Month: September 2018

BEING a CHRISTIAN in a NEW ERA— it’s a generational thing. Part 2

2167097486_cac6eb6a70_bWe need to focus more tightly on an important question—

     How will we have to change to fit the changes that are taking place all around us? What will we need to look like so we will still be identifiable as genuine followers of Jesus Christ as our culture understands less and less about true, Biblical Christian faith?

     My thoughts… .

  1. A Rich Faith in Christ– No matter what our generation or culture, our emphasis on having a quality faith must remain constant— a deep trust in Jesus Christ that works its way through our everyday decisions and practices. There is no room for a superficial faith that puts on a pious façade and a smiley face.
  2. A Generationally Specific Character– Parents are always trying to force their teenagers to express their faith in the same way that they do (or did). How much better would it be if parents helped their teenagers develop a faith that reflected their own generational formats of expression? Many 50 year-old+ Christians hold propositional truth and understanding the Bible to be the underpinning of their faith. People 30 and under, generally, think in music. They image their faith in God as a set of experiences, and find in the Bible a context to explain their realities.
  3. A Generationally Sensitive Interface– There are a lot of TV shows that picture a generation of mostly young people living in a place seemingly devoid of anyone older or younger; no older adults, no grandparents, no children or babies. We live in a world of juxtapositions where different philosophies, penchants and personalities coexist side by side, spanning the generations. We need to learn to live with each other; but the ability to love someone different from yourself is no small task. We need to make a commitment of time to be with people different from ourselves. In my life both older and younger people have brought the voice of God to me in a ways I was not used to.
  4. Ageless– If any inter-generational connection is to be forged, it is necessary for Christians of every age to adapt to the relational and communication patterns of those outside their own group. This new kind of Christian will have to be intergenerational, adaptable, able to express their faith in more forms than just their own. Two personal inspirations to me are two, older, life-long friends who live in Jackson Hole, WY.  They are wild about God, people, and life! If the older generations can turn up the volume (or turn it down,) and listen to younger generations, if millennials can turn down their ear-buds and listen to the older generations, what might the shapes of our faith look like?
  5. A Culturally Adaptable Faith Expression– Pluralism has attuned us to be sensitive to dissimilar cultural value-expressions other than those of our personal heritage. Style of dress, dance, music, food, and the language mix have turned North America into a multi-culture with life expressions galore. People are used to dining out in whatever culinary culture they fancy— Chinese, Indian, Mexican, Italian, Thai, etc. Just scroll through any radio display and you will hear as many music styles as there are languages. So also should the new kind of Christian be able to adjust the expression of his/her faith to fit the surrounding culture, inside and outside of the church. When I worked with the Episcopal Church I had to learn new ways of expressing my faith, ways that were unfamiliar to me. At one point a priest approached me and commented, “I just don’t know how you can pray so earnestly without reading it!” [~from the Prayer Book]. New ground.

It is paramount for new kinds of Christians to adapt their faith both to the new expressions within the church as well as to express it to a new generation (versus explain it) outside the church.

  1. A Musically Acclimated Faith– Music is such a powerful expression of every culture of the West that it deserves special attention. One key expression is that younger generations think in music. They do not bifurcate or separate words from music, even though in making music the two are kept separate at first, then blended.

     New kinds of Christians will have to learn to express their faith and their beliefs musically. And in different genres of music— from rap to country, hip-hop to soft jazz, classical to well, something that’s probably just going pop up while you’re reading this sentence. But it’s not just music expressing faith and belief that must come of age. The structuring and shape of theology itself needs to go through an overhaul and be upgraded. And whatever it is will be something worth dancing to! Maybe it is time we stopped analyzing so much and started dancing. Turn up the volume!

  1. A Community Entrenched Faith- So many of us live our lives of faith within the church walls that we have forgotten how to be part of the world outside. We have taught for too long that we must break all ties with our former life, friends, and activities. Even Jesus didn’t spend as much time inchurch as we do. He mixed it up with people who thought they were religious, knew they weren’t, and some who didn’t care that much. ALL generations of new Christians must make an effort to include people outside the church in their daily walks of faith…, on their turf.

     But the story hasn’t come to its end yet. We still don’t know how this new mix will come out. Still, we have the privilege of writing a new design for the new church, of expressing our Christian faith in a way that is founded on its past, and in our Lord Jesus Christ; but we also have the privilege of writing the script for the new Broadway play of faith for this new generation, and all the world to see.

NEXT— UpGrading Your Faith

  Gary

BEING a CHRISTIAN in a NEW ERA— it’s a generational thing. Part 1

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“We must become what we seek to create.”— Mohandas Karamchang Ghandi

(Oct 2, 1869 – Jan. 30, 1948  —assassinated on his way to evening prayers.)

     The fact of the matter is that people are different now. Young people find it difficult to relate to the church’s way of doing things. When family structures and society were more stable people did come to church to find answers, to find community, to worship God in a traditional manner. But the breakdown of our society, the dissolution of so many marriages, the Iraq wars, renewed racial conflicts, 9/11, the 2008 financial collapse, and our present political conundrum, have all contributed to the fragmentation of society and isolation of the generations. We have ceased to learn from the older and wiser; this alone constitutes a major fracture in our family cohesion. And thanks to the Baby-Boom of 1946-1964, YOUTH CULTURE (their children) does, in fact, dominate our world.

So when young people ages 14-25 come to church what do they find, generally?[i] They find a shape of Christianity virtually irrelevant to their virtual realities. They find a pyramid power structure contrary to their relationally oriented networked reality. They find generational separation. They find “lecture style” instruction. This is NOT true of every church; but it is true of far too many.

But fear not! Facebook has now has 2.3 billion subscribers, bringing us all back together…, maybe, sorta.  In recent years, more of the Silent Generation is flocking to Facebook to see their grandchildren. So their kids are fleeing for their lives to Instagram and Snapchat. If the Church could do anything to correct this generational drift, it should re-kindle intergenerational relationships; not online, but face to face.

Two American sociologists, Neil Howe and William Strauss, have categorized our generational differences in ways that might also be helpful in our understanding of those differences and in the efforts to bridge the gaps between us… and them. Check out MILLENNIALS RISING: the next great generation, (Randon House; New York, 2000). In essence, generational characteristics must be taken into account when any presentation of the Christian faith is expressed. If they are not considered, both our communication of the faith and its comprehension levels drop into the abyss of vacuity.

The Question for us becomes— How will I express my Christian faith in a way that is appropriate to my culture, to my generation, yet sensitive to other forms of expression, as well as to the world at-large?  In the church context—  how should my worship honor God in the Body of Christ?

Between early 2005 and 2015 NEEDinc conducted a series of interviews with genuine Christians across North America [“Genuine” being defined as a faith whose principles influenced at least 75% of their daily activities]. Each interviewee was drawn from a different generational grouping; each expressed answers to the interview questions in a manner with which they were comfortable.

What we learned from the interviews surprised us a little.

  1. Some saw church as central to their Christian worship while others did not. A common frustration and disappointment in the state of the church crossed all generational lines.
  2. Though all were genuine believers and held a rich faith in Christ, they expressed that faith through worship, music, and societal involvement in different ways and to different extents. This observation followed generational lines and complied with their peer group expressions.
  3. Though younger generations held a respect for their elder’s expressions of faith, it was not reciprocated. Older believers knew little about the formats and subtleties of twenty-somethingexpressions of faith. They judged the younger generation’s faith too emotion-based, too relational, and not grounded enough in a Biblical, comprehensive worldview.
  4. Everyone was willing to consider the other person’s faith expression…, in theory. In practice, well, that didn’t work out so well. “Getting together” at all was the first hurdle to overcome.
  5. ALL considered themselves in process; that is, they understood they were each at different places in their spiritual journey and had much growing yet to come.

Reflection

How would you respond to these five observations? How would you imagine older/younger Christians responding? What commonalities have you observed between different generations of Christians? What issues do you believe still exist between diverse generations? What passions might they share in common? How might different generations of genuine Christians teach each other about their own individual expressions of faith?

NEXT— Being a Christian in a New Era—  Part 2

Gary

[i] I am well aware that to employ the phrase “churches generally,” is impossible. What is at stake here is the general reaction of unchurched youth to traditional Christian worship, whether or not they employ more contemporary worship music.

[Note— If you can find a copy of James O. Gollub’s THE DECADE MATRIX: why the decade you were born into made you what you are today (Addison Wesley Publishing, Reading, MA, 1991), currently out of print, you will learn that the title just about says it all.]