I am talking about the younger generation and older generation displaying their generational arrogance within the confines of the church. These are men and women who both love Jesus, His church, and ministering the lost.
I believe post-modernity has created a disconnect between generations and how we view the way things should be done within the church. Younger folks who lacked mature role models growing up tend to distance themselves from older generations and accountability. I know this because I was certainly one of them for many years.
But the older generation has its hang ups as well in failing to make adjustments and contextualizing to a new generation with a limited attention span. In this post I would like to simply point out the needed responses of both generations. I will speak directly into some issues we are wrestling about in my next one.
But the older generation has its hang ups as well in failing to make adjustments and contextualizing to a new generation with a limited attention span. In this post I would like to simply point out the needed responses of both generations. I will speak directly into some issues we are wrestling about in my next one.
First, I believe the younger generation needs to take a long look at the amount of “artificial experience” we are receiving. While there is more information readily available to young people through technology and other avenues exposure doesn’t necessarily make experience. I see a lot of entitlement from my generation as we make demands and assert ourselves. I believe this is because we have learned so much information in a severely shortened time span. Exposure to more sermons, theological views and vast arrays of media certainly can assist the younger generation and help them acquire an expansive amount of knowledge. But it cannot and will not replace the experience of the older generation and the emphasis on learned and applied wisdom. That takes time and years of God shaping and my generation needs that!
Secondly my generation needs to be weary of disconnecting from those who have gone before them, upon whose shoulders we stand. I have seen this detachment take place as my generation breaks away claiming that “they just don’t get our current culture”. Pulling away from older, more experienced men and the inability to show honor leaves my generation trying to navigate issues that we are ill equipped to handle alone. Again we may be right about cultural issues and bring less historical baggage but we tend to lack brokenness and perseverance that older men have to offer us. Whether or not an older pastor is in step and current with the challenges we face, he may have served God faithfully for decades and we can draw strength from his walk.
Thirdly the younger generation struggles with resentment toward anything that resembles traditions or Christendom (i.e...liturgy, Holy Week calendar, hymns). The younger people get hurt because the older generation fails to listen to them and they have seen those in authority let them down. We have also experienced the emptiness of vain repetition and seem to throw the baby out with the bath water. Turning away completely from anything that resembles tradition to make way for new and exciting forms of ministry may be good yet lack depth and substance.
But I have a word for my older generation as well. One of my principal concerns in the responses from them toward the younger generation is that they seem to be widening the gap instead of narrowing it.
The older generation tends to struggle with inflexibility. They tend to equate anything new as wrong and assume age and wisdom are the same thing. Many times their experiences have left them cynical and wounded. While they mark out the younger generation as too experiential and preferential of style yet they too hold fast to their own stylistic preferences as though they don't have their own preferences.
Secondly the older generation displays its arrogance through insecurity. I have heard from older pastors that they have to fight against feeling jealous of the younger generation pastor and the perceived threats to their ministry from the younger generation as they age. They see themselves and their generation as losing control, they see younger men as more gifted and they subtly feel threatened. The spirit of competition this can engender also drives the younger generation away because they feel more controlled than discipled and encouraged.
What needs to happen is what I saw taking place at this conference today. We need more open dialogue and conversation between young and old. The young need to respect the wisdom and experience of the older men and the older men need to realize that the young people tend to have a better pulse on the challenges we face contextualizing to a growing post-modern generation. While younger folks would do well to embrace and honor their elders' insight, older folks would do well in being flexible and listening to what we have to say.
