Working with Generation Y in YWAM

This had me nearly rolling with laughter while watching this video:

The main target audience for Youth With A Mission – YWAM is the young generation, “Generation Y”. Many of our leaders and teachers within YWAM come from the same generation as Louis LK (Baby Boomers), or from Generation X (where I fit in). This leads to challenges as we learn to work together to fulfil what God has called YWAM to.

I can mostly speak for the YWAM base that I have worked with here in Australia, so my views do not represent all YWAM bases, but here they are …

The YWAM staff generational demographic population can be viewed as a pyramid. The boomers at the top (there a smaller number of them), generation X in the middle, and a rapidly growing generation Y at the bottom:

Now, just to make it clear, this pyramid doesn’t represent the leadership structure at the location I was at, only the distribution of age and population. YWAM has many leaders from all three of the generations. One thing that YWAM really seems to excel in is the encouragement of young people into positions of leadership.

I had the privilege of attending a seminar about working with Generation Y. It was very interesting and opened my eyes to the fact that I was working with them as if they had the same motivations as I did, as Generation X. But that doesn’t work …

So how is Youth With A Mission, an organisation founded by boomers, grown by Generation X, and now being joined by Generation Y, to work together toward the goal of “To Know God and to Make Him Known”?

Here are some interesting Generation Y attitudes:

Attitude Towards Training

• “Must entertain me and enable me to do meaningful things with it.”

Attitude Towards Work

• “My work will help to change the world.”

Attitude Towards Changing Jobs

• “I will constantly be changing my job.”

These ideas were taken from Sustainable Employee Motivation here. There are a lot more interesting ideas on that page if you want to check them out.

So, let’s get some input from you now:

1. How are you and your ministry working together with the Generations towards fulfilling the Great Commission?
2. What challenges are you having and how are you overcoming them?