Over the past thee to five years, I have noticed that the conversations I am having with students are changing. More conversations are about disappointments, existing, and getting through the next day, week or month. I am having fewer and fewer conversations with students that are about passion, making a difference, or purpose. I am talking to more and more parents who are working with their students through depression, anger, and disruptive behavior. I find that leaders of the next generation are finding it difficult to engage and inspire the next generation into movement and motion. I see teachers having to invest more time into getting students to respond to assignments, projects and class discussions. I believe part of the issues is as leaders and influencers of the next generation we are equipping them with tools to fight the wrong battle.
The danger of any generation is to believe that the next generation will fight the same battles that they faced and then teach, influence, and equip them with tools to fight the battles that the previous generation faced. It is like training WWII soldiers in WWI battle techniques. They would learn some good battle techniques but it wouldn’t help them be fully successful once they got into battle. As influencers into the next generation, I think it would benefit us to evaluate and acknowledge what battle this generation is in and then equip them to enter the battle.
The battle that this generation is fighting is one of the biggest, most impressive battles that any generation has ever faced. The battle that they are entering into could have consequences that will ripple into many generations to come. This generation may be the first generation in centuries that is not battling to take ground but instead to not give up ground that has already been taken. The battle is for purpose, identity, passion. The next generation is in a battle for the deepest parts of their heart and meaning. As investors in the next generation we must learn the battle of this generation and adjust how we do things so that we can equip them to win the battle. We must help them re-engage who they are, why they exist, and who God made them to be and why it matters to live for Him! The battle this generation faces is for their heart and at stake is the generations that follow them. If we truly want to not be about ourselves but instead about the next generation we must humble ourselves, become learners in a whole new way, and commit to training the next generation for the battle they must fight.