Category Archives: Religion in General

The Confidence of Gen-Xers

I’ve always assumed that the more emotionally healthy people come from two-parent homes. People like me. I figured we two-parent kids, especially those of us who had stay-at-home moms, are the more confident, self-reliant ones.

So it was a bit disenchanting to read the article “Battle Lessons” in the January 17 New Yorker. The article talks about how officers in Iraq get the information they need, and focused a lot on protected websites and discussion boards they are using to share information. It was quite interesting. But the thing I’m referring to was just one paragraph early in the article. It talked about the ability of platoon and company commanders to take initiative and show creativity in unusual circumstances, noting that today’s Gen-X officers are proving far less rigid than officers of the baby boom (my) generation.

The article says Gen-X officers,often from single-parent homes or homes where both parents worked, “are markedly more self-reliant and confident of their abilities than their baby-boomer superiors.” That’s what Army surveys show. It also noted that Gen-Xers are “notoriously unimpressed by rank,” which Don Rumsfield discovered during that famous Q&A session with the troops. The Gen-Xers also, having grown up with the internet, find ways to network with their peers of equal rank without going through the chain of command, thereby getting information faster and from people actually doing it (rather than someone sitting at a desk at some military HQ).

The whole thing about single-parent kids and double-income-parent kids being more confident and self-reliant: it makes absolute sense, when you think about it. They had to fend for themselves, often. When problems arose, they couldn’t run to Mommy and Daddy, but had to figure things out on their own. So they gained confidence in their ability to take initiative and devise solutions. I never really had to do that, at least not until I headed off to college. Even now, I can still “run” to my parents. When one of them dies, I’ll discover a gaping hole in my life.

So I’m thinking–how does this apply to the local church? I suppose Barna has written a few books on this. I’m going to play Totally Amateur Church Growth Guy and dispense some pseudo-wisdomish implications.

1. We baby boomers are big on training, like church growth conferences and multi-year disicpleship courses in preparation for ministry and leadership. Maybe the Gen-Xers don’t need that. Give them a ministry situation and authority to act, and they can muster up the initiative and creative energy to make it work on their own. Not that training is bad. But why not unleash the “unprepared,” and let them learn on the job? Don’t under-estimate them.

2. People want input. We’ve known this for years, so it’s no big revelation. But if Gen-Xers aren’t so impressed with authority, and do have confidence in themselves, they won’t be as apt to stand at attention and salute decisions coming from the pastor or board. Top-down stuff will be questioned. Of course, we baby boomers started that ball rolling, since so many of us have as much or more education than the pastor. In earlier days, when the pastor was often the most-educated person in the congregation, people looked to him for answers. But now, even if the pastor has multiple doctorates, they won’t necessarily be impressed.

3. Gen-Xers will want to draw information from their peers, persons who also serve on the front lines, even if it’s in a totally different theater of action (like a different denomination). And with the internet, they have the know-how, plus the built-in initiative, to find answers on their own. Today’s volunteers won’t necessarily run to the pastor with questions for which he may only be able to provide a canned answer (like how to run a worship team, how to deal with a suicidal youth, etc.). The information they need is out there, and they know how to find it.

It kind of makes me look differently at some of the young people in my congregation, people who may not have the advantage of college education, and who I may underestimate because they come from “troubled” family situations. It may be that these people have enormous untapped potential. As the Army is learning.

Share Button
Comments Off on The Confidence of Gen-Xers

We’ve Got Enough Money. Thanks.

Ice storm yesterday. Yikes! We got sent home from work about noon, and I’m glad. Took me much longer than the normal 25 minutes to get home.

I heard on the radio that Doctors Without Borders did something unprecedented: they said they don’t need any more money. For tsunami relief. They have all that they need. Most organizations (like the Red Cross after 9/11) milk disasters for all they can get, even if their relief needs are met. Good for Doctors Without Borders! I just wish we could claim them as an American organization (it’s Belgian or Swiss or some other brand of European) or a Christian organization.

Doctors Without Borders does good work. They go into places in the immediate aftermath of disasters and civil wars, with the intention of staying only temporarily. They got our mission hospital in Sierra Leone, in the town of Mattru, back up and running, pouring many thousands of dollars into it. That hospital is very important to that region of the country, but it was ravaged and shut down during the lengthy civil war. It’s operating today only because Doctors Without Borders revived it. They left a couple years ago, and now the hospital is struggling to survive on its own in the Sierra Leonean equivalent of “peace time.” But DWB did what they intended–come when help is needed most, provide it, and turn the work over to others.

I’ve heard too many stories over the years of organizations going into places to collect video for heart-rending fundraising appeals, and then leaving. Christian TV ministries seem to be the biggest culprits. They aren’t set up to have a continuing presence in foreign communities, but they definitely have access to donors. Groups like World Vision, World Relief, and others stay on-site for an extended period of time and make a difference. A TV evangelist comes in, shoots some video, collects donations from thousands of listeners, and leaves. Shouldn’t happen that way.

Share Button
Comments Off on We’ve Got Enough Money. Thanks.

Who Speaks for Me?

As I predicted, big-name religious leaders are emerging, trying to become spokespersons for the persons who voted on the basis of moral values. Dobson, Falwell, Jim Wallis, and others are out there trying to speak for me. But they don’t speak for ME.

If anyone represents me, it would be persons like Rick Warren and Bill Hybels, and I hope they just stay off the airwaves.

The morals-based voters came as a surprise to nearly everyone. Nobody really tried to organize them in advance–they just showed up on their own. They were leaderless, but motivated. I think these voters will just be turned off by the religious opportunists seeking to become spokespersons for the morals-based voters. I know it turns me off.

There will undoubtedly be much attention on this audience in the 2008 election. And I’m sure, as with every election, people will tout this as “the most important election of our lifetime.” But will the conservative evangelicals turn out again? Who knows.

Share Button
Comments Off on Who Speaks for Me?

Thoughts on Postmodernism

I noticed that ChristianityToday.com has a feature story on the Emergent church movement, which is much of what UBHope advocates as the wave of the future. (UBHope is the organization (of sorts) that opposes the UB church joining the Missionary Church.) The article is titled: “The Emergent Mystique” and has this subtitle: “The ’emerging church’ movement has generated a lot of excitement but only a handful of congregations. Is it the wave of the future or a passing fancy?”

Ironically, UBHope has criticized the denominational leadership for what they describe as “chasing fads.” Specifically, they’ve distributed this nonsense throughout the church: “Over the past generation the UBs have chased one trend, fad, or program after another, hoping that someone else’s inventions could solve our problems for us. This year’s fad is the Missionary Church. Five, ten, or fifteen years from now will we chase another fad?”

I have nothing against the Emergent Church movement. I just don’t think we should reorganize how we do things as a denomination just to reach a particular generation (because the next generation will be different yet).

I remember in the 1980s, when everyone was writing about the baby boomers. But we didn’t propose a radical restructuring of the denomination to better reach boomers. Nor did we do that for the Baby Busters and Gen-X crowd. But UBHope thinks we should do that for the “postmodern” generation. To me, its a form of fad-chasing. And the Christianity Today article kinda agrees. It challenges some assumptions of the postmoderns, and makes these statements:

  • “If there is no massive change under way in the culture, why make a case for a massive change in the church?”
  • “So Emergent has no lock on the next generation. In this respect it may prove no different from the…Jesus Movement. It coexisted, often uneasily, with more cautious expressions of church, was animated by a combination of beautiful ideals and foolish ideas, and ultimately merged into an evangelical mainstream that had adapted to its presence.”

The article can be found here.

Share Button
Comments Off on Thoughts on Postmodernism

Page 20 of 20...101617181920

Receive Posts by Email

If you subscribe to my Feedburner feed, you'll automatically receive new posts by email. Very convenient.

Categories

Facebook

Monthly Archives