God could have placed you at any time in history. Isn’t that a crazy thought? For whatever reason, God created you to live as a light in your city in 2013—a year that takes up no more space than a raindrop in the ocean of time. It can’t be just coincidence.
There are probably a lot of answers to “why here and now?”—most of which we’ll never discover before meeting Jesus. But if we were placed here for “such a time as this”, a good starting point for answering the “why” could be to look at what distinguishes our little sliver of space from all others.
Things that have been the same for hundreds of years are changing during our time. For 305 years, print was the most dominant form of advertising, but was surpassed by online advertising just within the last few years. For 82 years, television programming stayed the same. Shows aired on a certain day at a certain hour, and we made sure we were home in time to watch them. Now we watch what we want to watch, when and where we want to watch it.
Our populations have changed—not merely in number—but in regard to ideals, morals, economic and political values. Most of these changes have been spurred along but our largest population cohort, Generation Y, or the “Millennials”. This generation of young people, born between 1980 and 2000, number 87 million in the US. These large percentages are present in South America, too. In Colombia, over half of the population is 28-years-old and younger. And, in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, there are approximately 80,000 university students.
In a survey of Millennials from Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, and North America, 64% said they believe they will make a local impact, and over 40% said they believe they will make a global impact. They are optimistic, passionate, global thinking world-changers. We are surrounded by the largest generation of justice-seeking, transformation-loving people that has ever existed. We are surrounded by people with huge ability to make great advances for the Kingdom of God.
We live in a time heavily influenced by its largest generation, and it’s not by coincidence. So what does this mean for all of us placed here in this particular portion of space? Let’s examine how we are ministering to the Millennials around us in our lives and in our churches. Are we sharing Jesus with them in an impactful way? Are we empowering them to be all God has called them to be for the Kingdom? Are we making disciples and developing leaders out of them?
Resource Articles on Ministering to Millennials:
How to Harness Millennials for Christ
20 Points on Leading Millennials