Tena tātou katoa e te iwi mīhana… (Greetings to all the people in mission)

This month’s whakataukī (proverb) is: “Ka pu te ruha, ka hao te rangatahi.”  (literally, put aside the ragged/worn out and let the youth take up the net).

I’ve referred to this proverb before in a previous post, but with reference to making way for new paradigms. This time I want to draw attention to new blood.

I spent most of my early missions career focusing on mission mobilisation, and spent 10 years off and on involved in a global research project for the World Evangelical Alliance Mission Commission (WEA MC) investigating motives for mission involvement from around the world. That culminated in the book “Mission in Motion” in 2016. I did my MA at All Nations Christian College in 1997/98 focused on mobilising and retaining the first post-modern generation (GenX, born c1965-1981) in mission, and when I began the WEA MC research project we were concerned about mobilising GenY/Millennials (born c1982-2004). By the time we completed the project this generation was spanning mid-teens to mid-thirties and some researchers had identified a distinctive split in the generational cohort with the latter group, Gen iY (born c1993-2004), identified as the first generation of “digital natives”.

Under this metaphor, early-adopter GenX and early-cohort GenY would be digital migrants. Late adopter Xers and Baby Boomers could be considered digital tourists. Those born between c2005-2024 are considered by some theorists to be the first fully “Connected” generation bloc. From the emergence of GenY, especially with the advent of social networking and smartphones, many generational attributes have become globally recognisable in youth cultures.

For a basic overview of these generational shifts and some implications for missions, click the link to download my 2013 paper: Mission_NextGen. Thanks to the US media machine we were recently made aware of Gen iY (or late GenY) becoming politically active with a massive march for greater gun control. Recently two mission-related bloggers have responded to this phenomenon, one from Kiwi Craig Greenfield (late GenX) and another by American Sarita Hartz (GenY).

Maybe God is revealing new methods through youth movements, as the Holy Spirit has done throughout history.

Questions remain that have nagged me since the 1990s—”what is God’s mission for us today?” and “how are young people showing us how to do it?” Us older ones think we ought to be teaching the younger ones about mission, and to an extent we should, but maybe God is revealing new methods through youth movements, as the Holy Spirit has done throughout history. I do not believe these movements are something we can manufacture, but they are certainly phenomena we can help flourish. That may involve training and coaching, but it also may mean removing infrastructure obstacles or just plain getting out of the way and letting God work, come what may.

I understand rationales for caution, and maybe I’m a bit too cavalier, but I am content to let God be God and trust that God’s mission, done in God’s way will never lack God’s recruits to reach their generation!

 #stayonmission.

Ma te Atua e manaaki koutou (may you all experience the very best things from God),

Jay