By Amanda Wells
Younger generations have already shifted away from institutions like the church.
The World Values Survey director gave a lecture in Wellington late last year as part of the 60th anniversary of the Fulbright programme. The survey covers 90 percent of the world’s population and explores what countries believe and value.
Ronald, who is based at the University of Michigan in the United States, says while changes in belief and culture are hard to see, repeated international surveys allow them to be tracked. “From 1981 to the present, we have found really dramatic changes.”
“People are coming to value freedom of choice, space and participation in decision-making more.”
According to the data collected by the World Values Survey, industrialisation brings a shift from traditional values to secular-rational values. Then, as societies shift from industrial to post industrial, another values shift occurs: a growing proportion of many people in developed societies have grown up taking survival for granted, so they place higher priority on self-expression. This can be seen in growing emphasis on freedom of choice, gender equality, environmental protection, and tolerance for groups previously considered on the margins, such as foreigners and gay and lesbian people.
The shift towards tolerance occurs over successive generations rather than within an age group, Ronald says. “The [trend of] long-term generational change is very stable.
“People don’t change their values overnight… Younger groups emphasise self-expression values much more than older groups.”
For these younger groups, “the old institutions are not where the action is,” he says, and these bureaucracies are fading worldwide.
Instead, there is growth in invisible communities linked by shared values rather than organisations. “It’s a different kind of tie but a real tie” – with links maintained via new media, such as the Internet, particularly networking sites like Bebo and Facebook, and text messaging.
The Rev Dr Kevin Ward of Dunedin's Knox Centre for Ministry and Leadership, who has a background in sociology, says the World Values Survey is highly regarded and widely used by the sociological community.
“It’s really significant for the Church and is an actual change that’s taking place.
It’s not going to revert back to the way things were.”
Kevin says while he does not think the Church will die off, it will be “smaller and less institutional”.
“If we keep having a framework that only values the physical community, then we just turn that generation off.”
The sense of community has shifted away from geography, he says. “The geographical community has become less and less significant, apart from for older people.”
For younger people, communities have a more mobile sense, he says, and tend “to travel with people”. What keeps these communities connected is both technology and a strong sense of shared values.
“But there is always a need for face-to-face interaction,” Kevin says. Online communication doesn’t replace face-to-face relationships because “humanly we long for that.”
In terms of faith expression, younger generations might attend church or meet up with a Christian group less often but still consider themselves regular, committed members. They welcome other non-physical communication during their gaps in attendance.
Kevin says a different attitude is needed from church leaders, who have spent many years focused on getting people in the doors on Sunday. “Our approach now much more needs to be about making connections and resourcing.”
Churches can connect their members through blogs, websites, email newsletters and making sermons available online.
The assumption that if people aren’t involved in the Sunday morning institution then they’re not really part of the community is unhelpful and ends up pushing people away, Kevin says.
“Either we have to adapt or we will just be bypassed.”