Social Entrepreneurship, the next Great Movement In America!

This past Memorial Day weekend was a special time for me this year
because I finally obtained my Master’s Degree in Organizational
Leadership at Biola University. As I celebrated this wonderful
accomplishment with my family and friends, I could not help but think
about my college journey over the past eight years and reminisce about
all the amazing experiences that transpired in my college life during
this time.

Out of all the incredible experiences that I thought about, the most
memorable moment that stood out to me during this time of reflection
was a Vision Conference that I produced at Long Beach State University
in 2003. The reason this dynamic event stood out to me the most
during this time of reflection is because a group of us were able to
create a unique and fresh event that was not only prosperous, but life
changing for our entire staff and event attendees who chose to attend
the event. Basically, people who attended our event were not only
entertained, but their lives were impacted in a positive way by the
powerful message that was expressed throughout the entire presentation.

Ironically, at the time of this amazing event in 2003, I was not aware
of social entrepreneurship. But, as I look back on these events five
years later with an awareness of social entrepreneurship, I can
definitely say that our Vision Conference program could have been
listed under the social entrepreneurship umbrella because it made
money by itself, impacted the lives of many people who were involved
with our project, and addressed a social problem that was evident on
our college campus at the time.

After pondering on the impact and success of this incredible college
experience mixed in with the large amounts of research that I have
personally discovered about young men and women of Generation Y, I
strongly believe that social entrepreneurship will be a growing trend
that we can expect to see more and more of from Generation Y in the
future as young men and women of this generation become more educated
on this profession. One of the main reasons why I have this strong
conviction about this emerging trend in America in relation to
Generation Y is because social entrepreneurship connects with the
belief system and desire of many individuals of this generation by
providing them with the opportunity to become entrepreneurs, make
money, love what they do, impact the world, and be a catalyst of
positive change.

Already there are many young men and women across America that fall
into this category of social entrepreneurship and many organizations
that support young men and women that have a desire to become a social
entrepreneur. As more and more social entrepreneurs from Generation Y
begin to make their impact on our culture and society, this could be
the silent group of people who could emerge as the next great leaders
of Generation Y!

Has the Church lost Generation Y?

Over this past weekend, I had the opportunity to celebrate Mother’s Day with my family in Southern California and wife, who is due to give birth to our first child in the next seven months. Before we actually went out to dinner like most families in America, I attended church earlier that morning. Like most Mother’s Day in various churches across the country, the attendance at church increased tremendously because this was one of the three days out the year where people who never attend church seem to make it a point to visit the church on this special day of each year for mother’s.

As I sat in church listening to the amazing music and powerful sermon, I began to wonder why many young men and women believe in God, but fail to attend church regularly and volunteer with their local church as much as they do with other social causes within their community, nation, and world. I wondered if it was hypocrisy in the church, busy schedules, different attitudes about church than previous generations, or just a lack of desire to really help out with the local church in their community.

As I continued to ponder on this thought during service, I stopped focusing on Generation Y for a minute and asked myself a simple question, why do I love God, pray frequently, attend church almost every Sunday, but still fail to really serve in the local church? While I thought about that question personally mixed in with my thoughts about Generation Y and Religion, I developed four key reasons why I believe less young people are engaged with church than in previous years:

New Attitude About Church: The first reason why I believe less people from this younger generation are engaged with church than in years past, is because their attitude about church has changed. For instance, instead of believing that attending church regularly gets you to heaven, more and more young men and women are realizing that it’s a personal relationship with God that’s most important and with this new understanding comes the notion that you do not need church to get close to God.

Lack of Programs that Interests Generation: The second reason why I believe less people from this younger generation are engaged with church than in years past is because there are very few programs created to really attract the younger demographic. For example, we have our monthly and quarterly events geared toward young adults, but rarely do we see programs that are out the box and geared specifically at the younger audience within our communities.

Leadership Development: The third reason why I believe less people in this younger generation are engaged with church than in years past is because of a lack of leadership development amongst young men and women in the church. For instance, as a speaker I have the opportunity to attend several leadership conferences/trainings held by major colleges and corporations for college students and young professionals, but rarely do I see these types of programs offered in the church. Personally, I believe if more of these programs were offered in the church, we would see increase in the church immediately.

More Creative Outreach Programs: The fourth reason why I believe less people this younger generation are engaged with church than in years past is because the outreach programs are not creative enough. For example, I understand the importance of evangelizing, feeding the poor, and offering counsel to the needy in church, but I believe that if we created other projects that interest this younger generation outside these main outreach programs, we could still fulfill the great commission and draw more people into the younger people into the church.

These four reasons are not the only solutions to this problem in the modern day church with young men and women from this younger generation, but they are key steps of action that I believe the church can take right now to really get more young adults involved with their local church.