A wave of influence is washing over the aging Baby Boomer generation, whether they want to face it or not.
It’s Generation Y — 90 million Americans between the age of 14 and 33, Mark Foley, president of the University of Mobile, shared during the afternoon session of the Alabama Baptist Pastors Conference (see story, this page).
“As you ponder the condition of a nation no longer shielded by the hand of God, consider the impact of this coming generation,” Foley said. “As the influence of Generation Y has increased, the Baby Boomers still have resisted the influence that’s coming upon them.”
The Boomers, Foley said, inherited a lot of religious organizations — “well-oiled machines” — and “ we expected and assumed that [Generation Y] would simply step into the organizations that we had established.”
But Generation Y has looked at those organizations and said, “No, we really don’t want to do it that way,” Foley said.
As a result, those organizations have declined, and leaders are forced to engage and disciple the biggest generation in history with a pool of declining revenues.
Even so, Foley said he believes “those 90 million men and women are going to lead this nation back to an understanding of Jesus Christ, but they won’t do it the way we think they should do it.”
In the midst of changing times, leaders should hold tightly to the Word, but in following Jesus they also must be open to change, Foley said.
“If you try to hang on to the ways of doing things that you find comfortable, you will lose it,” he said, noting that a rising 90 million beats out an aging 76 million “every time.”
If leaders don’t do what it takes to disciple Generation Y to follow Christ, “be assured someone will,” Foley said. “If it is not Jesus Christ and His Church, it will be the culture.”
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