Connect Blog: Making sense of Generation Alpha

Senior Connector Barrie Voyce reflects on Generation Alpha.

I’ve been around youth work a while. I started when I was 18, and with only a few years “in the real world” its been an ongoing journey and career. In fact, I’ve been doing this longer than I’ve been a Christian. I’m 50 now (I know, I don’t look it – one of the benefits of working with young people!) and I’ve been in youth ministry for 20 years.

Over the course of that long time, so many things in our world and culture have changed significantly, and one of the challenges and delights in that has been learning to navigate and change who I am, and how I do ministry, with a changing, shifting culture.

Years ago, a Pioneer Minister in one of our churches asked me “do you have Pioneer Youth Ministers?” – after a moment’s thought, I replied “All Youth Ministry is Pioneer Ministry” Young people are normally at the forefront of cultural change and development. What our children and youth ministers are experiencing now, the rest of the church will be experiencing in 10-25 years time.

To give you an example – I’ve titled this blog “Making sense of Generation Alpha” because, when I was studying for my degree in Theology and Youth Ministry, one of the seminal books was “Making Sense of Generation Y.” That’s Millennials to you and me – back then they were the emerging generation, the ones we were trying to navigate and understand. Some might think we’re still trying to work them out, consider what church might mean for them and how we reimagine church for this new generation. Brace yourself for this bit – Millennials are now in their 30s. Most of the children and youth in our churches are the children of Millennials – that’s 2 generations on from Millennials. So, while the rest of the church is thinking about them – we’re learning about their children!

So, who are Generation Alpha? The Youthscape Podcast has spent a whole episode on this, and I had the delight of spending an evening online with Alex Drew for the Deep Dive she discusses here exploring this stuff with other practitioners. I was challenged and inspired by this conversation. It also made me question my own youth ministry – how much of what I’m doing is outdated – focused on Gen Z (or Millennials) and not fit for purpose. I came away with four key learnings and contemplations:

Tech Savvy BUT managing their usage

No matter what we might believe, all the evidence points towards the fact that young people are using tech less than the previous generation, and indeed less than their parents. The podcast explores the whys and hows of that, but my take away is that as adults we need to stop stressing quite so much, stop pressurising, and encourage young people to self-manage.

Collaborative and Creative

Young people are craving opportunities to do things together – they are much less competitive. For me that means reducing the sort of icebreakers, games and activities that pitch youth against each other, and finding activities that mean working toether. It also means holding plans lightly and allowing the group to shape the direction of a session – trusting them to explore what’s right for them.

Adventurous and Awe-inspired

The “Quiet Revival” is part of this growing openness to spirituality and faith. Making connections between the Ows Wows and Nows of life isn’t just for our pre-schoolers, but youth too. I’m also aware of the amazing way our church primary schools explore Christian faith with children, and that we can build on that with youth.

Kindness is Key

This was the biggest “oh wow” moment for me in the Deep Dive. The value of kindness is so prominent in Generation Alpha, and I see this play out in my church youth group. There is less “banter,” nick names, in-jokes, and ribbing each other. The group are much more likely to want to chat about each others feelings and emotions, and are connected through being caring towards each other. As a natural joker, I’ve needed to adjust my language and approach to be much more sensitive to who these young people are today.

And that’s the main take away – its my job to flex and adjust ministry to fit with who this emerging generation is – not get caught up into the way things were even 5 years ago. Youth Ministers need to be like chameleons – adapting to fit the new surroundings without losing the core of who we, and Jesus, are.

What next?

We’ll be exploring more about Generation Alpha, including the findings from our own, Diocese of Gloucester research, at our Thriving Church event in January. If you’d like to attend, speak to your Area Dean, or Barrie Voyce.