The 'Generations'
Thesis:
What's a Church Supposed to
Do?
By Pastor Neil Earle
Back in 1991 two authors
proposed a theory about recurring cycles of generations that seemed to explain a
lot about today's culture. William Strauss and Neil Howe's Generations book has been scrutinized
and battered but it still can serve as a think piece for churches to understand
at least some of the challenges facing them.
In fact, Strauss and
Howe may have triggered a focus on passing generations. In the United States Tom
Brokaw heralded the Greatest Generation and Leonard Steinhorn responded in 2006
with The Greater Generation, a salute
to the Baby Boomers (1946-64) for implementing progressive social changes from
the fitness craze to a more democratic workplace. Reginald Bibby, discussed in
this issue, applies Boomer psychology to Canadians but in a less positive vein
than Steinhorn.
Typing Generations
Strauss and Howe's
remains the most comprehensive theory and can offer valuable insights to
churches and ministers dealing with more diverse congregations than ever before.
Most have heard by now of Gen. X (or "Thirteeners", the Boomers and the G.I. (or
Greatest) generations. Simply insert a Silent Generation between the WW2
veterans and the Boomers, add on today's young up-and-comers (the Millennials)
and you have the Strauss-Howe take on the many broad trends in the culture.
Realizing that all
theories leak at the edges, let's try to move this scheme north of the 49th
parallel. The purpose of this exercise is this: To help Christians grasp how
complex our world has become, the world we are trying to reach with the Gospel.
The Generations approach may spur us to more readily meet the challenge inherent
in the apostle Paul's mantra "all things to all men" (1 Corinthians 9:22).
In Canada, a Generations
theory might end up looking something like this:
The Veterans (born 1901-1902). They're
the proud, poppy-wearing, ramrod-straight Canadian Legion members you see on
parade every Remembrance Day. No doubt of their cultural allegiances. Their
leading spirits stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944, and
liberated Holland. This makes them the most identifiable of the generations.
They are the ultimate can-do types. No wonder two of their cohort (one a
Canadian from Toronto) invented the comic hero Superman.
This generation defied a
Depression and fought a world war. They don't let you forget it either and it's
good to hear their stories. They were the WACs, the WAVES and the WRENS (ask
them to explain) who came home, bought affordable houses, raised 2.5 kids and
paid the taxes to pivot NATO, help rebuild Western Europe and stare down
Communism. They also knew how to relax--they helped start CBC-TV and
Radio-Canada in 1952 with such war-trained comedians as Wayne and Shuster tickling the
nation's funny bones ("I told him, Julie don't go!." Tommy Douglas and Judy
LaMarsh helped pivot the welfare state. Oh yes, these were builders, heroes,
achievers, par excellence and their
values still resonate with us today.
The Adaptives (born 1925-1942). Living
in the shadow of heroes, this generation grew up valuing competence, community,
institutions. Calm, thorough, logical, this cohort surfaces in William Shatner
from Montreal who saw his glory days as steady but tough Captain James Kirk of
the Starship Enterprise, or Anne Murray who has never forgotten her roots in
Springhill, Nova Scotia. This group loves dialogue--think of Pierre Berton and
Charles Templeton, two provocative intellectuals. They don't get much safer than
Lloyd Robertson and Knowlton Nash of national news-casting fame or Madame Jeanne
Suave, first female Speaker of the House of Commons and first female Governor
General. Then there's Rene Levesque, another institution builder, in his way.
This generation has clearly left a mark.
Baby Boomers (born 1943-1960). Question:
What are you rebelling against? Answer: What have you got? This movie quote sums
up a lot of the tumultuous generation that grew up quietly watching Timber Tom
on Howdy Dowdy or listening to heartthrob Paul Anka croon Diana before they
exploded across the campuses in the 1960. Often set at years 1946 to 1964, the
Boomers are nevertheless identified by their questioning of received traditions.
In this they exasperate their Veteran parents and bewilder their Adaptive older
siblings. Think of Yorkville coffee houses, the Beatles at Maple Leaf Gardens,
Rex Murphy's intellectual rants, and Margaret Trudeau and you've got the
picture. I know them well. They're my generation, perhaps the most privileged
and most questioning cohort yet raised.
However, the Boomer
penchant for dissent and raising a little Cain is often a way of getting things
done. Boomers like to champion causes and rebels and have left perhaps the most
indelible mark on the culture. Women's rights, the environment, safety belts,
flex time at work, racial equality, a decent wage--these are all causes Boomers
have advanced that were conspicuously missing in the good, grey 1950s.
Reactive or Gen X (1961-1981). A most
interesting tribe. This is the age group that remembers the energy crisis, an
age of limits (the 1970s), a population bust and a not-so-subtle anti-child
culture. Result? These are the born survivors. They helped make Staying Alive
the hit of 1979. Like icons Terry Fox and Steve Fonyo they learned to heroically
go it alone while in their twenties. This is a cohort used to life on the edge
as in Rick Mercer and his often anti-Boomer humor. The young and healthy Michael
J. Fox was emblematic of this era in both Canada and the United States.
Frenetic, fast-moving, they were a party-hearty crowd willing to push the
envelope and live by one's wits. Nike? Just do It was a mantra and Go for it
expressed their in-your-face, eye-of-the-tiger realism. Meanwhile high rates of
community voluntarism and concern for often overlooked younger children is just
part of their saving graces. Unlike Boomers, they don't need the limelight. Take
Wendy Kopps, who started a Teacher's Corps for young graduates to work a year in
underprivileged schools. Unlike Adaptives, they shun peer approval before
forging ahead on their own, youthful problem-solvers.
The Millennials (1982 to now). Nice
kids, most of them. Called the millennials because they will come to
responsibility in the 21st century, these are the young up-and-comers
raised by the cocooning parents of the 1980s, couples who preferred staying at
home to winning corporate success, much like Diane Keaton in the movie Baby
Boom. A smoke-free environment, Neighborhood Watch, soccer classes, a Children's
Summit at the UN, stepped up activism against drugs and violence--these kids
have been the recipients of these efforts. Strauss and Howe think the cycle will
start all over with these, our young people, hoping they will become the new
group of Heroes, like their great-grandparents.
Just maybe. As a
part-time College instructor, I find today's youth do have a remarkable capacity
for openness, for hearing both sides of a story. They are almost vociferously
non-political but are attentive to true stories of people who made a difference.
Make a difference is almost their mantra. They chase expensive toys but are
willing to knock themselves out to work at getting them. The number who consider
law enforcement as a career is noticeable. They are growing up with some
in-built advantages as bosses and corporations are now beginning to seek them
out in the face of dropping birth rates in Canada. There's nothing like feeling
needed to make you less snarly and competitive. We're rooting for you,
millennials (How's that for a pompous Boomer attitude?).
The Church Challenge
The Worldwide Church of
God here in America is trying to mentor and nurture the millennials with our
Generations ministry. In Canada, the success of our well-run summer camps is a
noticeable bright spot boding well for the future. Not as questioning as the
Boomers or as automatically reactive as Gen X, these young people are not our
future, they are here now.
But think of the
challenge it is for churches to reach audiences composed of five different
generations. What's a church--what's a church pastor-- supposed to do?
In church congregations
of four or five thousand the answer would be easier: simply tailor programs for
each age group's interest. Most of us however aren't dealing with those numbers,
which means it's harder to find the trained and savvy staff to reach them all.
What to do?
First, each age group
has to remember a line I hear a lot around our fellowship lately: It's not about
me! Sounds simple but it reminds today? Christians of all ages and generations
that none of us can afford to stay locked in place. Change is nature's law. The
Christian faith is ours to share, not to keep to ourselves. Jesus famously said,
"A city on a hill cannot be hidden. You are the salt of the earth, you are the
light of the world." Salt spreads, is meant to permeate. Light is for others.
The Gospel calls us all out of our comfort zones to learn how to relate to
others.
Why?
In order that we might
influence their coming to Christ, of course. Jesus famously said: "For the Son
of man came to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10). Never did he
discriminate. Never did he condemn (except uptight religious leaders). Nor
should we. Trouble is it is so very easy for us to judge by the outward
appearance. It's so easy for those in the Veteran or Adaptive generations to
misjudge today's young people. That earring in the ear, that iPod dangling in
the jacket, the torn jeans, the scruffy hair, or the skinhead look--these are
things that can set up negative reactions in those who think June Cleaver's
1950s dress code was God's ultimate standard.
Outward Appearances
Oh, yes. It's so easy to
reject people based on the outward appearance and we all do it. Yet that is
exactly what Jesus told us not to do.
"Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly" (John 9:24).
A pastor friend tells
the story of his going back to university in 1989 in a large Canadian city to
finish his degree. He had heard the inbuilt prejudices expressed against young
men wearing earrings. Surely, he used to hear around his church, this is the
ultimate rejection of masculinity. He soon saw that the biggest, bulkiest hockey
players in his class were all wearing earrings. The concept seeped in: Hey, this
is just a matter of style.
Many of us Baby Boom
ministers to the Gen X world in the 1970s can remember the battles over long
hair in that funky decade. Or music. Or dress. Sigh--we live and learn. Now
look! Twenty years later the style has completely changed around. Now bald is
in! How silly to get stressed out about matters of personal style.
That's why clinging to
1950s standards of dress honed in a more settled era can be such a barrier to
accepting the much more casual approach of Gen X or Millennials. What? Child
care at church? Why back in my day kids were taught to sit still. These may have
been great values but the reality is so different today. And above all things
the church must learn to face reality.
Stoop to Conquer
It works the other way
too. Boomers and Xers cannot really expect the Lawrence Welk generation to
adore everything represented by
Contemporary Christian Music. Certain in-built prejudices are just ingrained and
may never disappear. But then again, rose bushes have thorns. Reform-minded
Boomers caught in the middle have to realize that sometimes it is good to "stoop
to conquer."
This takes us back again
to the fact that church isn't really about us. "Pastoring," said one veteran
minister, "is often like driving a van load of seniors. You've got to take the
curves very slowly."
The Generations Thesis,
then, can serve as a call for tolerance. How challenging it is to have everyone
happy in church. Boomers who believe in "having it your way" and Adaptives who
cherish decorum have to respect each other's points of view or those coming
along behind them will soon go home as the debate rages.
Teachers know this:
There are always new generations coming along for whom traditions may not mean
much. It was a wise church leader who said: The last eight words of the church
may well be: "This is the way we've
always done things." After all, this is the first time in history when
children now know more about the practical application of technology than their
elders. Does the word Power Point ring a bell? The profound changes we see about
us signal one of the most tumultuous upheavals in human history. There are now
four or five age groups inside each congregation who are experiencing Future
Shock differently. Can the church rise to the
occasion? | 