I did some reading this summer on the different primary God-question of the several distinct generations of Americans today. I remember literally weeping through an entire worship service the first time I encountered worship music that was truly a bulls-eye to my own generational musical language - I was at a conference called 'Ministering to Generation X,' and the worship leader was a young unknown barefoot guy whose name turned out to be David Crowder. A month later, I flew down to Texas to visit his church. Again I was overcome through the entire musical worship. David gave me his music and I used it to start a sort of Gen-X outreach service in Memphis.
Except in no way did that service reach only X'ers. The age distribution ended up being pretty much what the rest of our church represented, yes with a substantially higher number of X'ers.
Now I have to admit, we ministry people can get a little over-fixated on generational characteristics (and how ministry to each generation should be changed, as a result, if we are thinking like missionaries to culture). But we definitely should be thinking of how to contextualize outreach and discipleship to each and every distinct human population we serve.
The book I read is James Choung's "Real Life: A Christianity Worth Living Out." He is national director of Asian American Ministries for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. According to Choung:
The spiritual question of the day for:
Boomers (b.1943-1960): What is TRUE? To answer this question for unbelievers, you had to prove the Christian faith was based on facts or logic that were undeniable-or at least reasonable.
Generation X (b.1961-1981): What is REAL? Drop the masks. Kill the spin. It's just about being as raw as possible to build trust and then share an authentic story of how Jesus is transforming us. And then invite others to experience the same thing. Reason and science lost its authority, while experience and community gained theirs.
Millenials (b. 1982-2002): What is GOOD? "The Millenials' question has bled into wider culture: Is Christianity any good for the world? Many movies, TV shows, and even opinion-shapers wonder if our world would be better without religious extremists. You hear the question echoed in bestselling books like God Is Not Great or The God Delusion. Even video games hijack religious language for their villains. If we can't answer the question-What good does the Christian faith bring?-skeptics will block their ears to us. Our credibility will drop to nothing, and we'll be shoved off to the margins. Now, being on the margins isn't always a bad thing, but I wonder if we're actually following the words of Jesus if we don't have anything to offer that is good in THIS world and not just in the world to come." (Choung, p.52)
Here's one takeaway for me as a church leader: In today's discussion about 'why young adults are not in church' (which happens with great hand-wringing every generation - it did for mine), we will move beyond tweaking the instrumentation and visual aspects of our worship services (and the endless arguments about the same) at Lake Forest. When it comes to speaking and doing the good news of Jesus Christ (the Gospel) winsomely to younger adults today (Millenials), our church's approach to Missio Dei is intentionally elevated. The Gospel compels us to 'go' and 'love' and 'serve.' Yet this is not only for the church today a response of obedience to Jesus who exhorted us to tangibly serve 'the least of these.'
Going to serve people near, people far, people hungry for food and hungry for God, people like us and people not like us, is a primary apologetic for following Jesus to skeptics and spiritual explorers among today's young adults. Demonstrating that 'yes, the Christian faith is good for the world, for our city, our town, our neighborhood.' If you're at Lake Forest Church (Davidson or Huntersville) this Sunday, you will hear one story in particular (the last one) illustrating exactly this reality.
