The 180° Symposium for 2019 focused on Gen Z and Social Issues. In North America, this age cohort consists of those born between 1995-2010. They share a number of the same social concerns as previous generations, but they also have certain issues that stand out more to them. Those who minister to Gen Z, whether they are in full-time ministry or serve as volunteers or who parent these young people, need to be aware of these issues and integrate this into their ministry to increase effectiveness in these unique times to this unique generation

Griffin, Vandeon

Miranda, Armando

Wood, Tracy Leon

English

Andrews University

iNTRoDUCTioN  To GeN Z AND SoCiAl iSSUeS 17Introduction  to Gen Z and Social IssuesTracy Wood, Vandeon Griffin,  and Armando MirandaABSTRACTThe 180° Symposium for 2019 focused on Gen Z and Social Issues. In North America this age cohort consists of those born between 1995-2010. They share a number of the same social concerns as previous generation, but they also have certain is-sues that stand out more to them. Those who minister to Gen Z, whether they are in full time ministry or serve as volunteers or who parent these young people, need to be aware of these issues and integrate this into their ministry to increase effec-tiveness in these unique times to this unique generation.INTRODUCTIONWhen the North American Division’s (NAD) Youth and Young Adult Ministries Department joined forces with the Center for Youth Evangelism’s (CYE) for the annu-al 180° Symposium, it created a collaboration of acade-micians, administrators, and practitioners. As the three members of the NAD department, we refer to ourselves as the “One Team.” While Tracy Wood serves as the di-rector, his specialized focus is on young adult ministry and camp ministry. Vandeon Griffin’s title is associate director and his specialty is teen ministry. Armando Mi-randa is also an associate director, and he takes primary responsibility for club ministry, which includes Pathfind-ers, Adventurers, and Master Guides. While all three of us have our specialties, we also maintain regular contact to function as “One Team.”It is our joy to team up with the CYE at Andrews Univer-sity for the 180° Symposium. Director Ron Whitehead has empowered Gerardo Oudri to oversee the symposium. Gerardo has a paper in this collection as well. Our role is to provide a simple introduction for the 2019 topic: ZOOM IN: REAL. DEAL. HEAL. The description of this theme can be summarized as: Gen Z and Social Issues. As young people “come of age” they begin to view their larger world and recognize discrepancies, injustices, and inconsistencies. While they can easily be myopic since they are still discovering their larger world, it is often the youth who “say it like it is” either because they are finding their voice or because they aren’t fully vested in maintain-ing the status quo like those older often seem to be.WHO IS GEN Z?While some have grown weary of all the press and empha-sis given to Millennials, those who work with youth recog-nize that Millennials are no longer youth. As young adults they could, and should be asked about those following them now in the period of life called “youth.” The first 180° Symposium focused on Millennials and the concern of widespread departure of this generation from church involvement (Dudley and Walshe 2009). What will the next generation be called? And what arbitrary boundaries or significant events will mark its edges?Youth as a stage of development sometimes may be nar-rowly defined as the high school years. Some expand this to add all the teen years, which includes middle school and sometimes early college. When it comes to congre-gations, especially those with less than 75-100 in atten-dance, “youth” could be anyone under the age of 30 or sometimes even 40! But to compare a 13 year-old with a 30 or 40-year-old seems to miss the mark, at least devel-opmentally. After all, the 13 year-old adolescent could be the child of the 40 year-old adult. But it’s possible those are the only two people in the congregation under the age of 60. In such instances, it’s easier to clump them into one group and label them “youth,” at least in comparison to those who have retired or are nearing that stage of life.One obvious drawback to labeling a cohort moving through the stage of “youth” has to do with those who don’t fit the label. This could be individuals who differ from the norm, or those on the cusp of either the leading edge or the trailing edge of the cohort. However, general statements can be helpful when making broad observa-tions or noting tendencies, provided one keeps in mind the limitation that what could be generally true might have individual differences.Those who consider generational models often base this on Strauss and Howe’s 1991 publication Generations. One principle proposed in this pivotal publication of an Amer-ican perspective viewed a generation covering approx-imately 20 years. With the rapid changes in technology, 18 REAL. DEAL. HEAL. GEN Z AND SOCIAL ISSUESthat time might be shortened now to as little as 10-15 years (Dupont 2019). While each individual or institution might create its own boundary markers for the start and end of Gen Z, the one we’ll posit for consideration at this time draws on more than a dozen sources cited in Wiki-pedia that tend toward a range of those born from 1995-2010 (Wikipedia 2020). At the time of the 180° Sympo-sium in 2019, that would put them in an age range of 9-24 years of age. Some demographers (Fry and Parker 2018) have used the term “Post-Millennial Generation” simply because chronologically they came after the highly publi-cized Millennial cohort. A label like “iGeneration” (Clarke 2010) stems from internet familiarity and the popularity of Apple products such as the iPhone and iPad. The term “Digital Natives” (Rothman 2014) broadens the technolo-gy emphasis since this group not only found the internet to be available, but actually expects it as normative. A vi-sual look of generations can be seen in Figure 1.Some things in youth ministry persist from one genera-tion to the next, things such as the importance of rela-tionships, one’s search for identity, sexual exploration, and movements toward independence. These all have spiritual implications. But for those who do ministry to, for, and with young people, one needs a special awareness and understanding of unique characteristics of the youth stage for a given generation. This would be for youth pas-tors, conventional pastors, volunteer youth leaders such as Youth Sabbath School teachers and AY leaders, as well as parents. The unique elements for the current genera-tion of youth are what this 180° Symposium addresses. The same quest will be necessary when the next genera-tion, which some have already labeled as the “Alpha Gen-eration,” enters adolescence 10-15 years from now. A look at the generations in the year 2029 can be seen in Figure 2.SOCIAL ISSUES FOR GEN ZWhile Baby Boomers may have had an anti-establishment posture and bucked the previous generations, Gen Xers were left to themselves while Baby Boomers wrestled with becoming the establishment they had maligned during their own youth. Gen Xers numbered fewer and received the moniker of “Latch Key Children” since they had to care for themselves while their parents pursued their own interests. The next generation, Millennials, took center stage because they requested mentoring by their helicop-ter parents, and also due to their sheer numbers—defi-nitely larger in number than Gen X and projected to sur-pass aging Baby Boomers in 2019 (Fry 2018). But by far, Gen Z outnumbers Millennials and also Baby Boomers (Duffin 2019). And while the social issues of the budding Gen Z cohort is still emerging, it shows similarities to the generation just ahead of it, and differs more than those in older generations.One example is that Gen Z looks to the government to do more to solve society’s problems. To put it starkly, 70 Figure 1. Generations in 2019Silent GenerationBorn 1928–1945Age in 2019: 74–91Baby  BoomersBorn 1946–1964Age in 2019: 55–73Gen XBorn 1965–1980Age in 2019: 39–54MillennialsBorn 1981–1995Age in 2019: 24–38Gen ZBorn 1996–2010Age in 2019: 9–23Alpha GenBorn 2011–2025Age in 2019: 0–8 1928 1945 1946 1964 1965 1980 1981 1995 1996 2010 2011 2025Figure 2. Generations in 2029Silent GenerationBorn 1928–1945Age in 2029: 84–101Baby  BoomersBorn 1946–1964Age in 2029: 65–83Gen XBorn 1965–1980Age in 2029: 49–64MillennialsBorn 1981–1995Age in 2029: 34–48Gen ZBorn 1996–2010Age in 2029: 19–33Alpha GenBorn 2011–2025Age in 2029: 4–18 1928 1945 1946 1964 1965 1980 1981 1995 1996 2010 2011 2025iNTRoDUCTioN To GeN Z AND SoCiAl iSSUeS  19percent of those from Gen Z look to the government for this compared to just 64 percent for Millennials. But the numbers drop noticeably for Gen X (53 percent), Baby Boomers (49 percent) and lowest for the Silent Genera-tion (39 percent) (Parker, Graf, and Igielnik 2020). A sim-ilar pattern emerges when asked if increasing racial and ethnic diversity is good for society. With Gen Z split about 50-50 racially in terms of White and Non-White groups, it’s not surprising they have a greater openness to racial diversity. This stands in contrast to Baby Boomers who are less enthusiastic about racial and ethnic diversity. In 1968, 80 percent of Baby Boomers were White (Fry and Parker 2018). Add to that change a greater political and social engagement among Gen Z (Fromm and Read 2018) and it’s not hard to anticipate conflict and changes in this arena by those who are part of Gen Z.When it comes to ministering to Gen Z, keep in mind that change is a constant for those in this generation. But churches aren’t known for making changes, much less making them quickly. Churches struggle just to adapt ministry practices, much less to change them altogether. One example is the Adventist Church’s resistance to gen-der equality, at least in comparison to what those in Gen Z would expect. When the rest of an adolescent’s world is making rapid changes, such resistance results in the church becoming less and less a part of their world. In general, the longer a church has been in existence, and the older its leadership, the less likely it will change. This may result in those from Gen Z disappearing from churches or migrating to churches that are more responsive to change.When it comes to mental health, Gen Z reports the least amount of good or excellent mental health compared to other generations (Bethune 2019). Anxiety producing ef-fects from sexual assault and mass shootings, as well as immigration and deportation issues stress today’s teens. The barrage of news available on personal devices regard-ing things that seem to be completely out of their control contribute to this lower sense of well-being. They report bullying and now cyberbullying as common occurrences (Anderson 2018).Another powerful stressor in the lives of Gen Z adoles-cents is academic pressure. This has to do with both academic achievement and job placement following an expected four-year college degree (which often takes longer than four years). Parents who haven’t completed a college degree put even more emphasis on their chil-dren completing a bachelor’s degree, while those who know older Millennial graduates who failed to land jobs while incurring a large student debt wonder if the college track is really worth all it’s cracked up to be (Parker 2017). And then there’s the pressure some feel to “get into the right school” and to get high enough grades. All of this adds to the typical teen pressure of making and maintain-ing friendships, social interactions, sexuality, substance abuse, sports, physical appearance, religious activities, and extracurricular school activities.CONCLUSIONThese are just some of the issues we face at the beginning of the 180° Symposium in 2019. As we listen to the pre-sentation of papers and then address these social issues, questions we would like to pose include:• Are we the church that will raise, attract, and retain the next generation of children as well as their parents and grandparents?• Are we shaping Adventist Education at every level of learning to meet the perceived needs of stu-dents, parents, and even their grandparents?• Are we developing Adventist resources that are relevant?• Who should be included in these conversations?• As this group of academicians, practitioners, and administrators have convened for this 180° Symposium, what will we do here, and then in our various spheres of influence after this gathering concludes?Tracy Wood, DMin, serves as Director for Youth & Young Adult Ministries for the Seventh-day Adventist Church at the North American Division. He is married to Angelina Cam-eron-Wood who serves as a contract writer for children and youth safety resources and online training courses.Dr. Vandeon D. Griffin, DMin, serves as Associate Youth Direc-tor of the North American Division for Senior Youth Leaders and Youth Sabbath School. He lives in Maryland with his wife Kimberly, an accountant for Risk Management ,and daughter Kalin, a student at Oakwood University.Armando Miranda Jr., MDiv, serves as the associate youth di-rector for the North American Division of Seventh day Adven-tists. He resides in Maryland with his wife and children and enjoys their time together.20 REAL. DEAL. HEAL. GEN Z AND SOCIAL ISSUESREFERENCESAnderson, Monica. 2018. “A Majority of Teens Have Experienced Some Form of Cyberbullying.” Pew Research Center. Accessed April 7, 2020. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2018/09/27/a-majority-of-teens-have-experi-enced-some-form-of-cyberbullying/.Bethune, Sophie. 2019. “Gen Z More Likely to Report Mental Health Concerns.” American Psychological Association. Accessed April 7, 2020. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/01/gen-z.Clarke, Roger. 2010. “The iGeneration.” Accessed April 6, 2020. http://www.rogerclarke.com/II/iGen.html.Dydley, Roger, and Allan Walshe, editors. 2009. Ministering with Millennials: A Complete Report on the 180° Symposium. Lincoln, NE: AdventSource.Duffin, Erin. 2019. “U.S. Population by Generation 2017.” Statista. Accessed April 7, 2020. https://www.statista.com/statis-tics/797321/us-population-by-generation/.Dupont, Stephen. 2019. “Move Over Generation Z, Here Comes Alpha Gen.” April 6, 2020. https://stephendupont.co/alpha-generation/.Fromm, Jeff and Angie Read. 2018. Marketing to Gen Z. New York: American Management Association.Fry, Richard. 2018. “Millennials Projected to Overtake Baby Boomers as America’s Largest Generation.” Pew Research Center. Accessed April 7, 2020. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/03/01/millennials-overtake-baby-boomers/.Fry, Richard, and Kim Parker. 2018. “Early Benchmarks Show “Post-Millennials” on Track to Be Most Diverse, Best-Edu-cated Generation Yet.” Accessed April 6, 2020. https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2018/11/15/early-benchmarks-show-post-millennials-on-track-to-be-most-diverse-best-educated-generation-yet/.Parker, Karla Fernandez. 2017. “Generation Z Under Academic Pressure.” Media Post. Accessed April 7, 2020. https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/309010/generation-z-under-academic-pressure.html.Parker, Kim, Nikki Graf, and Ruth Igielnik. 2020. “Generation Z Looks a Lot Like Millennials on Key Social and Political Issues.” Pew Research Center. Accessed April 7, 2020. https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2019/01/17/generation-z-looks-a-lot-like-millennials-on-key-social-and-political-issues/.Rothman, Darla. 2014. “A Tsunami of Learners Called Generation Z.” Accessed April 6, 2020. https://mdle.net/Journal/A_Tsunami_of_Learners_Called_Generation_Z.pdf.Strauss, William, and Neil Howe. 1991. Generations. New York: William Morrow and Company.Wikipedia. 2020. “Generation Z.” Accessed April 6, 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Z.

Introduction to Gen Z and Social Issues

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