Generation F?
Regulars to my blog will be aware that I write quite a bit around how the net is going to affect the church moving forward. (For more see: The Digital Revolution and the Church (1309) ). I am convinced that the change/impact will be dramatic for the church and that we need to act so as to make sure we don’t lose touch with the society we are called to impact/influence. And now the emerging generation apparently has a name, ‘Generation F‘. So who are they and how might they change our church?
I came across an excellent blog post by management thinker Gary Hamel who names Generation F (F for Facebook) as that generation who have grown up online. They don’t connect with the traditional organisational structures with its clear rules around communication and authority but expect something much more participatory and relaxed.
Hamel offers list of work-relevant characteristics that Generation F will expect in a workplace such as the church. Under each characteristic I offer (in blue) how these might affect us in 
the church.
1. All ideas compete on an equal footing.
On the Web, every idea has the chance to gain a following-or not, and no one has the power to kill off a subversive idea or squelch an embarrassing debate. Ideas gain traction based on their perceived merits, rather than on the political power of their sponsors.
New church initiatives may well start independant of the church leader and/or governing body. This should be encouraged by the leadership through providing the resources to have ideas tested by the collective, not just by the pastor or church council.
2. Contribution counts for more than credentials.
When you post a video to YouTube, no one asks you if you went to film school. When you write a blog, no one cares whether you have a journalism degree. Position, title, and academic degrees-none of the usual status differentiators carry much weight online. On the Web, what counts is not your resume, but what you can contribute.
Churches may need to relax their strict expectations around formal formation (including having the right degree from the right Uni.) and focus much more on what the person is capable of or/and is doing. Having the right degree and graduating from a leadership formation process doesn’t guarantee success in ministry, in fact it might well stifle success.
3. Hierarchies are natural, not prescribed.
In any Web forum there are some individuals who command more respect and attention than others-and have more influence as a consequence. Critically, though, these individuals haven’t been appointed by some superior authority. Instead, their clout reflects the freely given approbation of their peers. On the Web, authority trickles up, not down.
We in the church need to identify those who are influencers and provide them with the necessary resources and support.
4. Leaders serve rather than preside.
On the Web, every leader is a servant leader; no one has the power to command or sanction. Credible arguments, demonstrated expertise and selfless behavior are the only levers for getting things done through other people. Forget this online, and your followers will soon abandon you.
We in the church do this one quite well. The key is for the servant leader to know what exactly those being served actually need. So we should beef up our feedback strategies for leaders, to assist in making informed decisions.
5. Tasks are chosen, not assigned.
The Web is an opt-in economy. Whether contributing to a blog, working on an open source project, or sharing advice in a forum, people choose to work on the things that interest them. Everyone is an independent contractor, and everyone scratches their own itch.
The church will need to work hard on developing collaborative tools. Arranging matters through just face to face meetings or even through email/phone will soon be a thing of the past as Enterprise 2.0 initiatives gain ascendency. More and more people will work together where ever they are in the world.
………
To read the rest of Hamel’s points head to: his blog.
Filed under Social Media/Web 2.0, Web 2.0 | |
4 Responses to “Generation F?”
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Excellent piece here, Mark. I hope you’ll continue this vein of thought and expand it over the next few months. Not enough leaders and thinkers in the Church are turning their attention yet to the implications of the changes you are addressing. Thanks from all of us…p
I’m not sure what environment he’s talking about when he says
On the Web, every leader is a servant leader; no one has the power to command or sanction.
All websites are owned, and the owners and those to whom they give admin rights have quite a lot of power to use sanctions, including exclusion.
And of course a lot of people are excluded economically - I think one of the biggest dangers of ‘the digital age’ is that we abandon the non-digitised, who are unable to twitter, blog and use their influence, to complete obscurity!
The parallel in church terms would be replacing the dominance of those with the ‘right’ education to those with the ‘right’ communication skillset.
[…] I discussed in my previous blog post, Generation F have grown up online and therefore as willing members of the revolution their […]
Mark,
I often wondered if the Internet (in general) was going to be considered the kind of providential tool that the printing press was thought to be by Martin Luther and his contemporaries. I really think that the explosion of social media might just be the specific tool on the Internet that fosters connectivity and community in this great emergence. The twentieth century brought us twentieth century business models to the church. Systematic theology fit in to that structure very well. I believe that the dynamic and often frenetic land of social media lends itself to a community closer to the first and second century model. Instead of “going house to house” as we see in Acts and the Epistles, we are going IP to IP and the gospel is spread the way it was naturally designed; virally and fractal-ly instead of attempting to box it in systematically and linearly. I like what I see.. and I want more!
One thing to watch out for is the same thing we see in all technology. Older generations are slower to embrace it, and often times shun it. More and more these days I see congregations separated not racially, or by dogma or orthodoxy/orthopraxis, but rather generationally. I wonder how we will address this as the gap grows wider, and the Kingdom races forward.