That New Life Stage Again

I found this article about Emerging Adulthood posted on a number of Emerging Church blogs. You may have already seen it. It's similar to the NY Times article . Do we ignore it? Reality says "It's happening. Let's pay attention." Is this about the Post-Modern generation or is it the next generation?

Will this new stage affect the children of these young adults when they become parents and if so, how? Do we have to wait to find out? Or can we make informed predictions? Look at both positive and negative, by the way.

How does it affect you? Your family? Your congregation? The children in your congregation whose parents have passed through this stage?

Will these parents be different from parents in other generations? How? What will make them different? Will their children be different from children in other generations? How? What will make them different?

Does this affect the church community? Does it affect worship? spiritual formation? service? faith? relationships? How? Change "this" to "they". How do these young adults affect the church community differently than people their age did in other generations? I wonder...

Example: They're still poor college students and have no money, and maybe it doesn't matter to them. Maybe they have more time to serve, maybe they have less. Maybe they're more connected to family. Maybe less. Maybe they spend more time around children before they get married. Maybe they're never around children. You get the idea. Are they problem-solvers and independent thinkers? More mature? More confident? More self-sufficient and independent? More faith-filled?

Or less?

Maybe it doesn't change anything at all but as always, I'm curious and as you know I like to ask questions. . .

What do you think?