It was a good time for me to be away from the phones and the routine while in Colorado last week. God helped me think about an idea that keeps tumbling through my mind and heart. And, I love to think in regions where He seems to be thinking with me.
I speak of the struggles the church experiences due to generation gaps.
We are such a strange sort. We have three camps trying to serve together; the young, the old, and the older.
The young want some things different from the preceding two generations. But give these a few years and they will soon turn the things they enjoy about the church into stagnant rules which the next generation will ache to rid us of. These young will then become the very thing they abhor; the new old.
The old (middle) generation once pressed for new when they were younger; but soon calcified in some of their desires. Stuck, they want the new to back off a bit; but they also want the older generation to get over their rigidity so the church can breathe.
In the meantime a few in the older generation believe the church has gone to the dogs and, thus, spend their time dreaming of the old paths discovered in the good ol' days.
This cycle regenerates through each generation. I think we are missing a solving ingredient. I speak of the Holy Spirit.
Each is to be born again; become new. New is key. It is the buzz-word of each generation; some for, some against, and others shrugging their shoulders in indifference.
New is key. We are never to grow old in the kingdom. We are to be new day by day. One will never meet a newer person than any person of any age living in the Spirit of Christ. We are to think new, breathe new, walk new, talk new, and dream new. The generations go gapless when we meet the creative and lavish-minded Spirit of God.
An element of strong joy I that find in working with Memorial Drive is that our elders are as new as our young marrieds and singles. These guys do not live to keep the church under tradition's wraps. Rather they wonder, discuss, and work through a variety of issues which seem to both awaken and threaten the church. They are neither gun-shy nor trigger-happy. They simply operate as new men at a new responsibility over a new people whom God will call in new directions.
Yes, some are 19 and some 43 and others 71. All, if to function within the family, are to be newer today than yesterday which includes our thinking, our habits, and our doctrine. Certainly we have not arrived. Definitely we have made enormous progress from the days of generational infighting which reflected more the Pharisees who choked life than did Jesus who provided it.
Go gapless churches! Go gapless!
No comments:
Post a Comment