The Millennials at the Well
A few weeks ago at Launch Ministry’s weekly Bible Study we read the story of the woman at the well from John 4. I was writing down notes throughout our whole discussion because the points that this couple thousand year old story brings up are still valid today. In case you’re not familiar with the story (which I wasn’t until a friend read it to me at church) I’ll try to give a short summary with a lot of paraphrasing and hopefully little bias. The story starts with Jesus traveling to Galilee, through Samaria. According to...
read moreCollege Struggles: A Millennial Perspective
Continuing my theme of jobs, employment and growth, I thought I’d take a stab at college and what’s going on with it taking forever for Millennials. This is something I’ve personally dealt with over the years. Needless to say I have a lot of experience in the area of delaying and procrastinating college. A little personal background for myself here. I started college with a big push from my mentor when I was 19, declaring my major as premed thinking I wanted to be a doctor. After one semester of random unrelated classes at a...
read moreInstant Gratification and Entitlement – A Millennial Perspective
My friends at Launch Ministry wrote this blog a few weeks ago outlining a shining moment in young adult development, conflict resolution to the max, and it got me thinking. What else gets easier when you don’t have to worry about stable housing and feeding yourself? Throughout most of my life I have had trouble finding a stable job and/or place to live and there’s no question as to if that prevented me from learning other skills that I needed to be successful. A personal goal of mine, now that I have a stable place to live (at Launch...
read moreTransportation: How Can I Walk When I Have to Run?
Launch Ministry posted this amazing story about a sympathetic business owner giving a young person an amazing opportunity. Perhaps one of the most important pieces of the puzzle of getting a job is literally getting to a job interview, which sometimes requires extraordinary measures but that also creates room for extraordinary kindness. More and more people my age have to search for jobs far from home. According to the University of Minnesota research the average commute distance in the state is 19.7 miles, which leads into my first...
read moreWalking 10 miles to a job interview and other millennial adventures
You may have seen the story that went viral a week or so ago. It’s a heartwarming story about a young man walking 10 miles to get to a job interview. On the way, he asked directions from a restaurant owner who was overwhelmed by the young man’s work ethic and decided to hire him himself. This is a great story and the young man should be commended for his tremendous effort and desire to land a job. The restaurant owner should also be commended for recognizing that this was someone who should be given a shot. As great as this story...
read moreLife at the Launch Pad: How Stable Living Leads to Transformation
One of the dreams that we had when starting our first Launch Pad (safe and stable housing for homeless and transitioning young adults) was that we would see the young men that we work with begin to develop mature relational skills that would serve them for the rest of their lives. Last week at our house meeting, we saw a perfect example of how that was actually happening. Without going into too much detail, there was a conflict between a person at the house and the house manager. The first person confronted the house manager about some...
read moreThe World Doesn’t Revolve Around Us (But It Certainly Knows We’re Here!)
My wife and I were watching television the other night and an amazing commercial for Colorado Technical University came on. Check out the video (or read the transcript below). I am no ordinary student. I control technology that’s reinventing how education works. I’m creating a network I’ll use my whole career. I don’t fear the new economy – I am the new economy. We are the students of CTU. And if you’re asking if the world revolves around us – no. But it certainly knows we’re here. CTU –...
read moreHow Can Millennials Find Hope for the Future?
I often see a mindset in many Millennials that goes something like this: “Why should I go to college? I am only going to accumulate a great amount of debt, only to leave it to an economy that will leave me without a job to pay it off. So what‘s the point?” Now, the key thing to this is not the belief itself but what the belief reveals. Whenever we feel like something in our lives is determined, it begins a path where we refuse to take responsibility for the road ahead. And, why should someone take responsibility for something that it is...
read moreWhen ‘Whens’ Start Melting Into ‘Ifs’
I love this line from this Millennial rant about how difficult life is for today’s young people: We understand one’s 20s are never easy. They are the point when all your confident ‘whens’ start melting into ‘ifs’. We have written before about how challenging it is for emerging adults to face the myriads of choices in front of them. They get stuck as they don’t want to limit the choices that are available to them, yet in their paralysis many of their options begin to close around them. This is the...
read moreEmerging Adults on the Fringe: How Creative Local Churches Could Make a Significant Difference
In our work with emerging adults who are on the fringe, struggling to make the transition to adulthood often without the aid of supportive parents, there are many obstacles to overcome. Many of these obstacles have to do with character formation, attitudes, and the heart. These take time to overcome and require a long term investment in the lives of young people. However, those obstacles take longer to overcome if the some of their tangible and practical needs are not met. In our context, we have identified three particular obstacles that get...
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