Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Generational Differences
Last night Court and I had some really good honest conversation with some friends of ours (hadn't seen them in a while-it was great to catch up). I believe there is something God put in all of us to be authentic and have these refreshing and raw conversations. Now, I realize this statement may resonate with most of the readers here, but it's my parents and older generation who won't read that and think, "Yes, that's what the church is missing." I also realize that is an extremely large generalization (we all know people that age this rings true with). Much of the time I think or talk about generational differences in the church, I am often reminded of my generation's young idealism and border line naivety. However, this may be found to be true, in the back of my head I think, "Maybe we are actually right." Blasphemous I know. Honest, open, raw, authentic conversation is just one of the issues our generations may disagree on-there are countless others. I know, the post-modern thinker would probably say, "Why can't both be right?" I've often thought this myself, but I am reminded by a good friend of mine that our generation has ceased to "Draw lines in the sand." So back to my initial blasphemous thought. What if we are actually right? Then again, what if they are right about other issues? I hate being wrong. How is this reconciled? Some of these issues are causing our generation to leave the church. Unfortunately, this is a direct result of our no commitment, not brand loyal thinking. Think about some other generational issues you have come across. How have these issues played themselves out in your life/way of thinking?
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Derek,
ReplyDeletei always catch my mom pointing out subcultural-marks (body piercings, tattoos, alternative hair-styles) and speaking as though they're just obviously wrong. i think a major generational difference is that the WW2 generation and slightly younger were raised to think of only one culture as right or acceptable. i think that reaches back at least as far as the colonization of the Americas and their attitudes toward the natives--the tribes need to be "civilized." Derek Webb sings that line in "I Repent": "..of domesticating you til you look just like me." i still catch these kinds of prejudices in myself and others of our generation as well, but far more sparsely (in my experience) than in people who are older.
--Guy
oh..i forgot the thing i really meant to say in the first place.
ReplyDeleteit seems to me that many historical "movements" were reactionary in nature. i think a lot of what we see going on in "cutting edge" Christianity is largely reactionary. You mention authenticity. i think that's most certainly been, as a trend, left out of the previous generation's way of 'doing church.' Our generation has been burned by that lack of authenticity, and now many have grabbed that one value and ran with it. The problem i think is over-reacting or hyper-reacting.
Consider Calvinism. Surely many of the Reformers' critiques against 16th century Catholicism were right--the Catholic system at that time was deeply flawed and corrupt. While the critiques were well-spotted, the radical Protestantism of Calvin and Luther seems more like hyper-reactions to Catholicism than someone reading scripture without an historical agenda.
What worries me is that we could find ourselves caught in a cultural undertow of hyper-reacting to problems in our own time. What we're doing can seem right to us because "well, at least it's totally different than all the things the last generation did wrong." But that gets dangerous. Now it's not about Christ or pursuit of truth (though we may talk as though that's the main goal and motive), it's about rebelling against the current establishment and older generation. Once that's the undertow, i think you're bound to go too far out to sea. Just because some people did some things wrong and have a less-than-perfect system doesn't make them the enemy nor does it mean all their work is worthless nor does it mean we don't still have quite a bit to learn from them nor does it rule out the possibility that perhaps they have quite a lot of things right.
To put it another way, i think it's right to say that the "conservatives" end up drowning the baby in the bathwater. But while decrying that as a crime, i think "progressives" run the risk of throwing the baby out with the bath water. Neither one is a good idea.
--Guy
Our staff team at church just discussed this idea of a "generational gap" the other day and how to handle it. I can definitely feel the generational tension between "then" and "now" and the beliefs that come with each. We didn't exactly come to a conclusion, but we decided that the "now" generation, whatever age the people may be, should not feel obligated to seek approval from the "then" generation before acting as Jesus calls to. Many in the room argued that we, as disciples, are not called to reconcile the gap between generations, because the church should not spend excessive energy or time focused inward. Rather, we are called to reach outward towards the lost and the broken. I believe that time should definitely be spent looking at the church's condition, because if the body of Christ is not united, then how can we be the powerful force that God designed us to be? I would love to hear what you think.
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