{"id":2958,"date":"2007-12-11T00:30:33","date_gmt":"2007-12-11T00:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2007\/12\/egens.html"},"modified":"2007-12-11T00:30:33","modified_gmt":"2007-12-11T00:30:33","slug":"egens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2007\/12\/egens.html","title":{"rendered":"EGens"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Three convergences go into this post. The first was Willow Creek&#8217;s decision to end Axis, something that I both understood and worried about. The second is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&amp;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FAfter-Baby-Boomers-Thirty-Somethings-American%2Fdp%2F0691127654%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dbooks%26qid%3D1197145974%26sr%3D1-1&amp;tag=jescre-20&amp;linkCode=ur2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325\">Robert Wuthnow&#8217;s<\/a><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&amp;l=ur2&amp;o=1\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" style=\"border:none !important;margin:0px !important\" \/> fact-filled and nearly undeniable claim that the generation of 18-30 year olds threatens the livelihood of the future of the church. And now I&#8217;ve read an article by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/bc\/2007\/006\/2.10.html\">Christian Smith<\/a>. Here is a brief summary and I&#8217;m interested in your take, especially if you are in ministry to young adults.<!--more|inline--><br \/>\nMany today calls this &#8220;emergent adulthood&#8221; and so I&#8217;ve called them &#8220;EGens.&#8221;<br \/>\nFour social forces:<br \/>\n1. Growth in higher education to an expectation for many if not all.<br \/>\n2. Delay of marriage &#8212; average male marries at 27.<br \/>\n3. American and global economy that destabilizes careers.<br \/>\n4. Parents willing to extend financial support much longer than previously.<br \/>\nManifestations in Christianity and Church:<br \/>\n1. The content and texture of the faith shifts for EGens.<br \/>\n2. The family life is not as stable.<br \/>\n3. EGens may miss church attendance for 15-20 years.<br \/>\n4. EGens participate in sexual serial monogamy &#8212; a series of partners.<br \/>\n5. EGens expect financial independence before marriage.<br \/>\nWhat to do? If our churches and leaders don&#8217;t devote their attention to these issues, and there are many more, they may wake up in 15 years in a world so unchurched they may not recognize it.<br \/>\nWhat can we do?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Three convergences go into this post. The first was Willow Creek&#8217;s decision to end Axis, something that I both understood and worried about. The second is Robert Wuthnow&#8217;s fact-filled and nearly undeniable claim that the generation of 18-30 year olds threatens the livelihood of the future of the church. And now I&#8217;ve read an article&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":298,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-emerging-movement"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>EGens - Jesus Creed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2007\/12\/egens.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"EGens - Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Three convergences go into this post. The first was Willow Creek&#8217;s decision to end Axis, something that I both understood and worried about. The second is Robert Wuthnow&#8217;s fact-filled and nearly undeniable claim that the generation of 18-30 year olds threatens the livelihood of the future of the church. And now I&#8217;ve read an article&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2007\/12\/egens.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-12-11T00:30:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&amp;l=ur2&amp;o=1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"xscot mcknight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"EGens - Jesus Creed","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2007\/12\/egens.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"EGens - Jesus Creed","og_description":"Three convergences go into this post. The first was Willow Creek&#8217;s decision to end Axis, something that I both understood and worried about. The second is Robert Wuthnow&#8217;s fact-filled and nearly undeniable claim that the generation of 18-30 year olds threatens the livelihood of the future of the church. 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