Generational change - developing responses to generational change in environments including work, church, family, not-for-profit organisations.
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If there’s anything else you’d like to focus on in a coaching relationship, and you think I could help you, let me know.
Contact me via email (postkiwi at gmail.com), Skype (postkiwi), GoogleTalk (postkiwi at gmail.com) or use the phone: 0439 828 718.
I’ve spent today at a conference in Melbourne in which Christian Research Association researchers are sharing the results of their work on Gen Y spirituality in Australia. The research reflects the strong buy in from major denominations and, understandably, the attendance this week reflects an in-house institutional response. I’m part of that, connecting with a team of Uniting Church mission, youth ministry, social justice and communications staff from around the country.
Today we had a look at the results so far, putting our hands on the freshly published book, “Putting Life Together”, Findings From Australian Youth Spirituality Research by Philip Hughes. The other three researchers on the team, Michael Mason, Andrew Singleton and Ruth Webber, are publishing “The Spirit of Generation Y” in July.
It’s clear, from the conversations with them during the day, that there is more than one way to interpret findings from the research. But a common theme coming through is that so-called generations are not necessarily different to one another. There is a strong sense of continuity between the present beliefs and values of Baby Boomer parents and their Gen Y children.
Attending this summit has been a part of the re-emergence of my doctoral studies project, “Generations in Conversation”. Now that I’m in the second year of my latest job, it’s time to get stuck in and finish off the work I started when I was living in NZ. I’m planning to spend some time in the USA this year, focusing on interviewing and writing for the theological reflection course I started developing last year.
On Friday afternoon I was part of a panel responding to Dean Hoge’s lecture on young adults in the Catholic Church.
Dean’s a Presbyterian who’s been lecturing in sociology of religion at the Catholic University of America in Washington DC for thirty years. He was part of the team that published the 1994 book, “Vanishing Boundaries: The Religion of Mainline Protestant Baby Boomers”. On Friday Dean was presenting research on Catholic young adults in the United States, to an audience consisting mostly of Catholic educators and youth ministry staff from Brisbane.
Dean Hoge is pictured below (left) with my fellow panel members Selina Harris (Sunnybank Catholic Parish) and Paul Mergard, (right) photographer and Salvation Army church planter in West End, Brisbane.
