Making a Difference inside America's
Largest Generation
"And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water"
— Psalm 1:3
Compared to the generations before us, we have suffered little and been spoiled much. And like a child that is sheltered and spoiled, we have in many ways prolonged our adolescence as a generation. It is no secret that many baby boomers postpone a lot of things, from career choice to marriage to parenthood.
It's true. Our generation doesn't always enjoy the thought of really growing up. The problem is that the postponing attitude among boomers has infected the Christian community at large. We too have been reluctant to pursue maturity, defined by deepened commitment on many fronts.
Christians need not one conversion but three, in order to make an impact in the world for Jesus Christ. First, they must be committed to the person of Christ. But it shouldn't stop there. Christians committed only to Christ can be very self-centered in our individualistic generation. That may
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sound strange, but our Lord Himself would agree. The second conversion is to the people of Christ: His church. Christians must develop a strong connection to the body of Christ. But even that is not enough. Christians with only those two conversions still tend to be focused inward. The third conversion is to the passion of Christ: reaching the world with the power of His love. Thrice-converted baby boomers will make a lasting impact on their generation.
Christian baby boomers who want to make a difference in their generation will have to make strong personal commitments that their peers will neither emulate nor appreciate. The pages of this final chapter will present three areas in which these commitments must operate — each vital in its own right and yet connected to the other: commitments of the heart, commitments in the church, and commitments to the world.
Commitments of the Heart
"Let me be taught," wrote Henry Martin, "that the first great business on earth is the sanctification of my own soul" (Wiersbe 1980:82). Somehow, our generation seems to have missed this truth from generations past.
Just this week I had lunch with a good friend who told me of conversations he has had with three pastors over the last several months. In each case, the man (a baby boomer) was eminently successful on the outside — a model pastor — yet lived in immorality in the darkness of his secret life. The sad thing is that we have a system today that allows that type of leadership to go on unnoticed. I call it the "character gap."
Where is our concern for character? Who is taking time for this great business of the sanctification of our souls? Why can the leaders of our generation be so flashy on the outside, yet so hollow on the inside?
This "character gap" represents the tension between the world's values and biblical Christianity. The greatest battle
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for the Christian baby boomer is to focus on internal issues of the heart while peers are pursuing externals with reckless abandon.
We need to stockpile lasting treasures in heaven and learn to ignore our peers who are building their castles of sand. As Christ said, "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?" (Mark 8:36) In other words, "What good is it to be a Christian and forfeit all usefulness to Christ by pursuing selfish dreams?" Some people are deluded into thinking that both are possible.
Character is the issue we must begin with: commitments of the heart. My goal here is not to tell anyone how to go about developing character as much as to emphasize the importance of focusing on internals first in our lives. Our Christian bookstores are filled with good books on how to develop the inner soul; we just don't put a priority on it in our generation. We are long on reading but short on doing.
How do we develop the power of character? Not by any 60-second solution or "one minute manager." We must take some of the following medicine — hard for us to swallow, but necessary if we want the symptoms of superficiality to go away.
1. We must be devoted to the development of our personal character through relationship with Jesus Christ on a personal and regular basis.
Soon after my conversion in 1970, I discovered the fascinating world of Scripture memory. As an eager young convert I was hungry for the Word of God, and discovered that memorizing large portions of the Bible nourished me and changed me. I was taught by my mentors that the Bible would be used by the Holy Spirit to cleanse me from the sin patterns of my former life and renew me in the likeness of Christ. So I went to work! I had much that needed changing.
During those college days in the early 1970s, I drove a truck for a summer job. As I drove the backroads of northern
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Alabama in those months, God's Word filled my mind and changed my heart. God delivered me with great power from all kinds of ungodliness that I don't care to spell out. Though I was immediately a new creation in God's sight at my conversion (2 Cor. 5:17), I learned that the practical transformation of my character and lifestyle took time and needed the nourishment of the Scriptures (Ps. 119:9-11).
In some ways I miss those simpler days of my new life in Christ, days filled with rapid growth and constant spiritual discovery. It was during those truck-driving days that I memorized a passage of Scripture that expressed the heart and soul of what I wanted for my new life in Christ. It still means a great deal to me and forms the basis of my approach to living an alternative life amid the mixed-up values of my generation.
How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season,
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers.
The wicked are not so,
But they are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
But the way of the wicked will perish.
Psalm 1, NASB
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I have copied the words of that psalm from the very Bible I carried in my truck during those long, hot Alabama summers. It was my very first Bible, a greater treasure now as each year goes by. Looking at the smeared and dirty pages, I realize that the dust, sweat, and grime came from my young, 19-year-old hands as I pored over those precious pages hour after hour. If I have had any success in my Christian life these last 20 years, it is because of the grace of God and the foundation that I began laying in those early days.
2. We must learn to deny ourselves by turning off the perpetual accumulation machine. God's Word reminds us:
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things. For you have died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3: 1-4).
This speaks to one of the greatest battles of the baby boomers. Newsweek magazine claims that our generation has reached a new level of consciousness: transcendental acquisition (Colson 1985:19). Christians must buck this generational trend because it is just impossible to be devoted to the gods of hedonism and materialism and also fill our lives with the things of God.
One of my good friends recently demonstrated courage in this area in a mighty way — chalk up one victory for this baby boomer. He was working weekends to make extra money for his family yet finding little energy left for them or his church or for his own spiritual growth. Driving around in a ten-year-old car he was very tired of, he had his heart set on buying a new compact pickup truck. As we were enjoying a cup of coffee over breakfast he told me, "Hans, I finally decided it was stupid. Why work weekends away from my family just so I can get that truck — that's what it
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boils down to, and I don't need it or the other things money can buy as much as my family needs me." He stopped working weekends. He made the decision in his context to just say no. The change in his life in recent months is obvious to me. The result is more time for the things above, the unseen things, the important things eternal.
3. We must dare to live as Christians in a world that will reject us as it rejected Christ.
I have recently been stimulated by the writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a fellow German of whom I am proud and a salty churchman during the reign of Hitler. Bonhoeffer had the courage to be different and speak out when most of the church in Germany remained silent during the Second World War. His courage finally cost him his life. Hitler himself ordered Bonhoeffer's execution, sadly only a few weeks before the war ended. Of course, God could have changed the war timetable and spared this servant, but it was His design to have Bonhoeffer martyred for the faith.
In his book, Cost of Discipleship, Bonhoeffer helps me to see the important difference between suffering and rejection. Many people don't mind a little suffering, but no one can stand rejection — especially the baby boomers.
Jesus said in Matthew 16:24 that "if anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me." When speaking of these words of Christ, Bonhoeffer sheds great light on their meaning, first in what it meant for Christ Himself:
There is distinction here between suffering and rejection. Had He only suffered, Jesus might still have been applauded as the Messiah. It could have been viewed as a tragedy with its own intrinsic value, dignity and honor. But his rejection robs the passion of its halo. It must be a passion without honor. Suffering and rejection sum up the whole cross of Jesus.
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Now we followers of Christ must join in the pain of that terrible word "rejection," as Bonhoeffer goes on to explain:
Just as Christ is Christ only in virtue of His suffering and rejection, so the disciple is a disciple only in so far as he shares his Lord's suffering and rejection and crucifixion. Discipleship means adherence to the person of Jesus, and therefore submission to the law of Christ which is the law of the cross (1959:95-96).
Sure, some of us might be willing to suffer a bit, but are we willing to be counted "out" of the mainstream and heartbeat of our generation?
But that is just the cost we are being asked to pay.
Commitments in the Church
If there is one collective weakness that stands out among Christian baby boomers I have observed, it is a general lack of commitment to the local church. Our hectic pace of life leaves little time for deep, personal relationships. Many of us, if we're honest, must admit a general lack of commitment today to anything outside of a very narrow personal orbit.
Yet for a believer to make it in the battle to be salt and light, there is no way around deep involvement in a local church. My life has got to touch the lives of others in intimacy and honesty. Community, not individuality, is God's pattern. The plain fact is that being in the community of Christ fans the flames of our spiritual passions, which easily go out when we are alone:
And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching (Heb. 10:24-25).
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Our trouble is that we meet but we don't spur; we're there but we're not. We sit in the pew on Sundays often so exhausted from the busy week that it is really a time to rest and daydream and let our mind and soul catch up with our bodies. Very little energy is left to give to the church. We see the people at church on Sundays, but what do we really know about the hurts and joys of their lives? We may have the solutions to their needs, but we never get that far with them. Christ called us "parts" of His body, but how do we expect to function successfully as disjointed distanced members of one another? We must be committed to God's people in our churches if we are to be effective baby boomer agents of change.
It is my conviction that every man and woman needs a sharpening friendship, even beyond the bond of a marriage partner. Through the years I have always tried to have at least one intimate friend with whom to be transparent and truthful about the struggles and joys of faith. These friends have made all the difference, especially in the times of deep despair and failure that plague us all from time to time. I need someone in the body of Christ that I can trust — someone to help hold me accountable to the goals and commitments I make to Christ from year to year:
Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! (Ecc. 4:9-10)
Commitments to the World
In the fall of 1969, the summer after Woodstock and the first manned moon landing, I joined half a million of my radical peers as we marched on the capitol in Washington, D.C. I can still remember that week. The agitation over the problems of the world that raged in many of our hearts during the '60s was coming to a boil. We wanted revolution,
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though we had no solutions — only complaints. We shouted peace and love — the catchwords of our generation — though we had neither. As we threw rocks at the riot police and marched toward the Justice Department, we chanted slogans like, "Two, four, six, eight; organize to smash the State!" Within two hours the police had managed to move all half a million of us into the Potomac and beyond, using brute force, tear gas, and massive arrests.
I look back on those days in amazement. What happened to that zealous concern for the ugly problems of the world that we used to have? Where is our social conscience today?
One of the exciting things that happened in those days was that many of us found a living faith in Jesus Christ for the first time. Suddenly, the fantasy Jesus of childhood Sunday School became the bigger-than-life man Jesus who could answer the big problems of our hearts. Many of us found Christ in those college years — the true revolutionary who could change the world by changing the hearts of men and women from the inside.
In the '60s we had no answers but many complaints. Today it seems that many of us have the answer in Jesus Christ but no complaints. There is a crying need for more of us to rekindle our concern for the needs of the world — especially the spiritual needs of a suffering humanity dying without Christ.
We have the chance in our generation to write the next chapter of church history. What will be said of our concern for the world? How will we be measured in terms of our commitment to reaching our generation for Christ? What will we have added to the church when we pass off the scene?
Not long ago I received a letter from some friends that illustrates well what I am driving at in terms of commitment. These older baby boomers felt the tug of the needs of the world on their heartstrings and decided to do something about it. Here is a part of that letter:
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Lowell had worked for HP nearly 17 years, so it took a lot of time for the Lord to get us ready to make the break with secular work and get on with bigger and better things. It's amazing to think that we started to pray with two couples in 1976, asking the Lord to show us if it was His will for us to one day go into vocational Christian work and, if so, where we were supposed to serve. Today, all three of us are serving God in vocational ministry — some answer to prayer, huh?!
Not everyone is able to go into full-time, professional ministry like these three couples, but I can tell you truthfully that many more are desperately needed in all phases of Christian work. Everywhere that I travel or speak to friends who work overseas, I see personnel shortages. In many places the work of God is not going forward for lack of the two essentials: money and manpower. It is my observation that getting the money is easier than getting the lives. Many times I meet fellow baby boomers who say to me, "I wish I had made the choices you made when I was younger — your life seems to really count, and I feel trapped now." My advice to them is simple — it is never too late to get serious about serving Christ. Pray over it and ask Him how you can serve with small pieces of time, or part-time, maybe even full-time.
What God demands is that we all take an honest look at the needs around us and do something to meet those needs. The Apostle John put it well: "Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth" (1 John 3:18). It may be service in your church; it may be volunteer work in a counseling center, rescue mission or home for unwed mothers. Every church needs help in reaching out into the community with evangelistic efforts. Our hospitals and nursing homes are filled with lonely, hurting people who need words of comfort from those who know the God of all comfort. Often it is sacrificial use of your finances to help your church and those believers who are in vocational ministry.
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And for some of you, it will be the call of God on your lives to serve Him full time in ministry. Heed that call whatever the cost — you'll never regret it.
We have finally come to the culmination of what the Christian life is all about — meeting the needs of the world. God has left us in the world that we might make an impact upon it. Somehow we have to ignite the sleeping passion that lies dormant in our generation and turn again to the concerns beyond ourselves. We have the resources, the manpower, the talents, education, and abilities. We lack only the passion.
Many in our generation have committed themselves to the work of Jesus Christ, but many more are needed. It is now up to us to take our turn to write the story of how the baby boomers reached their world for Jesus Christ.
Thinking It Through
1. When discussions of commitment come up with baby boomers, one often hears things like "But who has the time?" or "I really can't get into that anymore." It would appear commitments are hard for baby boomers to make. Do you agree or disagree?
2. Various commitments were discussed in this chapter. What kind of commitments do you feel you need to develop in order to make a positive impact in your sphere of influence?
3. Describe the things you would need to do as a lifelong practice in order to see that these commitments never drift into mere memories of a better time in your life. Who can you think of who would be willing to journey with you on this path of commitment? Write down when you will talk with this person about committing yourselves to making a difference, then do it.
