Comments on: US Students Today http://www.eministrynotes.com/2007/10/16/us-students-today/ A place to record notes on effective web ministry Fri, 05 Sep 2008 20:30:07 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 By: rob http://www.eministrynotes.com/2007/10/16/us-students-today/#comment-51904 rob Mon, 29 Oct 2007 02:36:16 +0000 http://www.eministrynotes.com/2007/10/16/us-students-today/#comment-51904 @Tony : I agree that email, etc are not going to replace one-on-one ministry. I believe these things only enhance how we minister. @Tony : I agree that email, etc are not going to replace one-on-one ministry. I believe these things only enhance how we minister.

]]> By: Tony Scialdone http://www.eministrynotes.com/2007/10/16/us-students-today/#comment-51560 Tony Scialdone Sat, 27 Oct 2007 17:47:29 +0000 http://www.eministrynotes.com/2007/10/16/us-students-today/#comment-51560 While this is interesting, and a worthwhile look into the lives of today's students, we need to make sure we don't fall into a logical trap here. Why are they students? Why aren't they professors? Simple: because they need to be taught. If students were able to take a poll and rightly decide what learning was silly or important or crucial or necessary, they wouldn't need teachers. The difference between 42 pages for a class and 500 pages of emails is that emails aren't graded for comprehension. Are there ways to improve education? Sure. Are some of those methods applicable to ministry? Absolutely. Should we change how we minister by looking at the social habits of teenagers? I don't think so. Such things change, but the needs (both felt and real) of human beings haven't changed: we all strive for meaningful interaction with other people and with God. Meeting such needs has nothing to do with technology or structure...it has to do with rolling up one's sleeves and actually connecting with individuals personally. If tech solutions help us do that, we should use them...but let's not pretend that emails and text messages and Facebook profiles are going to replace one-on-one ministry. They simply can't. While this is interesting, and a worthwhile look into the lives of today’s students, we need to make sure we don’t fall into a logical trap here. Why are they students? Why aren’t they professors? Simple: because they need to be taught.

If students were able to take a poll and rightly decide what learning was silly or important or crucial or necessary, they wouldn’t need teachers. The difference between 42 pages for a class and 500 pages of emails is that emails aren’t graded for comprehension.

Are there ways to improve education? Sure. Are some of those methods applicable to ministry? Absolutely. Should we change how we minister by looking at the social habits of teenagers? I don’t think so. Such things change, but the needs (both felt and real) of human beings haven’t changed: we all strive for meaningful interaction with other people and with God. Meeting such needs has nothing to do with technology or structure…it has to do with rolling up one’s sleeves and actually connecting with individuals personally. If tech solutions help us do that, we should use them…but let’s not pretend that emails and text messages and Facebook profiles are going to replace one-on-one ministry. They simply can’t.

]]> By: anna T http://www.eministrynotes.com/2007/10/16/us-students-today/#comment-50231 anna T Wed, 17 Oct 2007 12:43:28 +0000 http://www.eministrynotes.com/2007/10/16/us-students-today/#comment-50231 interesting.i liked it! I especially liked the time breakdown of the students day. One thing stood out to me though. Over the years,(I'm 73) I've often heard young people saying some variation of "I did not cause these problems, but they are MY problems" And I think it is important to realize that no one generation is responsible for the country's or world's problems....maybe they exacerbated already existing problems...or made choices that a younger generation (with hindsight) would not have made. But the problems are the result of layer upon layer of decisions made by each successive generation. No single generation can start with a clean slate free from problems handed them by a previous generation. interesting.i liked it! I especially liked the time breakdown of the students day.
One thing stood out to me though. Over the years,(I’m 73) I’ve often heard young people saying some variation of “I did not cause these problems, but they are MY problems”
And I think it is important to realize that no one generation is responsible for the country’s or world’s problems….maybe they exacerbated already existing problems…or made choices that a younger generation (with hindsight) would not have made. But the problems are the result of layer upon layer of decisions made by each successive generation. No single generation can start with a clean slate free from problems handed them by a previous generation.

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