Empowering Youth Mobilizers: Building an Intergenerational Movement
February 2025
In a constantly changing world, the energy and passion of young people have become indispensable catalysts for social and spiritual transformation. At SM we long to see all God’s people living a life on mission with God, and this implies every generation living a fruitful life in partnership with God.
From the passionate Gen Z to the tech-savvy Gen Alpha, the next wave of mobilizers are already emerging, ready to take on a missional lifestyle and be fruitful. To effectively mobilize them, they need more than just a platform; they need guidance, wisdom, and the kind of partnership that only comes from the intentionality of an intergenerational movement.
Challenged by these considerations, we started to develop a new program, a workshop that would educate, inspire and challenge teams to strategically engage and mobilize young people for God’s mission. How can we, as leaders, mobilizers and mentors, empower this generation to thrive? How can we strategically reach out and communicate with them?
The workshop aims to cover some important aspects of engaging younger people based on Biblical principles and examples. Furthermore, we explore the defining characteristics of Gen Z and Alpha in order to understand how to communicate effectively and work together. Full of interactive discussions and group activities, teams are challenged to identify their youth culture and plan their next steps.
In 2024, we have been able to trial the program with some of our youth mobilizers from Latin America, Southeast Asia and Oceania online, and in person with the European regional team and 2 local churches in the UK. The interactions and discussions have been inspiring with one participant stating that: “I loved going through what is mobilization and the Biblical Principles in relation to young people. Then following this with a study of the characteristics of Gen Alpha before going into strategic planning was great!”, and another commenting that “we have many people who are passionate about mobilizing youth, who don’t have many connections with the younger generations. I think this would help them to think more strategically on how we go about youth mobilization, who we need to engage with, and how we advertise our YM courses.”
We are excited about what the future will bring in utilizing this material and empowering youth mobilizers around the world. Intentionality is key in building an intergenerational movement and we are ready for it!
