“Community service is our generation’s religion.”
“Community service is our generation’s religion.” I didn’t read this in a headline, but rather heard it a few weeks ago as I spoke with a friend. As a coordinator for massive volunteer mobilization across the city of Nashville, she has seen people of a variety of ages willing to give of their time and talents to help community organizations and nonprofits in need. The discussion drifted to how many youth and young adults she has seen recently who are willing to volunteer, to give, and to serve. And then she said it.
The statement left me floored. It was the exact wording I had been looking for since I graduated college. As my path was laid out in terms of grad school in California, other graduating seniors I knew were busily searching for their first post-college job. And many of them were looking at nonprofit and charity organizations. They had a very real passion to make a difference and leave an indelible mark on their world. They looked overseas, at the Peace Corps, at teaching, at moving to the projects, at Christian organizations, at churches, and at community entities. I wondered what type of job I’d search for if I weren’t headed for more school, and I concluded it would have been the same.
What I saw in Alabama and again in California was a large number of people in their 20s who were looking to make a difference. They weren’t worried about income, status, buying a home, or even getting married. It was as if some invisible insect had bitten these people and given them an unbridled drive and desire to change the world. They had skills that would have made them great salespersons, technology gurus, or financial wizards. But some of them just wanted to move to Bangladesh and dig a well.
This is primarily what has fueled my drive to found a nonprofit – I know the reality of the availability of labor, money, and passion that exists in young people today. I do not believe we have to fight a nasty war to get our share of the pie; I believe the pie can be bigger if we work to organize and mobilize the vast number of people, wandering around, looking for a leader. Like dazed and confused soldiers yearning to form a battalion and get to work, the current generation of young professionals needs leaders who can cast vision, inspire dreams and foster greatness.
But has this drive for community service grown so large and found true adherents to be labeled ‘religion?’ Today, the word has morphed to describe phenomena like high school football, political punditry, or comic book conventions, and no longer is limited to Christianity, Buddhism, or Islam. Unlike our traditional religions, this generosity movement has no founder, no doctrine, and no rites of passage. Does this perhaps make it ‘beyond’ religion?
Yesterday, I attended the inaugural meeting of Nashville’s Young Professionals. Nearly 200 people between the ages of 22 and 39 who live and work in Nashville gathered to discuss topics relevant to them, issues facing the future of the city, and how to get involved in the larger community. Survey results were shared and were undeniable: 100% of the over 500 respondents give at least an hour a month to volunteering, and 13% give over 20 hours. The keynote speaker, Rebecca Ryan, founder of Next Generation Consulting, travels the country, giving advice to companies, governments, and nonprofits on how to attract and retain young talent. Rules have changed and paradigms have shifted. What worked then won’t work now and Rebecca is helping people wake up to this reality. In essence, Rotarians won’t get younger; they’ll become extinct. A new reality is emerging.
One such example: a young professional group in Detroit wanted to do something good. Realizing the public school system still used dial-up access to the Internet, the group sent out emails and in one weekend, assembled enough tech geniuses and hardware to make the entire school system wireless – not just high-speed, but wireless. There was no elaborate fundraising campaign, no royal politicking, and no yearly donor drive. Human capital and unlimited potential came together speedily and efficiently to make that indelible mark.
In the essay I posted yesterday, I wrote about the overwhelming potential for good with America’s youth today. I believe that each person, each teenager, each young professional, and each adult has a dream seed inside of them that needs to be nurtured, encouraged, and harvested. But dreams do not die when the ecstasy of youth is over. I’ve seen that these seeds continue to grow and ripen, growing into the mighty oaks who become history’s bookmarks. Once human service providers, wealthy foundations, religious institutions, and local governments begin to see the power and passion of society’s greatest resource – young people – this will be a religion that won’t just make headlines – it’ll make history.
The statement left me floored. It was the exact wording I had been looking for since I graduated college. As my path was laid out in terms of grad school in California, other graduating seniors I knew were busily searching for their first post-college job. And many of them were looking at nonprofit and charity organizations. They had a very real passion to make a difference and leave an indelible mark on their world. They looked overseas, at the Peace Corps, at teaching, at moving to the projects, at Christian organizations, at churches, and at community entities. I wondered what type of job I’d search for if I weren’t headed for more school, and I concluded it would have been the same.
What I saw in Alabama and again in California was a large number of people in their 20s who were looking to make a difference. They weren’t worried about income, status, buying a home, or even getting married. It was as if some invisible insect had bitten these people and given them an unbridled drive and desire to change the world. They had skills that would have made them great salespersons, technology gurus, or financial wizards. But some of them just wanted to move to Bangladesh and dig a well.
This is primarily what has fueled my drive to found a nonprofit – I know the reality of the availability of labor, money, and passion that exists in young people today. I do not believe we have to fight a nasty war to get our share of the pie; I believe the pie can be bigger if we work to organize and mobilize the vast number of people, wandering around, looking for a leader. Like dazed and confused soldiers yearning to form a battalion and get to work, the current generation of young professionals needs leaders who can cast vision, inspire dreams and foster greatness.
But has this drive for community service grown so large and found true adherents to be labeled ‘religion?’ Today, the word has morphed to describe phenomena like high school football, political punditry, or comic book conventions, and no longer is limited to Christianity, Buddhism, or Islam. Unlike our traditional religions, this generosity movement has no founder, no doctrine, and no rites of passage. Does this perhaps make it ‘beyond’ religion?
Yesterday, I attended the inaugural meeting of Nashville’s Young Professionals. Nearly 200 people between the ages of 22 and 39 who live and work in Nashville gathered to discuss topics relevant to them, issues facing the future of the city, and how to get involved in the larger community. Survey results were shared and were undeniable: 100% of the over 500 respondents give at least an hour a month to volunteering, and 13% give over 20 hours. The keynote speaker, Rebecca Ryan, founder of Next Generation Consulting, travels the country, giving advice to companies, governments, and nonprofits on how to attract and retain young talent. Rules have changed and paradigms have shifted. What worked then won’t work now and Rebecca is helping people wake up to this reality. In essence, Rotarians won’t get younger; they’ll become extinct. A new reality is emerging.
One such example: a young professional group in Detroit wanted to do something good. Realizing the public school system still used dial-up access to the Internet, the group sent out emails and in one weekend, assembled enough tech geniuses and hardware to make the entire school system wireless – not just high-speed, but wireless. There was no elaborate fundraising campaign, no royal politicking, and no yearly donor drive. Human capital and unlimited potential came together speedily and efficiently to make that indelible mark.
In the essay I posted yesterday, I wrote about the overwhelming potential for good with America’s youth today. I believe that each person, each teenager, each young professional, and each adult has a dream seed inside of them that needs to be nurtured, encouraged, and harvested. But dreams do not die when the ecstasy of youth is over. I’ve seen that these seeds continue to grow and ripen, growing into the mighty oaks who become history’s bookmarks. Once human service providers, wealthy foundations, religious institutions, and local governments begin to see the power and passion of society’s greatest resource – young people – this will be a religion that won’t just make headlines – it’ll make history.
Comment (1)
1:38 PM
Sam...
I enjoyed your post. You really radiate passion in your philanthropic dreams to see the synergistic impact of young people impacting the world. But my question, after reading your article, is impacting the world for what? If our desire as Christians is to "be the hands and feet" displaying God's Love to the world, then wouldn't the ultimate purpose to engage in altruism be for the glorification of God (in the outpouring of that service)? Assuming that the majority of people you were referring to believe Christ is the Saviour of the world, I saw a glaring omission of referencing God's glory or exalting Christ through these efforts mentioned in touting this new "religion" so to speak. If Jesus is our example, I recall his community service focused primarily on meeting spiritual needs and proclaiming the Kingdom of God. He did meet physical needs of feeding people and healing illness and diseases but wasn’t that a means to drawing attention to the Father rather than to meet needs for the sake of meeting a need? It seems to me that if we are God’s ambassadors, then incumbent in that great calling is a desire to proclaim his truth as we go forth serving others in manifold ways. So I think it would be better stated as “Christianity: The true religion expressed through community service by loving people without partiality for the sake of glorifying God”.
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