The Next Generation: Changing the shape of meetings
Meet some of the next generation of faith-based leaders, speakers and planners.
By Kate Capleton
A new generation of faith-based movers and shakers is coming of age, moving into pulpits and nudging out traditional, familiar leaders who are nearing retirement. Whatever their message, they are sure to deliver it in new ways, using social networks like Facebook and electronic tools like text-messaging. Their growing influence, along with other cultural shifts, is having a trickle-down affect on faith-based meetings. Younger attendees demand ever-changing programming and seek to be actively engaged. They want speakers who talk their language, using their communication tools.
Sean McDowell: Getting Real
Sean McDowell had no intention of following in his father’s footsteps. A well-known Christian apologist, his father Josh has been speaking to groups since the early 1960s, and has now given more than 23,000 talks to more than 10 million young people. Sean started as a speaker reluctantly—even delivering one of his father’s speeches word-for-word. But these days, he enjoys crafting his own message, particularly when it comes to reaching young people. That starts, he says, with sharing honest personal stories.
“From my generation down, [people] know when someone is not being real and honest with them,” says McDowell. “They’ve been raised in a marketing culture, so they can see right through it.”
In addition to speaking to groups like Focus on the Family and Campus Crusade for Christ, the 32-year-old heads the Bible department at Capistrano Valley Christian Schools, where he teaches the courses on Apologetics, Theology, and the Old Testament.
Young people also know when you haven’t put enough time and care into your presentation, says McDowell, a big fan of PowerPoint. “Kids are so technological, they know if you’ve thrown something together in the last five seconds,” he says, adding that if the PowerPoint is good quality, it will catch their attention quickly. “I’m amazed at how many speakers don’t use PowerPoint, or when they do, they have put it together at the last minute.”
While technology is a big attention grabber, McDowell says it’s a mistake to assume that the younger generation can’t sit through a lengthy presentation, especially if you design it the right way. He is sometimes allotted just 25 minutes to deliver his message, on the theory that kids can’t pay attention for longer. “But I can speak for 50 minutes or an hour because I know how to communicate to this generation,” McDowell says. “Kids want to learn. They want to be challenged.”
To fully engage his generation and those after him, McDowell says it’s important to present both sides of the issue, to allow people to feel as if they are fully participating and making their own decisions. “If we really have the truth on our side, we shouldn’t be afraid to let people see both sides,” he says. “We live in a culture where people are exposed to all kinds of ideas—let’s not be afraid to challenge them to think, but always bring them back to the Biblical perspective.”
They also are exposed to all different races and cultures, and McDowell says it’s a mistake to ignore that reality when developing a meeting program.
“Barack Obama is a sign of the times that our culture racially is changing fast,” McDowell says. “People in their 20s and 30s [and younger] look at racial issues differently—it’s not a big deal for them. So in planning events, you must be conscious to include different races on the program…. Whether it’s in videos we do, whether it’s people in the band or speakers—as much as we can, we must try to have diversity, which is really one of the powers of the church. If planners don’t do that, they’re going to be viewed as increasingly irrelevant to a huge segment of society.”
Evangeline Weiner: Global Action
A self-described “proud evangelist’s kid” who traveled the world with her parents to share the Gospel, Evangeline Weiner has had first-hand experience with the global community
—something that serves her well as Generations Project director for Aglow International. In her position at the organization of Christian women, which has groups in 172 nations, she is using her experience to develop Aglow’s new focus on the wants and needs of younger people.
“People, especially young people, are looking for a place to join with a global community, where they can network with the world,” says the 24-year-old Weiner. “They don’t just want to attend a meeting and hear about things. They want to lend their voices and hands.”
The Generations Project is also in the process of creating internships and partnerships around the world, connecting young people with Aglow members who share common interests in areas like business, journalism, and government.
“No matter what your age, people are looking for the same things—community and relationships,” Weiner says.
Ensuring that all generations and today’s issues are reflected at your events is an important way to make sure young people will take you seriously, Weiner says.
“Your conference needs to have the face of current events that are relevant to the world right now,” she says. “Also, have a multi-generational face in every aspect of your promotion and at the conference itself, even if it means having your own children come to show that face.”
To get the word out for Aglow, technology is playing a big role in the Generations Project, which is on Facebook, MySpace, podcasts, blogs, TV shows, and e-blasts. “The first place a young person will look for your organization will be on the Web, Facebook, or another social network,” Weiner says. “Podcasts, blogs, and Twitter all are the way young people live their daily lives. They don’t think of texting as ‘technology,’ it’s simply a way they communicate.”
In fact, when reaching out to young people, “the quality of your technology will be what people base their opinion on about the quality of your organization,” Wiener warns. “If you appear to not be current, people are not as likely to be interested in being involved.”
Ryan Claborn: Tech Tools Drive Engagement
Where many faith-based planners are late adopters when it comes to technology, Christ in Youth (CIY) dove right in. The student ministry uses podcasts, texting, and online video to reach its audience of preteens through college students, as well as their adult chaperones.
“We try to use the same technology they are using at home,” says Ryan Claborn, the 29-year-old conference business director for the organization. “There was a time when it was pretty simple—what really engaged a student was less involved…These days, I wouldn’t go so far as to say you can’t reach students without technology, but you grab their attention faster and it makes things easier.”
So CIY has stepped up its game. In fact, with many young people savvy about even creating their own videos, the organization is working hard on production values and has even been making the shift to HD video.
Technology makes things easier for the adult leaders as well. CIY has used podcasts to communicate information to adult leaders before events, and has even done some video podcasting to deliver information specific to a particular location. “This comes in handy when we do events in large convention centers and we need to explain where to park or where registration will be,” Claborn says. “It also gives us a chance to preview for them the themes and topics for the event so they understand what their students will be hearing and seeing.”
In 2008, CIY introduced a new element to their technology arsenal—text messaging. At 20 different events last year, they used text messages to lead groups of up to 1,500 people—broken down into smaller segments of 10 to 12—on a kind of fun and fellowship scavenger hunt, mixing up students who didn’t necessarily know each other and texting instructions to the adult leader in each group. CIY used TextMarks (textmarks.com) to send mass communications to the small groups, after collecting phone numbers by asking the adults to all send a text into a common number.
While there were some kinks the first time they tried the exercise (mostly due to lag time between when the messages were sent and when they were actually received), by the end it was working smoothly and Claborn says it will be an important tool at future events for everything from program changes and emergency communications to marketing last-minute events.
Because the audience is thirsty for interactivity, even beyond technology, CIY has worked on some unique ways to introduce interactive elements into all aspects of an event—including worship. For example, during a “Clean hands, clean hearts” theme, bowls of water were placed around the room and students were encouraged to wash their hands at one point in the service. “It gives them a way to attach something tangible to the way God moves,” Claborn explains.
But they’ve also learned to respect silences. Claborn says they have been working on the transitions between keynote speeches and breaking up into small groups, to make sure the message they’ve been building isn’t lost while the students leave the large assembly. “Doing 10 or 15 minutes of housekeeping announcements, after we’ve spent all this time building up, can really step on the moment,” he says. “We encourage students to be respectful and quiet now as they move to the small groups, so they can process what they’ve learned.”
