I was born in May of 1963. In that month and year
Winston Churchill retired from politics, dogs and fire hoses were used on black
protesters in Birmingham, Alabama, Sean Connery premiered in 007 for the first time in US theaters,
and Bob Dylan refused to perform on Ed Sullivan due to his song selection being
censored because of its political overtures. On my exact birthday the Rolling
Stones signed their first recording contract. Also, according to Wikipedia: “The sociological theory of a generation
gap first came to light in the 1960s, when the younger generation (later known
as Baby Boomers) seemed to go against everything their parents had
previously believed in terms of music, values, governmental and political views.
Sociologists now refer to ‘generation gap’ as ‘institutional age segregation.’”
Ah, how soon we forget. I think we can file this under the category that there
is nothing new under the sun. It is obvious that when we are dialoguing about
reaching the next generation and cultural problem solving these days there is a
significant issue of “institutional age segregation.”
Next Gen Ministry is front and center.
The Georgia Baptist Mission Board
is attempting to make a priority of reaching the next generation. Probably
because of information like this from 2014, written by then SBC president
Ronnie Floyd: “80 percent of our 46,125 Southern
Baptist Churches reported reaching and baptizing only 0-1 young adults
according to the recent Pastors’ Task Force on SBC Evangelistic Impact and
Declining Baptisms report released late spring. This means that 36,900
Southern Baptist Churches baptized zero to one young adult in an entire year” (https://baptistcourier.com/2014/08/southern-baptist-churches-must-reach-baptize-disciple-young-adults/).
If the efforts to reach a future generation of Americans are to become anything
more than pragmatic attempts to rescue institutional churches and conventions
some basic underlying problems are going to need to be addressed.
Be consistent with your message.
If we say we value the next
generation but belittle them and discount them in how we communicate and organize,
we are contradicting our own order of values. I
wonder if we'll look back at some point and realize that constantly criticizing
and stereotyping the next Generation on social media was not conducive to
connecting them to our congregations (http://www.pewinternet.org/2010/08/27/older-adults-and-social-media/). This generation didn't create the
social world they inhabit. Adults who are often basically shouting at them via
Facebook memes about “Tide pods” (a cultural outlier at best) and their views
on social issues like school safety ought to give some consideration to that.
Missionaries or culture warriors? With as many as 200 million unreached people, North America
is now a vast mission field. Based on my reading of social media, I think too
many church members are culture warriors instead of missionaries. A culture
warrior tries to change society by exerting moral pressure from outside. Their
anger is so loud that the message of the Gospel (if it is prioritized) is
obscured. Where is our Christian ethos in relating to people who are not
connected to God? I think the currency for influencing culture has changed and
too many Christians are trying to spend the old currency and wondering why
nobody will accept it. The new currency is service and godly love; the old
currency was political clout. The new currency is more Biblical than the old
currency (Luke 22:24-27).
Lastly, many of our
churches are going to have to wrestle with what it means to find healthy,
Biblical ways to deal with the issue of “institutional age segregation”—the
generation gap—if we are to be vital in another 20 years.
Blessings,
Bobby Braswell
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