Yesterday, I had a chance to attend a conference with a brother. We attended some good workshops and had a good fellowship with brothers and sisters. One of the workshops we attended gave a very good analysis and insights of unique culture for an age group.  I didn’t realize its uniqueness until the speaker painstakingly illustrated from his observation and experience. One of his observations is the heavy influence from their family, the speaker said.  The age group has a heavy attachment to their parents and they have “little to none” trust to others, because of their parents’ traumatic experience from the past. The other observation from the speaker is the age group is the decision maker in the family in terms of daily living, purchasing, etc. because they are the generation of only child in the family.  The third observation is the utilitarianism. The age group was taught to focus on results, achievements and wealth.

The analysis opens my eye to see this age group of people would behave, though there will be exceptions as always but it won’t lose its generality. To know the unique culture of this age group could help me to interact with them better. Apostle Paul set a good example, “To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people向軟弱的人，我就作軟弱的人，為要得軟弱的人‧向什麼樣的人，我就作什麼樣的人 (1 Corinthians 9:22a)”  The sole purpose, as Paul indicated, is for the sake of the gospel to save some and share its blessings .

Interesting thing is we Christians also have a unique culture too – we believe in Jesus Christ, we worship Him and we follow Him. We are “from this world” but are not “of this world” because we have been set apart by God. We focus on how to live a life that is holy and glorify our Lord. We are commissioned by our Lord to make disciple of all nations. These belief, focus and purpose make us a unique species and oftentimes disliked by people who have different views and beliefs. But as apostle Paul reminded us, we need to become all things to all people, to learn unique cultures from various age groups in order to interact with them and win them to the Lord.

The speaker of the conference also indicated that people of that age group are always trying to be “different but not weird 異而不怪”.  Apparently, they want others to acknowledge their uniqueness and “coolness” but are still longing for acceptance from others. It is a challenge and certainly would put a lot of pressure on them. If we look at Christianity, we would find the uniqueness of Christianity makes us Christians different – we become light and salt of this world and bring hope to others even modern pop culture prevails. This is our uniqueness that we should cherish. I pray that we all can be a vessel of God’s love to them.

May our Lord lead you to where He wants you to be!