The folks at Beloit Collete have released their annual list. It is always interesting to read.

And, yes, you (and I) are old.

Here is their actual release:

(The Beloit College Mindset Lists for previous years are available at http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/ . The current list and a webcast interview with the authors will be posted there at 12:01 a.m.on August 18.)

BELOIT COLLEGE RELEASES MINDSET LIST FOR THE CLASS OF 2013

Beloit, Wis. -- If the entering college class of 2013 had been more alert back in 1991 when most of them were born, they would now be experiencing a severe case of déjà vu. The headlines that year railed about government interventions, bailouts, bad loans, unemployment and greater regulation of the finance industry. The Tonight Show changed hosts for the first time in decades, and the nation asked "was Iraq worth a war?"

Each August since 1998, Beloit College has released the Beloit College Mindset List. It provides a look at the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering college. It is the creation of Beloit's Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride and Emeritus Public Affairs Director Ron Nief. It is used around the world as the school year begins, as a reminder of the rapidly changing frame of reference for this new generation. It is widely reprinted and the Mindset List website at http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/ receives more than 300,000 hits annually.

As millions of students head off to college this fall, most will continue to experience the economic anxiety that marked their first two years of life just as it has marked their last two years of high school. Fears of the middle class--including their parents--about retirement and health care have been a part of their lives. Now however, they can turn to technology and text a friend: "Momdad still worried bout stocks. urs 2? PAW PCM".

Members of the class of 2013 won't be surprised when they can charge a latté on their cell phone and curl up in the corner to read a textbook on an electronic screen. The migration of once independent media--radio, TV, videos and CDs--to the computer has never amazed them. They have grown up in a politically correct universe in which multi-culturalism has been a given. It is a world organized around globalization, with McDonald's everywhere on the planet. Carter and Reagan are as distant to them as Truman and Eisenhower were to their parents. Tattoos, once thought "lower class," are, to them, quite chic. Everybody knows the news before the evening news comes on.

Thus the class of 2013 heads off to college as tolerant, global, and technologically hip...and with another new host of The Tonight Show.

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The Beloit College Mindset List for the Class of 2013

Most students entering college for the first time this fall were born in 1991.

1. For these students, Martha Graham, Pan American Airways, Michael Landon, Dr. Seuss, Miles Davis, The Dallas Times Herald, Gene Roddenberry, and Freddie Mercury have always been dead.

2. Dan Rostenkowski, Jack Kevorkian, and Mike Tyson have always been felons.

3. The Green Giant has always been Shrek, not the big guy picking vegetables.

Continue reading The Class of 2013.

(Scott is the Director of Student Ministries at Lifeway.)

The issue of young adults dropping out of church has been a hot topic for several years. The long-term effectiveness of youth ministry has been called into question and there has been substantial concern raised about the future of the Christian church in America. In addition, there have been precious few accurate studies of this issue, with many leaders quoting anecdotal reports to bolster their personal opinions.

USA TODAY's Tuesday story on young adult dropouts drew interest in the print version (inside the Life section) and online in the News section.

You can see the story here.

At 11 a.m. on Wednesday, a full day after the story posted, it was #2 on most emailed and #7 on most commented on the news tracking at USA TODAY.com. On the home page tracking for the whole paper, it was #5 on most emailed and #9 on most commented.

We all know there is something to be concerned about here... but hopefully we will do more than just bemoan the current reality. I am always amazed by the propensity of Christians to revel in bad news and then do nothing to change the situation. Change is desperately needed.

I was impressed today that we needed to pray for our young adults-- but also our churches so that they can be the kind of churches that Mark Kelly describes here.

Speaking of needed change... tomorrow's guest commentary on the subject will be, "Why Young Adults Drop Out of Church and What Can Be Done to Stem the Tide," by Scott Stevens.

I have a 20-something friend who is a short-term missionary in Spain. Her mission is to plant house churches in the midst of a collegiate community, because in her words, "most of these people would never think about setting foot inside a church."

If you want to know the truth of it, very few set foot inside a church in Spain, period. For the most part, churches there are dusty museums that are a reminder of a world that existed in the distant past.

If Protestant churches in America don't take the results of the Church Dropout Study and the Young Adult Study seriously, this current reality in Europe is going to be our future.

See the USA Today story here.

See the full version here.

We will have several guest bloggers this week here at the Lifeway Research Blog.

Scott McConnell from Lifeway Research will interact about the research itself. You can post your questions on any of the guest blogs.

Also, Mark Lydecker and Jim Johnston will be engaging in the conversation in the comments as will Chad Childress, Director of Student Evangelism at the North American Mission Board.

Here are the details:

Mark Lydecker
Tuesday, August 7
Collegiate Evangelism Director -- NAMB
"Lost in Transition"

Jim Johnston
Wednesday August 8
Director, Young Adult Ministry -- LifeWay
"Dropout Study Illustrates the Great Opportunity We Have"

Scott Stevens
Thursday August 9
Director, Student Ministry -- LifeWay
"Why Young Adults Drop Out of Church and What Can Be Done to Stem the Tide"

Jeff Schadt
Friday August 10
Executive Director, Youth Transition Network
Learn about the new initiative at http://www.liveabove.com