Tuesday, March 29, 2011

What I like about "millennials."

Last night I was with another twenty something couple. He was recommended to me for an opening it looks like Ascending Leaders will have this year. He and I met once before informally, thus was our first official interview.

Some things that impress me about the “millennials” I have interacted with more so over the last year:

1.The passion to grow. When I asked this individual what he was looking for in a position, the first thing he said was, “Someone who will mentor me in life, as a husband, father in the future and follower of Jesus.” That is a key desire of my young seminary friend as well.

2.Spiritual growth through service. My interviewee shared with me that the activity that he feels he gets the most from is serving. I was told by others that recently he took a couple men in their 40s and 50s to those living under the freeway to provide a variety of life essentials.

3.Many are finding themselves working in jobs they did not train for and are not fulfilling to them. Jobs that, beyond providing an income, feel pointless.

4.The desire to make a difference in people’s lives. Our interviewee seems to have a strong pull to our job because he can see that Ascending Leaders is making a difference in people’s lives for spiritual growth.

5.Some who are so excited and passionate that they overfill their calendar, though which generation did not do that when in their twenties?

6.I love them. I love hanging out with them. I am very much looking forward to the masters level class I will be teaching beginning next week “Leadership and Character Development.” Not all, but some of my students will be twenty-year-olds. There are two I especially love cause they are my wife and my biological children—ages 22 and 21. One of them is bringing into our family a daughter-in-law on June 18—we are excited!

This young boomer thanks God for the millennials He has brought into my life.