with the exclusive nature of Christianity, 6) the church feels unfriendly to those who doubt.52 While both of these lists express subjective opinions of participants in Barna studies, they certainly indicate that a special consideration should be made towards Millennial attitudes regarding organized religion and personal spirituality. American young adults still believe in God, but they are doubtful of organized religion, denominations, and modern religious practices.53 More of the practical implications of this overwhelming trend will be investigated in Chapter Two. Generational theory is not an exact science, as it does not fit the requirements of quantitatively or qualitatively based research; but there is evidence enough in historical trends and traits to conclude that there are generational cohorts, and these cohorts hold distinct views of society and culture which guide their response to truth and to events within their timeline. Generation Y, the Millennials, though eclectic as a body, are driven by !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 52 David Kinnaman with Aly Hawkins, You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving Church-- and Rethinking Faith (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books, 2011), 92-93, and chapters 5-10. Morley Winograd and Michael D. Hais, Millennial Generation Challenges Religion in America, The Christian Science Monitor, http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2011/0926/MillennialGeneration-challenges-religion-in-America (accessed October 13, 2011).
53

17

! common influences to hold common values. They are confident, technosavvy, highly aware learners, who are situated to personally and collaboratively establish change and renewal around them. They are not the future generation, but rather, the now generation as their size, uniqueness, and coming of age is demanding the attention of the world. As they interact with society as it has been, institutionalized America is taking note and realizing the need to recognize them and re-form around them.

18

! CHAPTER TWO: THE POSTMODERN DILEMMA Many have indicated that Millennial traits have been shaped largely by a postmodern epistemology. As the first generation to grow up in a rising postmodern era, the way todays young adults connect, collaborate, establish values, and engage information and society reflect a theory of knowledge and reasoning that is uniquely personalized and practiced. Postmodernism is birthed out of a sociological and philosophical era in which society oriented itself around rationalization, industrialization, and capitalism.54 An era of modernity can be "marked and defined by an obsession with evidence, formulas, and proofs.55 The questioning of the objectivity of truth and the embracing a heightened value of subjectivity has a created an alternate societal response to truth; moving many away from the neatly ordered logic of modernism to a personalized experience and relationship with art, science, politics, ethics, and religion. America today finds itself in a transitional age, moving from a modern to a postmodern era. In this new world, time is no longer simply linear, appearance is not necessarily reality, and the rational is not always to be trusted.56 American sociologist, Daniel Bell, suggests: The post-industrial societyis also a communal society in which the social unit is the community rather than the !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 54 Chris Barker, Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice, 2nd ed. (London: Sage Publications Ltd, 2003), 244. Richard Leppert, The Social Discipline of Listening, in Aural Cultures, ed. Jim Drobnick (Toronto: YYZ Books, 2004), 19. Stanley J. Grenz, A Primer On Postmodernism (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1996), 9. ! 19
56 55

! individual, and one has to achieve a social decision as against, simply, the sum total of individual decision which, when aggregated, end up as nightmares, on the mode of the individual automobile and collective traffic congestion57. It may be that this shift has been the major determinate of the common characteristics of Generation Y, and certainly in comparison to the traits discussed in Chapter One, Millennials are positioned to be natural participants in postmodern thinking. They are seemingly the first postideological, post-political, and post-partisan generation, and they are spearheading a period of sweeping change in America and around the world.58 A postmodern ethos has led them, as a cohort, to be tired of what has been, and established within them a desire and ability for them to usher in what will be. Postmodern Adults as a Professional Dilemma As the effects of postmodern epistemology have presumably saturated every environment for the Millennial generation, this group has been affected in what may seem positive and negatives ways. They have been equipped to flourish in a fast-paced and fluid society in which creativity, relatability, and flexibility are strengths for establishing change. Alternatively however, their attitudes and behaviors have fed a narcissistic sense of self-importance, which !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 57 Daniel Bell, The Coming of the Post-Industrial Society in the PostModern Reader, ed. Charles Jencks (New York: Sts Martins Press, 1992), 264. Eric H. Greenberg and Karl Weber, Generation We: How Millennial Youth Are Taking Over America And Changing Our World Forever (Emeryville, CA: Pachatusan, 2008), 6; 13. ! 20
58

! has created some difficulties for our societys pillar organizations. The secular workplace, educational institutions, and government agencies have recognized the need to redirect motivational and educational efforts to meet their developmental needs. The private and publics sectors have cited increasing struggle in motivating, training, and retaining Millennial workers. Freelance writer and HR management specialist, Tip Fallon, suggests that keeping Gen-Y workers will require new management styles. They are motivated and satisfied by different things than past generations of workers. He maintains that Millennials in the workforce are aiming for a much more holistic fulfillment through work, including fun at the office, the ability to feel good about their job, and balance in their social lives59. Research conducted by the NALP indicates that there is great concern regarding Millennial attitudes and behaviors. While education, technology, teamwork, enthusiasm, inclusivism, and civic involvement are noted as clear strengths of Gen-Y workers; an overinflated sense of self is the central underlying limitation of Millennial workers. This egocentric trait affects Millennials commitment to organizations, reflected in a 4-F value system. This suggests that todays young adults hold friends, family, free time, and fun ahead of work commitments.60 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 59 Tip Fallon, Retain and Motivate the Next Generation: 7 Ways to Get the Most Out of Your Millennial Workers, Supervision 70, no. 5 (May 2009): 5.
60

Jim Kennedy, Interviewing and Hiring Millennials (NALP, 2008). 21

y percent say they have dated eone of another race. (See The ennials Come of Age, Jayson S, Today, 29 June 2006.)

c involvement. More engaged with world than any generation since the mers. This has powerful implications rms of their interest in pro bono work heir time to perform it.

the firms Alumni Roster. This way they can judge the firm as a place to start on the basis of how good a launching pad it will be to other positions outside the firm that initially hires them.

l Limitations

e bad news. Fairly or not, Millennials ted for:

r-inflated sense of self. Doting nts willing to advocate on their behalf a lifetime of often unearned praise given many Millennials a false sense lf-esteem one that doesnt stand ell to criticism. This can make

m NALP Bulletin, August 2008. Despite the place of work on the Millennial priority list, young 8. All rights reserved. This article may be printed for personal use only. Any reproduction, retransmission on of all or part of this material is expressly prohibited unless NALP or the copyright owner has granted workers do value (202) efforts and effectiveness. In his book Not Everyone consent. For reprint permission contact the NALP office at their 835-1001 or www.nalp.org.

Gets a Trophy, Bruce Tulgan argues that the key to winning the respect of this generation, and getting the best effort out of them, is to deal with employees in a personal manner, carefully managing their expectations by clearly communicating positives and negatives of a job and fairly evaluating effectiveness in real-time. This strong, proactive, and highly engaged leadership is paid back in fierce loyalty and impactful work.61 In The MFactor, Lancaster and Stillman add that managers should seek to tap into Millennial strengths, such as speed, social networking, and collaboration.62

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 61 Bruce Tulgan, Not Everyone Gets a Trophy: How to Manage Generation Y (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2009), 12; 156. Lynne C. Lancaster and David Stillman, The M-Factor: How the Millennial Generation Is Rocking the Workplace (New York: HarperBusiness, 2010), 6-8; see also chapter 8. ! 22
62

! They recognize that understanding and working with Millennials is no longer an option for professional America, but instead, a business necessity. Postmodern Adults as a Military Dilemma For the US military, the faces are the same, but their tendencies are not. The military has always been mostly formed of young men and women, but todays troops bring with them distinct generational traits that must be noted. As a point of reference, the first of the Millennial Generation began joining the armed forces as they came of age in 1999. Army Chaplain, Major John Peck has presented extensive research highlighting the specific formative needs of Gen-X and Gen-Y. In 2008 He noted that the vast majority of the uniformed members of the Department of Defense are from the Millennial generation, that the effects of a postmodern epistemology have been felt, but a knowledgeable and effective response has not yet been demonstrated.63 Peck sees the distinctiveness of Gen X and Y as founded mostly in postmodernism, a way of thought that is expansive and will be long lasting as it paves the way for future generations.64 Throughout his research, he depicts military methods, founded in modern schools of motivating, training, and retaining, as growing irrelevant. Most of the military focuses only on pragmatic methodology, taking theoretic cues from historical practice.65 Intuitive !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 63 John Peck, Postmodern Chapel Services For Generation x and Millennial Generation Soldiers (master's thesis, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, 2008), 34.
64 65

Ibid, 24. Ibid, 104-107. 23

! approaches built around new generational trends must be aimed at current and future military generations to create more devoted members of the DOD. Army Lieutenant Colonel Jill Newmans research makes the same bold claims as Major Peck. The Armys ranks at the junior grades are filled with a new generation and regardless of their initial motivation to serve, the Army must adjust its culture, training and leadership to accommodate an emerging new generational workforce Generation Y.66 She insists that the Army should study generational differences and needs of current and future personnel if it is to retain and successfully develop the army of the future. In her efforts to sensitize military leaders to the education and leadership methods best suited for Millennials and future generations, she places special emphasis on embracing their values, their best communication methods, and personal attention and feedback in both on the recruiting process and in training programs.67 In regards to army chaplain strategies at ministering to and forming Millennial troops, Peck sees a directed individual spiritual transformation focus as key in successful discipleship, though as of 2008, less than 10% of army chaplains report utilizing this methodology.68

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 66 Jill Newman, Leading Generation Y (master's thesis, Army War College, 2008), 1.
67 68

Ibid, 15-18.

John Peck, Postmodern Chapel Services For Generation x and Millennial Generation Soldiers, 126-127. ! 24

! The US Army is conducting studies that are changing their recruiting procedures69, moving from a training to a learning mentality, and revolutionizing incentive packages to officers.70 They are finding Millennials to clearly be the highest maintenance workforce in recent history, but this work will be necessary if the US DOD is to ensure that they continue to recruit and retain their volunteers. The Army must ensure that the remaining Boomers and Generation X leaders at every level understand and develop this Next Generation. The message to convey is how important they are to the Army and the Nation. As General Cartwright, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the students and faculty of the U.S. Army War College, This new generation is ready to own this country we need to make sure the doors are open.71 Postmodern Adults as a Christian Dilemma While most religions believe their doctrines and practices to be eternal verities, all denominations, like other institutions, must continually enlist and renew the commitment of each new generation if they are to survive and carry on their work. At perhaps no other time in the nations history has this task been more challenging for Americas religious faiths than it is now.72 During the past 50 years, there have been three prevalent models of church: Traditional, Pragmatic, and Emerging. Traditional refers to a church !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 69 James P. Drago, Generational Theory: Implications For Recruiting the Millennials (master's thesis, U.S. Army War College, 2006), 17-20.
70 71 72

Jill Newman, Leading Generation Y, 14; 76. Ibid, 20.

Morley Winograd and Michael D. Hais, Millennial Generation Challenges Religion in America, (accessed October 13, 2011). ! 25

! construct in which a) the church meets in a special building to worship in a rigid order of service (focused around a sermon), b) new converts are added to the existing church to make it bigger, c) attendance in services and adult education classes are major measures of success, and d) biblical education efforts are focused around a the instruction by a central teacher. Pragmatic churches are a) largely growth oriented, b) where the seeker (unsaved, but curious) is the focus of church activities, c) there is a diminished sense of worship in services (as they are seeker oriented), and d) education efforts are heavily agenda-based and centered on developmental and ordered instruction. Emerging refers to churches that have largely rejected modern forms of church in favor of postmodern thought and communication structures. Emerging churches educational efforts embrace individuals, groups, and abstract thoughts and experiences. One Barna study reports that in the past fifty years, mainline protestant church membership dropped by more than one-quarter to roughly 20 million people.73 As this generation grows up, the influence of the local church in spiritual and moral matters seems to be declining every year. Barna research suggests that todays young adults are developing and accepting a new moral code in America, though their findings highlights the positive influence of faith on morality.74 However with twentysomethings struggling to find their !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 73 Report Examines the State of Mainline Protestant Churches, The Barna Group, http://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/17-leadership/323report-examines-the-state-of-mainline-protestant-churches (accessed March 13, 2011).

26

! place in Christian churches, spiritual and traditional morals are losing their voice with future generations. According to a recent Barna research project, only 3 out of 10 twentysomethings (31%) attend church in a typical week, compared to 4 out of 10 of those in their 30s (42%) and nearly half of all adults age 40 and older (49%).75 These reports maintain that Millennials are not rejecting spirituality or Jesus, but re-thinking their allegiance to the organization of many Christian churches. Personal and unique faith is fitting into their picture of personal fulfillment. 64% of Millennials are certain Godexists, and yet 72% describe themselves as more spiritual than religious.76 More than 8 out of 10 twentysomethings (80%) said that their religious faith is very important in their life and nearly 6 out of 10 (57%) claimed to have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life,77 though this relationship with Jesus may be missing many key elements. A Lifeway study indicates that few young Americans who claim to be spiritual are actively engaged with spiritual disciplines such as Bible study !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 74 Young Adults and Liberals Struggle with Morality, The Barna Group, http://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/16-teensnext-gen/25young-adults-and-liberals-struggle-with-morality (accessed February 17, 2011). Twentysomethings Struggle to Find Their Place in Christian Churches, The Barna Group, http://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/5barna-update/127-twentysomethings-struggle-to-find-their-place-in-christianchurches (accessed February 17, 2011). Morley Winograd and Michael D. Hais, Millennial Generation Challenges Religion in America, (accessed October 13, 2011). Twentysomethings Struggle to Find Their Place in Christian Churches, (accessed February 17, 2011).
77 76 75

27

! and prayer. 65% of Millennials say they rarely or never pray with others; 67% never, or rarely, read the Bible; and an overwhelming 80% are not engaged in a church-sponsored small group for spiritual formation and maturity.78 While many may speculate that these statistics reflect a youthful skepticism, Pew Research reports that Millennials are twice as likely to be unaffiliated with a specific denomination than were baby boomers in the 1970s and 1-1/2 times more likely than were members of Generation X in the 1990s when both of those cohorts were the age that Millennials are today.79 Each of the characteristics that have be discussed in regards to the Millennial generation make clear that todays 19-30 year olds make up a generational cohort that establishes itself as the first primarily postmodern generation in America. This postmodern base, along with the decline of Christendom, and the distinct differences between generations, indicates that there is in fact a generational movement away from the local church. Yet, most churches still rely on common forms of spiritual formation, with no distinctiveness towards philosophical traditions. The postmodern generations are not fitting into modern church traditions; instead they are looking for forms of spirituality that align with their values and outlook. Churches would do well to consider updates to their methods for motivating and training young !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 78 Ministry Today Magazine, Millennial Generation Less Engaged Spiritually, May 2010, page nr. http://www.ministrytodaymag.com/index.php/ministry-news/18897millennial-generation-less-engaged-spiritually (accessed August 30, 2011). Morley Winograd and Michael D. Hais, Millennial Generation Challenges Religion in America, (accessed October 13, 2011).
79

28

! Christians so as to bridge a personalized spirituality with Christian orthodoxy. What must be considered are the core motivations for Christian discipleship, and then a framework of transference of spiritual truths that best reflect the purpose of discipleship in a successful attempt at developing these postmodern Christians.

29

! CHAPTER THREE: FOLLOW ME: MOVEMENTS IN DISCIPLESHIP On the brink of change, in John Steinbecks classic The Grapes of Wrath, the Joad family poignantly reflects: How will we know it is us without our past?.80 A look at the history of spiritual formation can provide the present day church with a clear identity and can hold her accountable to Gods discipleship purposes. As well, for the church to forecast what should happen in discipleship methods, it is helpful to consider the history and movements that have happened within Christian discipleship. Christians are those who know, whatever their biological ancestry, that Abraham, the prophets of Israel, the disciples in the upper room, the whole host of believers who have bequeathed to them the faith, and the Christian community are the family that gives them their deepest identity.81 Methodologies of spiritual formation and discipline within Christianity have fluxed with time, reason, and institution. Amidst these changes, for Karl Barth, what distinguishes faith from blind assent is just its special character as faith seeking understanding.82 Early Christian communities clung together in communion by intimate participation (koinonia), seeking greater understanding of the events surrounding Christs coming and in anticipation of His 2nd coming. Monastics as early as the 200s ardently gave up personal !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 80 John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath (New York: Penguin Classics, 2006), 120. John H. Leith, From Generation to Generation: the Renewal of the Church According to Its Own Theology and Practice, 20. Karl Barth, Evangelical Theology: an Introduction (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1980), 43. ! 30
82 81

! pleasures in favor of ascetic communities devoted to prayer and spiritual development. Institutional Christianity later brought brought the Christian movement into prominent light in history, exposing certain Christian concepts and principles into larger arenas.83 This movement also led to an altered value system in Christianity, which in-turn affected a Christians approach to faith seeking understanding. Throughout reformations and developments within the institution of the Church, and within cultures, modern methods of discipleship have taken shape. What remains somewhat consistent is that the Church in its many forms has placed value on the process of intentional spiritual formation and discipline. Dietrich Bonheoffer noted about Christian discipleship the grace of God is freely given, but it is not cheap. We have been called and commissioned to costly service.84 Dallas Willard writes what we need is a deeper insight into our practical relationship with God in redemption. We need an understanding that can guide us into constant interaction with the Kingdom of God as a part of our daily lives.85 What must be discovered today is if modern models and methods are both true and effective to biblical intent of Christian discipleship. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 83 Ivan J Kauffman, Follow Me: A History of Christian Intentionality (New Monastic Library: Resources For Radical Discipleship) (cambridge: Lutterworth Press, 2009), 3-5 and 124-125. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, 1st Touchstone ed. (New York: Touchstone, 1995), 45. Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives (San Francisco: HarperOne, 1990), xi.
85 84

31

! Following the Old Testament God of Israel The Bible can be looked at as the story of God calling people to follow Himself. Though it can be a tendecy to focus solely on the discipling model of Jesus, throughout the Bible, God called His people to represent Him upon the earth, to be with Him in every circumstance of life, to be transformed in their personal character to be like Him.86 In the Old Testament, God established a formal and personal relationship with the nation of Israel. I will take you for My people, and I will be your God87 implies Gods choosing to place specialized concern and care for Israel, as well as a responsive submission by the nation to His sovereignty. His formative intentionality is clearly seen throughout this relationship of God to His people. In his book, Following the Master, Michael Wilkins observes three discipleship focuses of God to Israel. On a national level88, the covenantal relationship God established included His own promise to be with His people89 and the peoples commitment to follow Him90. In Deuteronomy 4, Moses declared to the nation that their appropriate response to God coming near them was to commit to follow His ways by letting His directions become !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 86 Michael J. Wilkins, Following the Master: Discipleship in the Steps of Jesus (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1992), 53-4. Exodus 6:7 (all scripture is from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise noted)
88 89 90 87

Wilkins, Following the Master, 56-9. Leviticus 26:12; Jeremiah 32:39-41 Deuteronomy 4:1-14; 10:12-13; Jeremiah 32:39-41 32

! the baseline and purpose of their personal existence. Deuteronomy 6 depicts that these ways would be a spiritual heritage to be infused through every facet of family and societal life. This expectation of holistic response is highlighted throughout Old Testament writings91, as is the expectation of formative response92. When the nation is fulfilling its commitment to the covenant it is said to be following God (e.g., Dt 4:1-14; 1Sa 12:14) and walking in His ways (Dt 10:12).93 By metaphorically walking with God (i.e. having an active and moving relationship with God), Israel is to be transformed into His likeness.94 Numerous Old Testament stories are shown to reveal an individual to God level95 of discipleship, in which God specifically calls, shapes, and commends certain individuals in their journey of following Himself. One example is found in the relationship between God and Abraham. Here, God proves His sovereignty and provision in many ways, of which: His promise to work through Abraham in making him the father of a multitude nations,96 the promise and blessing of children to Abraham, and the provision of a

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 91 Jeremiah 24:7; 32:39-41; Joel 2:12; Psalm 9:1; 111:1; 138:1; 2 Kings 23:3, 25; etc.
92

Deuteronomy 10:12-13; 30:2, 6; Joshua 22:5; 1 Kings 2:4; 1 Kings Wilkins, Following the Master, 58. Leviticus 11:44-45 Ibid, 59-60. Genesis 17:5. 33

14:8; etc.
93 94 95 96

! sacrificial ram to replace the sacrifice of Isaac, exemplify Gods Holy purpose and personal care for the individual who is obediently following Him. Finally, human discipling relationships are expressed in the Old Testament on an individual to individual level.97 Other forms of discipleship in the ancient world usually involved following a great human master, leader, or teacher.98 Ancient-biblical forms demanded placing God as the focal point to be followed. Intentional relationships between Moses and Joshua, Elijah and Elisha, and Jeremiah and Baruch serve as early examples of an individual helping another to follow God and walk in His ways. These relationships, though between two humans, do not exclude the Divine as both the guide and destination. In the example of Moses and Joshua, Moses began Joshuas discipleship with direction to go into battle paired with a lesson from God about His might.99 Joshua followed Moses-following-God during the 40 years in the wilderness; learning from Moses example and his teachings. Though Moses led all of Israel, God wanted him to pour himself and his godly wisdom and knowledge into Joshua, who would lead the next generation into victory and possession of God's promise. God had commanded Moses to charge Joshua and encourage him and strengthen him, for he shall go across at the head of this people, and he will give them as an inheritance the land

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 97 Wilkins, Following the Master, 60-66.

98 99

Ibid, 60. Exodus 17. 34

! which you will see.100 Moses obedience to disciple, and Joshuas willingness to follow, allowed for an effective master-disciple relationship. God has always been about calling people to Himself, and motivating and training them in His ways. As exposed in the Old Testament, these models set the tone for Gods continued work of discipling that would happen in the ministry of Christ. Following the Messiah Jesus had grown up in Nazareth of Galilee, loyal to Jewish religion and traditions, and to His local region. The people of Galilee, at the time of Christ, were recognized as a warm-hearted people, who were generous and earnest in their piety. Though thought of by more formal Jewish contemporaries as a simple country-cousin, they were known as, at least, honorable.101 Like any other Jewish child, Jesus would have begun reading and memorizing the Bible as early as 5-years-old, and even earlier would have participated in regular religious practices.102 His perfect familiarity to every word of the law during His teaching ministry helps to affirm His religious upbringing. His parents surely would have adhered to Proverbs 12:6, Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. Luke notes in his gospel that in His early years, Jesus grew and became !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 100 Deuteronomy 3:28. Alfred Edersheim, Sketches of Jewish Social Life in the Time of Christ (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Oublishing Co., 1972), 3940.
102 101

Ibid, 105-120. 35

! strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon Him.103 It has been credited that in His humanity, His character was unique in that He was the personification and perfection of all virtues.104 With this being the setting for the choosing of His own disciples, and much of His ministry, one can see how the region and culture of His upbringing may have influenced the style of His ministry. Jesus built close, personal, and caring relationships with others based on His own divine calling and His warm and generous spirit. This led to an intimate style of discipling for those who followed Him. As Herbert Lockyer indicates in his two-volume work, The Man Who Changed the World, not in exclusion of Jesus divinity, but even within His humanity, His personality and the precepts He expressed as He dwelt on earth are remarkable and admired by men.105 Though He certainly transcends the role of rabbi, Jesus operated within the Palestinian framework of a Jewish religious teacher and His ministry compliments the role of Galilees wondering Rabbis. 106 In his gospel, John portrays the relationship between Jesus and His closest followers in terms of the customary teacher-disciple relationship in firstcentury Judaism. This entails Jesus assuming the role of teacher by !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 103 Luke 2:40, English Standard Version. Herbert Lockyer, The Man Who Changed the World: or Conquests of Christ Through the Centuries: Volume 1: First Through Sixteenth Centuries (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1966), 29.
105 106 104

Ibid, 29-39.

Alfred Edersheim, Sketches of Jewish Social Life in the Time of Christ, 39-40. ! 36

! instructing His disciples through word and action, protecting them from harm, and providing for their needs; and the disciples assuming the role of faithful followers.107 In the first century, the goal of Jewish disciples was someday to become masters, or rabbis, themselves, and to have their own disciples who would follow them.108 As Jesus called people to follow Him, His call was to remain in Him.109 His call should be noted as directed towards the twelve, to the many others who He encountered, and to the world past, present, and future. As radical as it was, Jesus call in the first century was a reiteration and extension of the call God had proffered to the people of Israel centuries before.110 Furthermore, many of the relationships He began, and even the very instructions He gave, mimicked Gods Old Testament callings. The explicit asks of Jesus to follow Him directed to Peter and Andrew, and to James and John reflect a similar encounter of God to Abraham. In Genesis 12, the Lord said to Abraham, Go from your country and your kindred and your fathers house,111 calling the man to leave all he knew: his way of life, his security, and his future plans, to follow God. Jesus calling of His first !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 107 Andreas J. Kostenberger, Jesus as Rabbi in the Fourth Gospel, Bulletin for Biblical Research 8 (1998): 100-101. *italics added for emphasis Hans Kvalbein, Go Therefore and Make Disciples: The Concept of Discipleship in the New Testament, Themelios 13, no. 2 (1988): 50.
109 110 111 108

Matthew 23:1-12 Wilkins, Following the Master, 52. Genesis 12:1, English Standard Version. 37

! four disciples demands of them to leave everything to follow Him as fishers of men.112 Both of these callings include within them, an exclusive reliance on the Divine as they learn and live according to His ways. And while the Old Testament walking with God reflected a metaphor, Jesus put into physical reality the ability to walk with God. Those considered disciples of Jesus during His ministry include the twelve, who left everything to follow Jesus, a broader group outside the twelve that include many of the women who stayed close to Jesus to aid His ministry,113 and the seventy whom He sent out on a missionary tour.114 What is known of the broader group is that they shared a calling to the Kingdom of God, but not the to the specific calling of daily intentional discipleship that the twelve received. Jesus closest inner circle, which He had personally selected and appointed115 were the object of His strategy for extending the gospel of His Kingdom. He would pour His time and energy into forming these twelve around His message and His ways that they as disciples would become like their Master. The message of Jesus to His followers clearly describes what it is to be a disciple of the Divine. He preached of a new covenant with the ancient God of the Jews that included the coming of Gods promised kingdom. The !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 112 Matthew 4:18-22
113 114 115

Luke 8:1-3 Luke 10:1-20 John 15:16 38

! kingdom of God, in Jesus teaching, meant the manifest assertion of Gods loving and righteous rule. Hence, in those who discern its nearness it demands practical acknowledgement of Gods sovereignty and fatherhood.116 This is embodies His emphasis on holistic devotion to Himself,117 His insistence on the revelation of God through His own life and the Words of God as the source of knowledge, truth, and transformation118, and His call to obedient action.119 In each of these, the theme remains to follow Him. This suggests that following Gods calling requires allowing Him to form us in Christ as we follow Him. Alan Andrews writes in The Kingdom Life, The kingdom of God is grand, majestic, and full of beauty. We come to understand the kingdom by repenting and simply becoming apprentices of Jesus in His kingdom.120 The distinctiveness of Jesus discipling method with the twelve reflects an intentional and balanced program that is both spiritual and practical. His gospel reveals the deepest nature of the God of the universe, and also has real answers to what life on earth is meant to look like. He had a !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 116 Williston Walker et al., A History of the Christian Church, 4th ed. (New York: Scribner, 1985), 21.
117 118 119 120

Matthew 16:24-25 John 8:12; 31-32 Mark 1:16-22; John 21:15-19; Matthew 28:18-20

Alan Andrews, The Kingdom Life: A Practical Theology of Discipleship and Spiritual Formation (publication place: NavPress Publishing Group, 2010), 16.

39

! twofold purpose in the deliberate investment He made in those who followed Him, namely, the knowledge of the mystery of God and wisdom for living.121 Marks gospel notes, He was teaching as one that had authority, and not as the scribes.122 Peter commented that Jesus was a perfect example for living in Gods ways.123 Jesus prayed and taught His disciples to pray; he served and taught them to serve. He healed and comforted the sick and needy as He instructed His disciples to do the same. Jesus taught truths out of His authority and He gave authority to His disciples to reproduce His teachings. This platform of teaching while doing created an atmosphere of learning on the go with His disciples that reflects the nature of the Old Testament model of walking with God and prepares the way for His Great Commission to reproducing discipleship. For the twelve, there was both simplicity and complexity to being Jesus disciple. Discipleship was not simply a program through which Jesus ran the disciples. Discipleship was life. That life began in relationship with the Master and moved into all areas of life.124 Jesus activity, character, and miracles authenticated His message.125 While He taught publicly using a variety of learning strategies including stories, metaphors, and developmental !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 121 Colossians 2:2-3; 1 Corinthians 1:5-9
122 123 124 125

Mark 1:22 1 Peter 2:21-24 Wilkins, Following the Master, 124.

Pentecost, Design for Discipleship: Discovering Gods Blueprint for the Christian Life, 11. ! 40

! questions, with the twelve, He explained the deepest details of His position and ministry. Christs invitation to them was to know God deeply; and they would in turn, learn what Jesus taught, do what Jesus did, and begin to live perpetually more and more like Him. It was a brief but intensive schedule of discipleship126 that resulted in perfectly ordinary men who would eventually establish the tradition of the Christian church. Discipleship in a Modern World In an essay exploring gospel distinctiveness in the modern world, Arthur Jones, researcher and Christian education curriculum developer, suggests that: Christianity is in catastrophic decline almost everywhere in the Western world, and Western societies generally regard religion as a marginalized affair of little or no relevance to public life. Christian churches are seen as providing neither a viable alternative, nor any significant challenge to modern secular life. Sadly, this assessment is largely true and reflects a massive failure of Christian discipleship.127 He attributes a tolerance towards secularism living as if God doesnt exist, individualism my individual choice is the moral priority, and consumerism creating my self as the major influences of the modern world on the present style of popular Christianity. This rationalistic worldview of modern man has almost totally abolished the practice of becoming like Christ.128 The modern !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 126 John MacArthur, Twelve Ordinary Men (publication place: Thomas Nelson, 2002), XIII. Arthur Jones, Christian Discipleship For the Modern World: How to Make It Happen in Church, Transforming Teachers, http://www.transformingteachers.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=v iew&id=66&Itemid=143 (accessed September 18, 2011).
127

41

! world has left its mark on Christian culture in general, and it has reduced Christian education to a practice of transferring information without necessarily forming the individual to a Christian way of following Jesus through critical thinking and training. The institutionalization of Christian education has made discipleship a limited and minimalist activity for most Christian societies, leading to an era of nominal Christianity. Contemporary churches have moved into a religious accommodation, a new ethical compromise that tried to integrate consumer pleasure an comfort an acquisition, the new American Standard of living, into what [is] left of the traditional Christian world-view.129 In essence, the ancient follow me emphasis of discipleship has largely shifted to better match the pragmatic and bureaucratic forms of education reflected in the public school system. In his book, Deschooling Society, Ivan Illich explains that forcing mandatory schooling unnaturally separates academic learning from life. In effect, education becomes unworldly and the world becomes noneducational.130 Through the institutional paradigm students learn that anything worthwhile is !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 128 Arthur Jones, Christian Discipleship For the Modern World: How to Make It Happen in Church, Transforming Teachers, http://www.transformingteachers.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=v iew&id=66&Itemid=143 (accessed September 18, 2011). William R. Leach, Land of Desire: Merchants, Power, and the Rise of a New American Culture, 1st Vintage Books Ed ed. (New York: Random House, 1993), 10.
130 129

Ivan Illich, Deschooling Society (New York: Harper & Row, 1971),

24. ! 42

! standardized, certified, and can be purchased.131 In the same manner, the movement from a critical and personally engaging discipleship to a modern educational tradition has led to an increased the separation between living in the world and being a Christian. Author Eugene Peterson has contended that There is a great market for religious experience in our world; there is little enthusiasm for the patient acquisition of virtue, little inclination to sign up for a long apprenticeship in what earlier generations of Christians called holiness.132 For most churches, the meeting of such demand has sacrificed discipleship in effort to provide education. The distinction is key, as a disciple is a learner, but not in the academic setting of a schoolroom, rather at the work site of a craftsman. We do not acquire information about God but skills in faith.133 These modern models and methods, used especially within a growing postmodern context, do not seem to accurately reflect the biblical intent of Christian discipleship, nor cause its anticipated results.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 131 H. Gintis, Toward a Political Economy of Education: A Radical Critique of Ivan Illich's Deschooling Society, 29-76, Quoted In Gartner et al (Eds.), After Deschooling, What?, (New York: Harper & Row), 56. Eugene H. Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society, 20th anniversary ed. (Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Books, 2000), 16.
133 132

Ibid, 17. 43

! CHAPTER FOUR: SPIRITUAL FORMATION FOR MILLENNIALS As the opening lines of James Wilhoits, Spiritual Formation as if the Church Mattered, declares: Spiritual Formation is the task of the church. Period.134 Discipleship is the intentional process of following and becoming like Jesus; it is not to be reduced to one activity of the church based on techniques and programs, but rather, it should be the central function of the church, out of which, evangelism, Christian education, assimilation to Gods ways and the communion of the body, ministry to the body, and outreach, development, and growth are passed between generations. Our charge was clearly stated by Jesus: make disciples135 and the activity of discipling occupied much of the focus of His time on earth. The upbuilding and the growth of the church depend on the churchs being simply what it says it is, the people of God following Him together. When the church is the church, it grows.136 The ancient traditions of intentional and personal, whole-life discipleship was a primary platform for motivating, training, and retaining Gods people; and these ancient forms contain defining traits that are clearly identifiable to the Millennial Generation. To follow Christ and be like Him, or to follow another to be like Christ, depends upon ones will and is in !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 134 James C. Wilhoit, Spiritual Formation as If the Church Mattered: Growing in Christ through Community (Grand Rapids, MI.: Baker Academic, 2008), 15.
135 136

Matthew 28; 5

John H. Leith, From Generation to Generation: the Renewal of the Church According to Its Own Theology and Practice, 51. ! 44

! accordance with ones activity (or participation in sanctification). The progress of a gospel-believer, to a Christ-follower requires a person to partake in the divine nature.137 As discussed in Chapter Three, early missionary activity, spiritual education, and biblical community was built around the unity and collaboration of discipling relationships that follow in the model of Jesus formation ministry. The first Christians were not committed to a mission of convert-making, but of disciple-making. While Jesus and His closest twelve disciples were mainly examined, throughout the New Testament, we see several more minor names listed, indicating that reproducing discipleship was occurring and handed down amongst the local churches that the apostles established and visited. This method of balancing the philosophical and practical aspects of following God while personally walking with the disciples worked for Jesus; and the twelve mimicked it at Jerusalem, Antioch, and beyond; and it can work today. Christian ministry is to be carried out by individuals engaging others in discipling relationships, not by strategies and programs forecasted to produce Christian productivity. The Millennial traits discussed in Chapter One provide a basic outline that will display their propensity towards this ancient form of discipling. While a postmodern perspective deserves no exclusive privilege among Christians, but, to the extent that postmodern thought equips Christians to profess their faith in a way distinct from the legacy of modernity, faithful

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 137 2 Peter 1:4 ! 45

! Christians do well to attend to their postmodern neighbors.138 In the same way that secular institutions are responding to needs created by generational differences, proper and effective methods for addressing issues within the Christian church must be dealt with. The postmodern generations have moved toward a church that is not built on modern thought and communication structures, but one that is built on postmodern thought and communication structures. Also, they have not sought out a church that is in the typical forms of Christendom, being large, powerful, and in the center of the town square. They instead are choosing models that are like them, and like the church of the first through third centuries: smaller, decentralized, apolitical, and integrated into the context and culture they are a part of.139 It seems that the church in general, has adopted modernity; and that Millennials in general, reject modernity. The modern influence upon the Christian culture and experience has created a crisis in its inability engage and form the Millennial outlook. In the specific context of spiritual formation, Richard Sales has noted, Education, like physical growth itself, is the product of two dissimilar processes, which are very like ingestion and digestion.140 Modern !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 138 Adam A.K.M., The Way Out of No Way: Modern Impediements to Postmodern Discipleship, Word and World 27, no. 3 (2007): 257-64. John Peck, Postmodern Chapel Services For Generation x and Millennial Generation Soldiers, 78-82. Richard Sales, Two or Three and God, The Christian Century (February 2, 1977): 110.
140 139

46

! approaches at discipleship (based on modern forms of communication) excel in the first process, in displaying/transmitting information, but are often weaker in helping Christians to integrate new information into the holistic story of God and their own personal experience. Edward Rommen concedes that Christian evangelistic and formation strategies based around the transference of truth-as-information are not fairing well in a postmodern context.141 The difficulty is found in the relationship between the concepts of explicit and implicit learning. Explicit knowledge refers to what can be communicated, shared, and understood by verbal and visual forms; categorically, facts and science (what, why, who). Explicit knowledge is formal and systematic, making it easily transmitted.142 Implicit, or tacit, knowledge refers to practices and cultures that are rooted in explicit knowledge (how). Often considered soft knowledge, tacit knowledge requires extensive personal contact and trust to share effectively.143 There is a relational embeddedness between the postmodern influence on how Millennials approach truth and society, and a heightened value on implicit information. By building formation strategies around mostly explicit efforts, the dissemination of information is left largely to the individual; and !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 141 Edward Rommen, Get Real: On Evangelism in the Late Modern World (Pasadena, CA.: William Carey Library, 2010), 10. Xiaoming Cong and Kaushik V. Pandya, Issues of Knowledge Management in the Public Sector, Electronic Journal of Knowledge Management 1, no. 2 (2003): 25-33, http://www.ejkm.com (accessed September 7, 2011).
143 142

Ibid. 47

! Millennials conditioning and position as always-connected exposes their natural inclination towards digesting and applying new spiritual thought within the context of a learning and practicing community. In an article in the May 2007 issue of HR magazine, Katherine Tyler explores the effects of this generation being constantly tethered to people and information. Neuroscientists have discovered that parts of the brain -- specifically the pre-frontal lobes, which are involved in planning and decision-making continue to develop well into the late teens and early 20s. That means millennials' brains are still developing reasoning, planning and decisionmaking capabilities while they are depending heavily on technology-cell phones, IM and e-mail - as well as parents and friends at the other end of the technology. As a result, some experts believe millennials struggle to make decisions independently.144 Stephen P. Seaward, director of career development for Saint Joseph College in West Hartford, Connecticut adds, Instantaneous gratification [by way of social tethering]may have fostered unrealistic expectations with respect to goal-setting and planning. That, in conjunction with extreme parental influence, can prohibit creative problem-solving and decision-making.145 This indicates that there may be a problem that does not simply point towards incorrect thinking, as quick judgments and outside influences may have hindered to a degree, their ability to think for themselves critically. If this is true, disciplers of Millennials should focus on a holistic learning pedagogy, involving both explicit and implicit values, within the !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 144 Kathryn Tyler, The Tethered Generation, HR Magazine, May 2007, 40-46 http://www.gendiff.com/docs/TheTetheredGeneration.pdf (accessed January 7, 2011).
145

Ibid. 48

! natural context of a few followers working together to know and understand what it is to become like Jesus. Creating learning groups/cohorts based on this methodology would provide participants with a communal and holistic environment that matches their desire for interdependency and for balance. Each thing learned can be investigated jointly, tested for significance, and thenmolded into the individuals ongoing life.146 This group-learning experience should generate increased motivation and accountability to work through difficult concepts, and lead to personal and communal transformations by synergy. For Millennials, this atmosphere even seems to reflect sensitivity towards their core traits. Social/Connected Being actively pro-social, these young adults do not require much thrust into biblical communities for spiritual development. They naturally seek out community in all of their environments. In fact, despite their natural disposition towards an individualized experience, at a deeper level, it is their dependency on others, resulting from an always-connected lifestyle, which makes them best suited to the personal interchange of philosophies and collaborate activity in a group follow-me environment. As they are marked by their loyalty and their desire to belong, this should be met by inclusion, frequent feedback, and affirmation of positive development. Discipling communities can exemplify the new familism being defined by Millennials. Disciplers become more than teachers; they are !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 146 Richard Sales, Two or Three and God, 110. ! 49

! followers of Christ who invite others into all aspects of their life to follow them as they follow Christ. Whole-life discipleship, with Christ as the focal point, guided by spiritual parents, and experienced together daily with spiritual family, can effectively work to spiritually, emotionally, intellectually, and missionally form Millennials to Christlikeness. Stanley Hauerwas has related this form of discipleship to craftwork, such as bricklaying. To learn to lay brick, it is not sufficient for you to be told how to do it; you must learn to mix the mortar, build scaffolds, joint, and so onIn order to lay brick you must hour after hour, day after day, lay brick [with a master bricklayer]We are Christians not because of what we believe, but because we have been called to be disciples of Jesus. To become a disciple is not a matter of a new or changed self-understanding, but rather to become part of a different community with a different set of practices.147 The relationship between master and disciple must be intentional and formalized to establish the personal commitment and care of the disciple, and remain open and transparent to communicate trust and authenticity. This should help to keep Millennial disciples engaged as it expands their spiritual life balance. This relationship certainly takes serious commitment by a discipler, but is made easier by the availability of digital social networking tools. As this generation has been raised on rapidly advancing technologies and they make use of multiple forms of digital connectivity, disciplers are faced with secondary forms of relational connection and communication. By utilizing weblogs and online forums for discussion of ideology, texting and twittering for simple and regular exhortation, video-chat to insure face time in the midst !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 147 Stanley Hauerwas, Discipleship as a Craft, Church as a Disciplined Community, The Christian Century (October 1, 1991): 881-84. ! 50

! of an active lifestyle, and other various means of connectivity, one can simulate a walk with relationship without actual proximity to the one they are discipling.148 Millennials social tethering should also provide a mindfulness towards personal development goals. To truly help them become reproducing disciples (i.e. the disciple become like the master), disciplers of Millennials should lead with a mindset to sensitively stretch and then cut the cord allowing them ownership of ideas and values and a personal spiritual strengthening. This is reflected in Jesus own ministry as after establishing a teaching and practicing ministry with the twelve, He gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness with the directive that it is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher.149 Jesus brought people into a life of discipleship as He personally shared His life and Gods Word, He practiced with them the implications of His instruction, and then released them to live out those implications in whatever communities they were active in. Educated Growing up during rapidly advancing educational reform paired with rapidly advancing forms of transmitting and receiving information, the Millennials have a high capacity to adapt, improvise, and overcome. They !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 148 ***Note that these probably are not equal relational experiences to actual time together, but the use of such technologies does allow for more consistent connection.
149

Matthew 10:1, 25. 51

! process information quickly, often feeling that their own processing is ahead of the technologies they use. This gives them the advantage of being able to focus on results and outcomes as they learn. Smaller learning cohorts, depending on a balanced program of knowledge and application would seem primed for a generation of quick learners, who are ready to get in and out of more information more quickly as they create their own brand of values and societal order. Developing a self-propelling program is made especially difficult in an era marked by frequent change, in which refining is the primary function of leadership, and lasting reform seems elusive, there is the difficult process of developing a self-propelling program. Yet, one federally supported educational laboratory has been experimenting with new forms of forming members of GenY. For 20 years, the LAB at Brown University has been testing new educational approaches in the Montpelier, Vermont public school system. In 1992, Montpelier High School launched 150 of their students into a Community-Based Learning (CBL) program, which offered individualized educational plans rooted in self directed inquiry (through Personalized Learning Plans), and supported by connections beyond the classroom.150 The goal of this systemic change was to create a different kind of success, that was holistic and specific, in valuing both the content and the experience of

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 150 John Clarke et al., Dynamics of Change in High School Teaching: A Study of Innovation in Five Vermont Professional Development Schools (Providence, RI: Brown University, 2000), 100. ! 52

! learning.151 Small learning groups were established that bridged formalized education and practical internships throughout their community. Groups were provided with navigators who facilitated a four-year conversation between student and guide, to aid in their communication and problem-solving skills, personal development, and social responsibility.152 Director of the PLP program, Owen Bradley, believes that individualized learning can now provide all students with a wide range of ways to show that they have met Vermonts educational standards.153 He asserts, Students learn to synthesize their learningthey learn how to perform. They learn application, not theory by itself.154 Semantic exploration and knowledge discovery might seem a far cry from Christian discipleship; but as related to an approach which argues that best learning practices consist largely of a very personal, difficultly articulable and partly unconscious component,155 they are very telling. How can existing, but not yet explicitly formulated knowledge structures, of a given community or a group of experts be discovered, visualized and made !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 151 John Clarke et al., Dynamics of Change in High School Teaching: A Study of Innovation in Five Vermont Professional Development Schools, 112.
152 153 154 155

Ibid, 115-116. Ibid, 116. Ibid.

Jasminko Novak et al., Discovering, Visualizing, and Sharing Knowledge through Personalized Learning Knowledge Maps (Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 2003), 213.

53

! usable for cooperative discovery of knowledge in heterogeneous information pools?156 By way of personalized and devoted discipling plans, consisting of learner and guide, and utilizing a framework of balanced instruction, discussion, and practice, Millennials can be formed in a variety of learning methods that are fluid and full (displaying the correlation between intellect, conviction, and practical application), and can move at a pace at which they are best accustomed. Activist With a heightened awareness of social injustices and world disasters, and in response to the deconstruction of society instigated by Gen Xers, todays young adults are acutely mindful of their role in impacting their world. As discussed in Chapter One, they were raised to be change agents; and as they come of age, they expect to make a difference. This provides disciplers with a kinetic energy, of sorts, that can be directed into a missional focus as regular rhythm in the discipling process. As previously discussed, Jesus own rhythm included instruction, discussion, and practice; and He left His disciples with the work of making disciples through the application and teaching of His word. This reveals that the purpose of His discipling was not simply to provide a group of men with heightened awareness of God and His ways. Rather, He trained His disciples, and sent them out, to be spiritually

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 156 Jasminko Novak et al., Discovering, Visualizing, and Sharing Knowledge through Personalized Learning Knowledge Maps (Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 2003), 214. ! 54

! reproducing change agents, who would turn the world upside down.157 Hauerwas contends the called church has become the voluntary church, whose primary characteristic is that the congregation is friendly.158 Being trained in rigid agenda-based programs, Millennials will be impatient of an environment that does not have clear and effective value in their life and community. In addition, they will be quick to find alternative ways of formation that they believe are more impactful. An article reviewing the newmonastic movement reflects on the value of a theory of practice that is significant to young Christians. This concept sees understanding as transformative of ones way to live. The dual purpose of doctrine and discipline reveal spiritual wisdom and purpose.159 Disciplers should challenge Millennials spiritual consciousness by working to create or point out practical opportunities that correspond with spiritual life lessons. These opportunities should have clearly-seen results, or at least be supported with observation and discussion to reveal how people and situations may have been affected. It is by the practice of things learned, and occurrences of personal and communal change, that Millennials will recognize and judge the church, and its impact on what they are becoming with contemporary significance.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 157 Acts 17:6-7 Stanley Hauerwas, Discipleship as a Craft, Church as a Disciplined Community, 881-84. Philip Harrold, The 'New Monasticism' as Ancient-Future Belonging, Theology Today 67 (2010): 189-191.
159 158

55

! Non-Religious Spirituality that is Diverse/Tolerant As the church in general has focused mostly on formal, hard knowledge pedagogics, the most critical thing lost to the generation is practical clarity and purity of the gospel. This is likely the principal factor in their demonstration of weakened conviction, faith, and commitment to formation in the pursuit of Gods ways and His glory. Regardless of the intent of modern discipleship efforts, for Millennials the issue remains a mottled gospel that appears to have little room for personal relationship, care, and accountability. Even so, Millennials are seeking spirituality, but their taste for spirituality is eclectic, much like their taste of music, their extra curricular activities, and their pop-culture trends. They are spiritual curators who are collecting and designing their own brand of spirituality. This new brand of spirituality is not necessarily positive or negative; but neutral, until the point that they embrace conflicting beliefs, morals, and ethics that do not genuinely reflect a clear gospel and the purpose of the church. As Millennials have displayed a bent towards diversity and a changing landscape, it is expected that they would doubt the authenticity of those who do not reflect the diversity they see around themselves. As discussed in Chapters One and Two, many Millennials already view the institutionalized church as being intolerant and judgmental; and in response, there is a tremendous rise in the numbers of young adults who are unaffiliated with any local church or denomination. This has obvious impact on the present and future church, as there are less young adults to be discipled. If the

56

! Millennials perspective on the established church does not change, and if it propels into future generations, many of our churches will run out of people to disciple within the next few decades as these new generations create their own forms of spirituality. Churches would do well to look inward in evaluation of their own attitudes, beliefs, and values in regards to social diversity, communication structures, and differences amongst secondary-essential, or non-essential, doctrines, to determine the degree at which they are comfortable with change and diversity. Churches must also be willing to recognize the trends that have created the well-defined perceptions agreed on by much of the Millennial cluster which have led so many to disassociate themselves with institutionalized religion. Missing in the individualized, privatized, bureaucratic, and cosmetic forms of Christianity today is any real understanding of the interconnectedness of life that is expressed in all the basic doctrines and symbols of classical Christian faith.160 This may well be the foremost cause of misunderstanding and even hostility towards the Christian church. If churches in general are overprotective, hypocritical, judgmental, and have many other faults; as a collective of sinful humans this is to be expected regardless of their collected purpose. What must be exposed is the churchs awareness of its faults, its disposition to be corrected by the

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 160 Daniel L. Migliore, Faith Seeking Understanding: an Introduction to Christian Theology, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2004), 251.

57

! Holy Spirit, and its authentic desire impact in the lives of the people in each local churchs neighborhood. The Millennial sentiments may have been spoken clearest through the voice of an oddity of the Progressive generation. Friedrich Nietzsche, noted as the Father of Postmodernism declared, They would have to sing better songs to make me believe in their Redeemer! His disciples would have to look more redeemed!161 A renewed commitment to disciple-making, and a sensitivity to the methods that will best make disciples out of the Millennial Generation, are the key to bridging the organized church from a modern epistemology to the postmodern world. Rommen notes that the Christian message is not primarily information about some truth, but is itself a reality communion with a personal being.162 God has chosen to use all of His people to bring others to relationship with Himself.163 He has not taken this back and given instruction for a few smart people to create life changing activities. He has called His people to make disciples who make disciples164; and this the unchanging, Spirit-propelling program for His activity in the world. This method worked for Jesus, at Jerusalem, and at Antioch; and it can work today. An integrated framework of ancient discipleship forms and the Millennial situation has the opportunity to express clearly the impact of a !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 161 Friedriche Nietzche, Thus Spake Zarathustra, quoted in Hans Kung, The Church (New York: Sheed & Ward, 1967), 150.
162 163 164

Rommen, Get Real, 10. 2 Corinthians 5:20. Matthew 28:18-20; 2 Timothy 2:2; 1 Corinthians 11:1. 58

! relationship with Jesus Christ and His mandates for His followers. An ancient-future view of discipleship deftly weaves the biblical model of follow me into the church of tomorrow. For the future, this must begin today.

59

! APPENDIX A GENERATIONAL ARCHETYPES

60

APPENDIX B SEMINAL EVENTS FOR CURRENT GENERATIONS

61

! APPENDIX C PERSONALIZED LEARNING COMMUNITIES To make a step-by-step how to disciple millennials program would fundamentally stand in opposition to their generational leanings, traits, and values. Research shows that there are at least 5 irreducible characteristics (pro-social; educated; activist; diverse/tolerant; personally spiritual) that must be understood about Generation Y, each of which are general enough to encompass the most-part of the generation, regardless of ethnicity, familydynamic, geographic location, and economic and social status, and still specific enough to provide definitive generational tendencies. In response to these characteristics, distinct spiritual environments are necessary for participation and formation of members of the Millennial generation. To put some structure and prescribed functionality to the responses suggested in Chapter Four, Personalized Learning Communities are a concept that could be explored by a church or other discipling organization to spiritually form younger generations. Personalized Learning Communities are where discoveries and decisions are made, through serious material review, value-oriented discussion, and the practice of ideas and ideals. The values of a PLC are simple and match the broad-stroke values of Jesus discipling ministry, such as: 1) Christ-Centered [Divine Centered, with Christ experience as central point in Gods plans with humanity], 2) Word of God as source of revelation and knowledge, 3) Unity in diversity that leads to

62

! maturity, 4) Holistically transformative [personal level + mission level], 5) Reproductive information and experiences [disciples who make disciples]. The language of a PLC environment involves asking and answering: 1) Who is God? [defining what can be defined of the true nature of the Trinity], 2) Who are you? [understanding ones identity and position as human, in Christ], 3)What would you like to learn? [providing pathways for knowing and responding to God], 4) What would you like to do? [providing pathways to an active theology]. A PLC construct might resemble: 1) A spiritual advisor/guide/mentor/disciple [1:2 1:5], 2) A spiritual-growth cohort [2-5 learners], 3) Some developed time-experience parameters [time oriented groups vs. project oriented groups]. Following are several critical questions for a church or organization exploring the concept of Personalized Learning Communities: 1) What does a PLC require of church-leaders? -Ability to create greater unity while smaller experiences are considered the life of the church. (i.e. This will dramatically affect what happens on stage. The stage becomse 2nd to the PLC.) -Great training efforts for guides/advisors. (theological & biblical literacy, discipleship skills) -The development of diverse learning and serving tracks to be available for PLCs. -Clearly defined measurements of growth. 2) How does a PLC differ from a contemporary Sunday school class or small group? -SS classes, for the most-part, have a predetermined planoften heavily master-teacher oriented. Often closely guided by a narrow-scope, agendabased curriculum.

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! -There are a handful of developed plans for a small-groups ministry. Each involved some balance of on-going fellowship and spiritual agenda. Groups can be open or closed. -PLCs are project-oriented, fluid, changing, with very clear and timely purpose. -SS classes and SGs could inherently have a stronger community purpose as participants time together is extended beyond a single formation project. PLCs may have the ability to build community deeply and quickly due to the focused purpose, but relationships may not survive beyond the experience 3) How are the (at least) five irreducible traits that this paper has suggested involved in the PLC strategy? 1. Social/connected collaboration is utilized for the purpose of theological literacy and spiritual formation; and for teamwork in spiritual activity. 2. Educated they have raw skills to sift through biblical and theological materials of varied levels. 3. Activist their value is seen in discussion that leads to action (practice). Tightly focused-purpose allows for an economy of knowledge to activity. 4. Diverse/Tolerant many material sources should be made available. They should be given options and opportunities, rather than taught distinct paths. 5. Spiritual/Non-religious the availability of designing personalize pathways allow them to feel spiritually guided, not manipulated.

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! APPENDIX D ARTIFICIAL: INTELLIGENCE AND SPIRITUALITY In considering what makes for good discipling, I sought to understand: 1) a sound and biblical definition of discipleship, 2) if generational traits should impact the methodology of discipleship, and 3) what makes for effective learning. Research provided me with the following reasonable answers: 1) discipleship is the process of an apprentice being intentionally trained to become like a master [and this happens best as the trainee follows in the trainers teachings and practices], 2) we should be sensitive to distinct learning behaviors [though best learning methods always involve a holistic learning approach], and 3) best learning methods are a blend of cognitive, behavioral, and social experiences. In attempting to answer these essential questions, I regularly encountered the concepts of explicit knowledge versus implicit knowledge. Explicit knowledge is that information that can easily be transmitted and received, often answering what and why, while implicit (or tacit) knowledge refers to information that is seemingly more intuitive as it involves the dissemination of the what and why to answer how. In studying the differences of these learning conceptions, I was inundated with research projects in the area of artificial intelligence. This has led me to the spiritualized idea that disciplemaking could be related to the quest for humanity to make life. This endeavor is labeled artificial intelligence (AI) due to the inability for humans to construct true life. In discipling via modern methods, we work with the

65

! same material as those in the AI business, and we are faced with the same limitations. Know-what (facts), know-why (science), and know-who (identity and networking) do not make a human. But, these, when layered upon implicit know-how (those habits and cultures that are seemingly innate to humanityand further humanity within a particular environment) constitute the human experience with knowledge and learning. Discipleship as defined by Old Testament, New Testament, and early church models reflect a curriculum of explicit and specifiable knowledge with knowledge that can only be transmitted via training or gained through personal experience. The intuitive leap is this: that true discipleship (which produces real and reproductive life) can only happen within a unified theory of learning (where explicit knowledge is taught and tacit knowledge is transferred by proximity to the knowledge source, namely the disciple). In regards to things learned of the Millennial generation, this would infer that any model of discipleship that is built on word-is-truth, without allowing for implicit behavioral transference, is lacking a key component to spiritual life transformation that will often result in a Artificial Spirituality. Like AIs attempts to make-humans, we will raise a generation that look like Christians, sound like Christ, and may functionally do what Christ would do, but are lacking a soul (depth) that authenticates a true Christ-follower. According to most research, the post-modern position is leading this generation (and potentially future generations) to devalue what seems to them artificial spirituality, and they rejecting all together our attempts at shaping them.

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! BIBLIOGRAPHY Books Alsop, Ron. The Trophy Kids Grow Up: How the Millennial Generation Is Shaking Up the Workplace. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2008. Andrews, Alan, ed. The Kingdom Life: A Practical Theology of Discipleship and Spiritual Formation. publication place: NavPress Publishing Group, 2010. Barker, Chris. Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice. 2nd ed. London: Sage Publications Ltd, 2003. Barth, Karl. Evangelical Theology: an Introduction. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1980. Bell, Daniel. 1992. The Coming of the Post-Industrial Society. In The PostModern Reader, ed. Charles Jencks. New York: Sts Martins Press. Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. The Cost of Discipleship. 1st Touchstone ed. New York: Touchstone, 1995. Greenberg, Eric H., and Karl Weber. Generation We: How Millennial Youth Are Taking Over America And Changing Our World Forever. Emeryville, CA: Pachatusan, 2008. Gintis, H. Toward a Political Economy of Education: A Radical Critique of Ivan Illich's Deschooling Society. 29-76. Quoted In Gartner et al (Eds.), After Deschooling, What? New York: Harper & Row, 56. Grenz, Stanley J. A Primer On Postmodernism. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1996. Howe, Neil, and William Strauss. Millennials Rising: the Next Great Generation. New York: Vintage, 2000. Illich, Ivan. Deschooling Society. New York: Harper & Row, 1971. Kauffman, Ivan J. Follow Me: A History of Christian Intentionality (New Monastic Library: Resources For Radical Discipleship). Cambridge: Lutterworth Press, 2009. Kinnaman, David, with Aly Hawkins. You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving Church-- and Rethinking Faith. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books, 2011.

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! Kinnaman, David, and Gabe Lyons. Unchristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity-- and Why It Matters. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2007. Lancaster, Lynne C., and David Stillman. The M-Factor: How the Millennial Generation Is Rocking the Workplace. New York: HarperBusiness, 2010. Leach, William R. Land of Desire: Merchants, Power, and the Rise of a New American Culture. 1st Vintage Books Ed ed. New York: Random House, 1993. Leith, John H. From Generation to Generation: the Renewal of the Church According to Its Own Theology and Practice. Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press, 1990. Leppert, Richard. 2004. The Social Discipline of Listening. In Aural Cultures, ed. Jim Drobnick, 19-35. Toronto: YYZ Books. Lockyer, Herbert. The Man Who Changed the World: or Conquests of Christ Through the Centuries: Volume 1: First Through Sixteenth Centuries. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1966. MacArthur, John. Twelve Ordinary Men. publication place: Thomas Nelson, 2002. Migliore, Daniel L. Faith Seeking Understanding: an Introduction to Christian Theology. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2004. Nietzche, Friedriche. Thus Spake Zarathustra. quoted in Hans Kung, The Church. New York: Sheed & Ward, 1967. Pentecost, J. Dwight. Design For Discipleship: Discovering God's Blueprint For the Christian Life. Grand Rapids, MI.: Kregel Publications, 1996. Peterson, Eugene H. A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society. 20th anniversary ed. Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Books, 2000. Rainer, Thom S., and Jess Rainer. The Millennials: Connecting to America's Largest Generation. Nashville, TN: B&H Books, 2011. Rommen, Edward. Get Real: On Evangelism in the Late Modern World. Pasadena, CA.: William Carey Library, 2010.

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