Today, the distractions of our devices, and the resulting fragmentation of our attention, can make spiritual disciplines more challenging to teach, learn, and practice. In this month's episode of The Leading Tomorrow podcast, I am joined by Jayelle Dolan, who has over 25 years of experience in youth and adult ministry. She offered some practical considerations as we seek to encourage the next generation in spiritual disciplines. 

1. Create experiences where they can "taste and see" that God is good (Ps. 34:8)
As leaders, we need to create experiences where young people encounter God for themselves. The key is to take them to a place where they encounter God for themselves and then teach them how to return to that place. If they haven’t tasted God's goodness, it will be difficult for them to have an appetite to pursue it. Young people need experiences where they can taste God's presence, His Spirit, and the wisdom in His Word. Group spiritual experiences often help them learn disciplines that can then be replicated individually later: 

• A powerful group prayer meeting encourages a personal prayer life
• A deep time of worship in a service fuels an individual worship time
• A teaching of the Word brings about a love for the Word that rolls over into personal study
• A connective experience of fellowship in small groups, teaches young people to pursue true community

 2. Model personal disciplines (give them options) 

You can show young people how you practice spiritual disciplines. If you are a paper and pencil kind of person, show them how you note insights from Scripture, highlight key passages, or journal. Share worship and prayer lists and talk about different translations of the Bible; discuss what you have found helpful in worship, prayer and Bible reading. Allow them to ask questions. If they prefer digital resources, help them find equivalent digital resources that help them develop their own spiritual practices. Some examples include:

• Filament Bible App
• YouVersion Bible App
• Through the Word App
• Worship Lists on Spotify (or similar) App
• Day One Journaling App

​3. Provide practical steps and help young people learn to pray

Prayer can be hard to inspire. In her book, The Throne Room: How to Pray Powerful Prayers, Jayelle explains how in her youth ministry they taught young people how to pray by providing easy to follow steps: 

1. Pray Specific
2. Pray Big
3. Pray Persistently 

After teaching that simple process, they then did it every week in the youth ministry for the rest of the quarter. Ten minutes of each service was set aside to pray together in this format. After teaching that simple process, they did it every week for the rest of the quarter. Every service had 10 minutes where they prayed together in this format. 

Example:
1. Pray for Student M’s mother who has cancer. 
2. Pray for every person on the planet who has cancer…. pray for breakthroughs in medical treatments, etc.
3. Pray daily throughout the week (give prayer card or other reminder tool)

It is important to model spiritual disciplines for young people in ways they can see and understand, be willing to engage in honest conversations, and walk with them as they learn to practice them in their own lives. Consider where there may be opportunities to do this more intentionally. 

Is spiritual growth more challenging for Gen Z than other generations? While every generation has encountered barriers to growing in their faith, young people today do encounter some unique cultural challenges. Here are a few of the barriers to faith we are seeing today:

• Constant distraction due to the pervasive presence of technology. This can make it hard to be still, reflect, listen and learn. 
• Unprecedented access to information. This can create a sense of possessing knowledge and in turn suppress a felt need for mentoring, guidance, and input from others.
• Decrease in face-to-face interactions and emotional intelligence. This can hinder much needed community and healthy relationships and result in a sense of loneliness. 
• Focus on self-determined identity and truth ("you do you"). This can hinder the pursuit of understanding one's identity based on biblical truth. 

While these challenges are real and can be difficult to overcome, there are several key practices that mentors, leaders, and parents can use to engage Gen Z effectively in their faith journey. Here are a few:

• Practice humility; seek to understand the perspectives and experiences of young people before offering input or advice. 
• Ask open-ended questions and actively listen. Be discerning about what God might be doing in a young person's life and encourage them in that. 
• Give specific affirmation. With everyone promoting themselves online, young people can feel lost in a crowd. Looking them in the eyes and speaking truth and encouragement that is specific to them can help motivate them to pursue who God has called them to be. 
• Encourage them to set aside time daily to reflect, pray, read, and journal. Help them identify what would work best (time of day, setting a reminder, how to start, etc.). 

Gen Z is desiring to grow spiritually. Identifying the unique barriers they face, and supporting them in their journey, can make a difference. For more on this topic, check out this month's episode of The Leading Tomorrow Podcast. 

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only about one-third of businesses survive to their 10th year. We are thrilled here at Leading Tomorrow to have celebrated this milestone this past month! For the rest of this year, we will be highlighting key resources, providing new content, and having special offers to say “thank you” to those of you who have supported and worked with us over the past decade! This month, I reviewed my current Top-10 Picks for Next Gen Resources (see below). I hope you find these helpful! You can also listen to me discuss key takeaways from each resource in this month’s episode of The Leading Tomorrow podcast.

Marching Off the Map by Tim Elmore and Andrew McPeak
This book was published in 2017 but continues to be my go-to resource for teaching and training strategies for Gen Z & Gen Alpha. My favorite is the EPIC model — experiential, participatory, image-rich, and connected (relational). This is how young people today learn best!

Zconomy: How Gen Z Will Change the Future of Business—and What to Do About It by Jason Dorsey & Denise Villa
This is the best book I have found on understanding the workplace expectations and needs of Gen Z. Practical strategies are presented for every step of onboarding a Gen Z team member, from recruiting, to training, to retention.

The Culture Translator by Axis
This weekly email on what is trending in culture and the lives of teens is gold. For example, did you know that in teen slang “Bop” means a really good song, “Cheugy” means awkward or cringey, and “Finna” means you are going to do something? Axis also has a podcast and many other resources for anyone wanting to understand the music, movies, shows and social media trends impacting today’s youth.

Tech-Wise Family: Everyday Steps for Putting Technology in Its Proper Place by Andy Crouch and Amy Crouch
My favorite all-around resource on creating a family/home culture that helps manage technology in healthy ways. A great quote from the book states: “Technology is in its proper place only when we use it with intention and care. If there’s one thing I’ve discovered about technology, it’s that it doesn’t stay in its proper place on its own; much like my children’s toys and stuffed creatures and minor treasures, it finds its way underfoot all over the house and all over our lives. If we aren’t intentional and careful, we’ll end up with a quite extraordinary mess.” Another convicting quote: “An awful lot of children have been competing with their parents’ screens for attention their whole lives.”

Family Media Plan Tool by the American Academy of Pediatrics
This tool walks parents and other family members through a practical list of questions to consider in creating a media plan for the young people in our lives. I appreciate how the template generates good considerations for how to help all of us manage our devices.

The Anxious Generation: How the Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt
This one was just released in March of 2024 and is already creating some powerful dialogue regarding how childhood has changed, what young people need, and how adults need to be intentional and unrelenting in creating environments for the next gen that counter the mental health epidemic and related challenges.

Kids’ Brains and Screens: A ScreenStrong Student Course by Melanie Hempe
Finally, a practical resource for educating and equipping young people to understand the impact of screens on their developing brains and lives. While most resources on technology speak to adults, this curriculum is designed for middle school students and presents information in a fun and engaging way. ScreenStrong has other resources as well.

Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents - and What They Mean for America’s Future by Jean Twenge
Dr. Jean Twenge is one of the most noted researchers on generational trends. In this, her latest book, she highlights key factors that contribute not only to the perspectives and behaviors of the youngest generations, but the trends that have impacted all of the living adult generations today.

Touch the World Youth & Young Adult Mission Training and Trips
Committed to equipping the next generation to live on mission every day, everywhere, Touch the World has some of the best training materials and programs out there for engaging Gen Z in missions. They offer in-person and online training, as well as short-term trips, internships, and a gap year program.

Gen SeXYZ: Love, Sexuality and Youth by Jeff Grenell
In the opening chapter, Grenell states: “One of the cultural realities of the Millennial and Gen Z sets is that they are living in a real and historic sexual revolution. Maybe the most staggering society-shifting tsunami to ever hit the shores of youth.” He continues to unpack the sexual revolution occurring today and offers practical strategies for anyone mentoring the next generation.

Younger generations are growing up with unprecedented access to news, images, and information often portraying traumatic experiences and situations. In addition, they are connected 24/7 to friends and family members who may be struggling with trauma, mental health issues, or other concerns. The result is that many Gen Zers, in addition to experiencing trauma in their own lives, are coping with vicarious trauma. 
Vicarious or secondary trauma occurs when exposed to someone else's trauma--trauma you have not experienced yourself, but learned about from other people or sources. In the past, vicarious trauma was especially notable in professionals working in the medical field, counseling, social work, emergency services and similar fields. Today, however, the constant exposure to information can result in an increased risk of vicarious trauma for anyone, especially for young people who are still developing their understanding of the world, self awareness, and self management skills.

On this month's episode of The Leading Tomorrow podcast, I am joined by James LaLonde to discuss how we can help protect young people, and support them when they are experiencing the effects of vicarious trauma. Some of the strategies discussed include:

• Increasing our awareness and understanding of the young people in our lives
• Developing our own emotional intelligence (EQ) 
• Teaching young people skills to be self aware and alleviate stress
• Modeling healthy behaviors around technology use
• Encouraging professional help when needed
• Creating an environment in our homes, schools, and workplaces that promotes physical exercise, trying new activities, and developing healthy relationships

For more on this topic, consider reading one of the following resources: Childhood Disrupted by Nakazawa or The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk. 

​Almost two decades ago, futurist and inventor, Ray Kurzwelli stated, "We're entering an age of acceleration. Because of the explosive power of exponential growth, the 21st century will be equivalent to 20,000 years of progress at today's rate of progress; organizations have to be able to redefine themselves at a faster and faster pace." 

As we look at the world around us today, we can see evidence of rapid change. Change in technology, society, and generations requires leaders and organizations to adapt and innovate. This month, I had the honor of sitting down and chatting about innovation with Jacob Hancock, Executive Director at Seeds Global Innovation Lab. To hear our full discussion, check out this month's episode of The Leading Tomorrow Podcast. Jacob gave the following definition of innovation: "proactively generating and executing new ideas that create value." He went on to explain, "If we solve for challenges in the future, we are so much more prepared than if we remain in a reactive posture." 

One of the challenges of innovation is the fact that it requires some tolerance of failure as we seek to learn what will work in a new context. William Pollard indicated why being willing to learn is so critical: "Learning and innovation go hand-in-hand. The arrogance of success is believing what you did yesterday will be sufficient tomorrow." 

As we consider engaging, equipping, and encouraging a new generation of young leaders, we must be willing to innovate and model what courageous learning and growth look like in a complex and rapidly changing world. Below I have listed some great resources on innovation, growth and design thinking! I encourage you to add one or two to your reading list for 2022!

Resources on Creativity, Innovation & Growth: 
Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All by Kelley & Kelley
Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces that Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Catmull & Wallace
Innovation by Design: How Any Organization Can Leverage Design Thinking to Produce Change, Drive New Ideas, and Deliver Meaningful Solutions by Lockwood & Papke
Designing for Growth: A Design Thinking Kit for Managers by Liedtka & Ogilvie 
101 Design Methods: A Structured Approach for Driving Innovation in Your Organization by Vijay Kumar

​“Sharenting” is a term that describes sharing about kids or young people online. “Sharenthood: Why We Should Think Before We Talk About Our Kids Online,” is a new book by Leah Plunkett. Plunkett argued that “sharenting” happens any time an adult in charge of a child’s well-being, such as a parent, grandparent, teacher or coach, transmits private details about a child via digital channels such as social media. Some of these activities clearly involve a public share, such as posting pictures of your child on Instagram, or blogging about your kids. Others seem to happen in private, but often end up turning your child into a set of data points, via fertility apps or Amazon wish lists, the use of a Nest cam, or photos stored on a cloud server. Though these platforms and devices aren’t necessarily exploitative, Plunkett argues that they involve adult decisions that accelerate a child’s entry into “digital life.”

A struggle for many of us is that we want to share about our kids for family and friends; cute kids are a positive feature on social media as compared to some other types of posts; they get likes and comments which make us feel good; and social media is now part of the world we live in. So, is concern over too much “sharenting” warranted?

Tim Elmore shares a story on his blog that illustrates one of the potential dangers of too much “sharenting:”

It all started when April, Christine’s youngest daughter, was five years old. Christine knew April would be their family’s last baby and wanted to document each milestone and comical moment of her childhood. By the time she was ten, April was avoiding photo ops; shying away from the camera. By 13, when she had a phone of her own, April witnessed on social media just how much mom had posted on both Facebook and Instagram. She felt violated.
Eventually, as a teen, April requested her mom stop sharing photos of her. It was embarrassing and drew sarcasm from her friends.
 
In my relationship with my own kids, I have seen the shyness or embarrassment on occasion that result when they realize I have shared something about them. It has made me realize that no number of likes are worth hurting my relationship with my kids. While kids may not need full agency to dictate what can be shared about them at a young age, we don’t want to violate their trust. It can be difficult finding the balance between honoring and celebrating or sharing, and jeopardizing trust. 

Another real factor is privacy and security. The BBC reported on a study by Barclays bank estimating that by 2030 nearly two-thirds of identity-fraud cases affecting today’s children will have resulted from sharenting. The bank warned that parents might be "lulled into a false sense of security" and fail to understand that they are making their children "fraud targets" in the future, by publishing so much personal information which will remain online forever.

Tim Elmore shares some practical guidelines to consider as we share about our kids, grandkids, or other young people online:

• Step into their shoes. Consider how you’ve felt when someone posted a picture with you in it and you hated the way you looked or the way it fueled a wrong narrative.
• Ask yourself: Do you really need to post that pic? Think long term and realize that you can take all the photos you want but you don’t have to post them. Just keep them to celebrate memories together later.
• Play the long game. Consider the unintended consequences of posting. Will it alienate your children or students? Could you lose more than you gain?
• Think impulse control. Allow the idea of posting your kid’s photo to move from your limbic system (where you feel) to your cortex (where you think). Consider all the potential consequences of the post and manage your impulses.

So, next time you are about to hit “share” on your favorite social media app, pause first and ask yourself if it is worth it.

​Like many of you, I remember the days before social media and smartphones. Now, it seems we can’t live life without them. From checking in with family to accessing the weather, news, and sports, most Americans now seem inseparable from their devices. These devices also accompany us to work, where we utilize them there as well.

As a Generation Z researcher, I wanted to see how this generation uses technology in the workplace, and how employers can utilize their innate expertise. Having grown up in the late 90s and 2000s, Generation Z has always had the internet and smart technology at their fingertips. A 2019 study by Adage indicated that 98% of Gen Z’ers surveyed owned smartphones and 94% owned laptops. Gen Z engages with friends, interests, and now school almost entirely through their devices.

Several recent studies also revealed that Gen Z is more comfortable working from a tablet or smartphone than laptop or desktop in a work environment and use their smartphone at work as their primary communication tool. Gen Zer’s want to work in an environment that has fast, reliable tech, and wants to use this tech to communicate with their supervisors and colleagues. Gen Z are well-acquainted with video tools like Zoom and Skype, having used FaceTime and Snapchat throughout their teen years.

COVID-19 has forced many employers to shift to remote work. While many Gen Zer’s, Millennials, and Gen X’ers are used to using applications like Zoom, MS Teams, and Skype, learning to navigate these apps under the pressure of working from home can be difficult and stressful for many older employees. We’ve all received the frantic text, call or message, “How do I turn on my camera??”. To assist older employees with using video, chat, or other workplace technology, I recommend utilizing your Generation Z employees’ expertise.

Utilizing Gen Z’s technological skills may help your company in a couple of ways. Appointing young employees as leaders in this area may help you better engage with and retain this group of employees. Research shows that Gen Z needs to feel a sense of purpose, achievement, and advancement in their job, or they will quickly move on. Designating Gen Z’ers as the go-to for team tech questions will give them a sense of accomplishment and an opportunity to display leadership even if they are in frontline or entry roles.

Pairing older employees with Gen Z’ers may also have an added benefit – as members of Generation Z communicate with and help their team members, the mature team members also have an opportunity to get to know the younger members. Perhaps the director or VP who would never get to know the frontline employee is suddenly relying on them for virtual tech assistance. What an amazing chance for a learning exchange to occur! While the Gen Z employee assists with technology, the more tenured employee also has an opportunity to mentor or provide wisdom to the younger employee, which may outlast the tech questions and strengthen the virtual team.

Note: I recommend inviting rather than assigning Gen Z’ers to help their team members access and troubleshoot tech– you will receive a much more favorable response (a monetary or non-monetary incentive such as an extra day off, small gift, or bonus may also help).
​
Growing up in an age of rapidly expanding technology and a constant information stream, Generation Z possesses skills and ideas that organizations should employ. Utilizing Gen Z’s technological skills is one way to engage younger employees and strengthen your virtual teams during COVID-19.

Clinical psychologist, Benjamin F. Miller, wrote that America was already on track to face a mental health crisis before the COVID-19 outbreak. While many Americans are feeling the emotional toll of the pandemic, Millennials and Generation Z represent particularly vulnerable groups. Many were already suffering from declining mental health. The new normal of social distancing is increasing the loneliness and isolation that so many within these generations are experiencing.

Many argue that technology allows us to connect effectively even while separated physically. While this is true, we know that in-person interaction is better for emotional health than virtual connection. Jean Twenge, in her book, iGen addresses this issue. She explains that if virtual connection were as valuable as face-to-face connection, then “teens who communicate via social media and text should be just as happy, be just as likely to dodge loneliness, and be just as likely to avoid depression as teens who see their friends in person or engage in other activities that don’t involve screens.” However, the research demonstrates that, “teens who spend more time on screen activities are more likely to be unhappy, and those who spend more time on nonscreen activities are more likely to be happy….all screen activities are linked to less happiness, and all nonscreen activities are linked to more happiness.” As we consider this research alongside the fact that most classes, church groups, sports practices, even some camps, not to mention almost all social interactions, have been moved to a virtual format involving screens, the potential for increased depression, unhappiness, and loneliness is evident.

While technology is undoubtedly a gift during this time, it is not without significant risks. Twenge reports that “the correlation between social media use and loneliness appears across all demographic groups: boys and girls, Hispanics, whites, and blacks, and those both lower and higher in socioeconomic status.” Twenge also reports that “eighth graders who are heavy users of social media increase their risk of depression by 27%, while those who play sports, go to religious services, or even do homework cut their risk significantly” and that “teens who spend more than three hours a day on an electronic device are 35% more likely to have at least one suicide risk factor.” Research by Brigham Young University indicates that loneliness and social isolation may represent a greater public health hazard than obesity and present a risk for premature mortality.

Nicolas Kardaras in his book, Glow Kids, explained children between the ages of 10 and 17 today will experience nearly one third fewer face-to face interactions with other people throughout they lifetimes as a result of their increasingly electronic culture, at home and in school. He goes on to explain that “an emotional connection is built, however, when eye contact is made during 60-70% of the conversation…the less eye contact, the less a connection is made.” Our kids, teens, and young adults today desperately need the emotional connection that comes from meaningful face-to-face time.

Peter Gray, my favorite researcher on the importance of play, notes a correlation between a decrease in playtime and a rise in major depression, anxiety, and suicide. Gray writes, “If we love our children and want them to thrive, we must allow them more time and opportunity to play, not less.”

As we navigate a season where many playgrounds are closed, sports and team events are cancelled, and other activities are being held virtually, we must be vigilant to monitor the mental and emotional health of the young people in our lives. Reduced emotional connection and increased risks for loneliness and depression are serious threats to the well-being of our young people at this time. We must be proactive to find ways to meet their needs for face-to-face interaction, emotional connection, and healthy activity and play in ways that will allow them to thrive.