Pacific Highlander

Posts on Generations

This week I’m focusing on writing for my doctorate on generational change. So I’m posting daily at Post Kiwi’s Generations in Conversation

So far this week I’ve posted the following:

Three Articles from Leadership Journal Spring 2005:

Youth Ministry for Big People - featuring “A Mad Multi-gen Strategy that Works, Dude - Bring generations together and reduce 20-something dropout, by Mike Breaux, teaching pastor at Willow Creek.

Chris Seay Confession - A confession to generational hardness of heart by Chris Seay, pastor at Ecclesia in Houston, Texas.

Preaching Across Great Divides - hints on cross-cultural communication from Rick Richardson, on staff at Wheaton College in the areas of evangelism and intercultural studies.

GenX Reader - revisiting a classic collection of texts on Generation X culture from 1994 collected by Douglas Rushkoff. Included in this book are articles from the print zine ‘bOING bOING’, the precursor to the Boing! Boing! blog.

Sharon Daloz Parks - a look at the 2000 book, “Big Questions, Worthy Dreams”, the rewrite of the 1986 book, “The Critical Years”. It’s all about the development of faith for young adults.

Generations, Culture and Society - a precis of the 2002 book written by British sociologists Bryan Turner and June Edmunds.

This is the best academic contribution to the field of generational research I’ve seen. Bryan was at one point teaching sociology at Deakin University here in Australia, before heading over to Cambridge. He’s now heading up a research team in Singapore examining globalisation and religion.

Tags: Culture, Generations, Youth Ministry

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Generational Values and Gospel

I’ve just put three posts on the PostKiwi’s Generational Posts blog, outlining some of the conversation that’s come out of the last two week in the course I’m running in Brisbane. It’s fascinating stuff. Of course, not all the personal stories are told online. But some of the connections people are making between texts are fascinating.

Tags: Generations

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Inter-Generational Synods

A couple of weeks ago the Generations in Conversation course I’m leading took the September Synod gathering as a text as we considered the impact of generational cultures in the church. We looked at worship, decision making, multi-cultural encounter and humour. We thought about the use of mobile phones to keep youth representatives connected. We reflected on the technological brilliance of presentations and registered concern that without evidence of intent and action such presentations could be substantially bankrupt. It’s all written up at Postkiwi’s Generational Posts.

Darren Wright from Canberra has written his reflection in reponse - dreaming up a new model for a Synod of generations in conversation. He’s included some great suggestions, including wireless network, interactive workshops, an all-age celebration day, an art gallery, and aids for spiritual disciplines. It’s all online at Planet Telex.

Tags: Generations, Uniting Church

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