Epilogue
How Churches Can Reach out to Baby Boomers
In the year that I have worked on the material for this book, I have had many long talks with pastors and church workers about my thoughts on baby boomers. The importance of churches understanding the baby boomers keeps popping up, so I felt it helpful to add these thoughts on how churches can reach out to the baby-boom bulge. These thoughts are directed especially at those of you who work in Christian organizations and churches on either a lay or professional level.
Harnessing a Vital Generation
What are our churches doing to meet the needs of our generation? Some might even say that such a question is a moot point — that churches don't need to cater to the whims of the moment. Not true. We are not talking about whims; we are talking about understanding a generation and building a bridge into their hearts.
Baby boomers need to be committed to the local church, but the church needs to be committed to baby boomers as well.
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One reason many of us are not as involved as we should be is that old structures are not meeting new needs.
Like a soldier who needs his platoon, baby boomers who seriously want to live lives of alternative values need the church to survive the battle. And churches that want to meet the needs of boomers must change some ways of doing things.
Reaching out to Baby Boomers
I feel that there are at least nine important pointers that churches need to keep in mind if they want to harvest and harness America's largest generation.
1. Welcome back the baby boomers. According to Benton Johnson, professor of sociology at the University of Oregon, our generation rejected Christianity and church-going on a scale "unprecedented in all of American history." But with the fast-paced 1980s and the pressure of increased competition in the workplace, many of our generation are feeling increasingly alone. We are a mobile, transient, and basically solo generation. In an article entitled "Dropping Back In," Ann Japenga of the LA Times says that a "growing number of baby boomers are discovering there's no place like church" (1988:IV;1).
While sociologists are still working to explain the trend, a major reason for reinhabitation of the pews is that baby boomers are finding that church feels like home. And many boomers are now finally settling down to building homes and families for the first time. The church is providing a sense of home and community in an increasingly impersonal world where people are looking for a place to belong. What this means is that churches should understand this tremendous trend and do all they can to welcome back this generation with open arms.
2. Cultivate a sense of community. In the complex world of the '80s and '90s, baby boomers need "body life" much more than they did in the '60s and '70s when Ray Stedman
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first pioneered that movement. The fastest growing churches in America today recognize the essential need for small cell groups and place strong emphasis on getting the people of the pew involved in community and accountability.
New ways of getting us involved in such relationships need to be pioneered, and it is imperative that they be made workable in the different lifestyles of today's baby boomers.
3. Promote accountability networks. It is difficult to have deep friendships in the fast-tracking '80s and '90s. We are all so busy raising our families and building our careers that there is little time left in today's crowded lifestyles for intimate friendships. But those friendships are essential, as we saw in the last chapter. The church is a place where these networks can be built and encouraged. The leaders who structure the programs of the church should ask themselves if they are driving people close to each other or away from each other by the plans and schedules they promote. There is no greater need in our churches today than women's and men's discipleship networks.
4. Be open to changes in your churches. Recently I was invited to speak in a large, established church in Arizona. When the pastor met me at the airport, I was excited to learn he is a fellow baby boomer, not because I don't like older people, but because I enjoy seeing how a young, new pastor copes with the existing leadership which is a generation older. "How well is this newer-generation thinker doing in an old, established setting?" I asked myself.
Mark is my age, late thirties, and one year into the pastorate of a large church. Like many of our contemporaries, he stepped into the job of leadership, replacing someone older with more traditional ideas of how to run a church. I admire Mark's patience. He told me on the way home from the airport, as we were enjoying the beautiful desert mountains surrounding his town, that he is trying to go slow with
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making changes. "In this first year," he began, "I have tried to listen to my people and get a solid feel for the situation before I introduce any changes." His burden is to reach his city for Christ and to meet real needs with real solutions.
He shared with me his struggle as he wants to honestly evaluate every activity of the church to see if it is still valid for today. "It seems that so much of the activity of our church is no longer functional," he continued. "I don't want to spend all my time going to banquets and maintaining an institution while our city is in crying need of our Saviour."
My mind jumped to the issue of generational values, and I saw again how very different the generations are in the way they approach life — church life too. So far this church is allowing him to move in the direction of new wineskins, and I wish him well.
Mark — like most baby boomers — doesn't worship change for change's sake. If he did, he would be wrong. What he sees is a dire need for the church to speak and act in new ways to reach this massive new generation that is often untouched by the old, traditional methods. Sure, the basic needs of people never change, but how we approach them and package our message must change to meet them where they are today. The message of hope and new life in Jesus is sacred and unchanging; the method of delivery is not. That principle brings me to my next point.
5. Hold traditions lightly. Of course, we baby boomers are notorious for being tradition-smashers. For many of us it is a holdover from the spirit of the '60s, combined with a recognition of the radical changes of the Third Wave effecting our society. When a boomer walks into a church, he begins by asking the question, "Why are you doing what you're doing?" And the answer must make sense from the perspective of function, not tradition.
Most baby-boomer Christians don't seem to be attracted to the more traditional churches. They are responding more
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to the churches that are using forms more in step with the times. In an article, "Baby Boomers: Time to Pass the Torch?" Jack Sims points out a number of reasons why baby boomers are turned off to more traditional churches:
Because we are individualistic, and shy away from the rigid structure we see in most churches.
Because of different tastes in music.
Because baby boomers find their experiences with church and the religious media to be boring, irrelevant, or high-pressured.
Because they are turned off by high-pressured appeals for money.
Because churches tend to be too one-sided politically (1986:22-25).
We could add other reasons, most notably the fact that many churches still deal with their members in the context of the nuclear family — which we know is only 7 percent of the population.
In fact, we could say that many churches have not recognized the changes and pressures facing our generation that I have covered throughout the pages of this book. If our needs aren't being met in one church, then we go somewhere else where they are.
Sims concludes his article with a helpful list of six points that churches should use in reaching and harnessing baby boomers.
Recognize the difference between generations.
Prepare to do things differently.
Act on new ideas.
Don't wait for the world to come to the church.
Give women a meaningful way to be involved.
Plan church activities realistically, taking into consideration lifestyles of the '80s and '90s (1986:25).
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6. Tread lightly with authority. In my chapter "Coping with Career," I dealt with our generation's new views toward leadership and authority. This issue is very relevant in our churches, for the bottom line is that we resist heavyhanded leadership styles.
Leadership styles, like church methods for evangelism and edification, are methods that change through the generations. The Bible has much to say on the character of a good leader, and of the necessity of leadership, but little on styles that will work today. I believe in strong leadership, but I also believe in the concept of servant leadership. The two are not mutually exclusive.
An excellent book on this topic was written in the late '70s, a classic in the field of leadership, entitled Servant Leadership by Robert Greenleaf. I'll let him speak for our generation on this point, for he does a much better job than I could ever do:
"A fresh critical look is being taken at the issues of power and authority, and people are beginning to learn, however haltingly, to relate to one another in less coercive and more creatively supporting ways. A new moral principle is emerging which holds that the only authority deserving one's allegiance is that which is freely and knowingly granted by the led to the leader in response to, and in proportion to, the clearly evident servant stature of the leader. Those who choose to follow this principle will not casually accept the authority of existing institutions. Rather, they will freely respond only to individuals who are chosen as leaders because they are proven and trusted as servants (1977:9-10, emphasis added).
7. Commit your church to excellence. My personal observation is that many baby boomers who are committed to excellence in their work are turned off by the shabbiness that characterizes many local churches. They simply don't
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feel comfortable in a dowdy-looking sanctuary with a low-tech sound system.
Baby boomers are used to up-scaled environments and high technology. When they walk into many churches, they simply feel like they are stepping into the past. It may be a wrong emphasis, but it is the way baby boomers feel. If we want to reach them, our appeal must be appetizing. This principle of excellence applies to both the appearance of the physical surroundings as well as to the effectiveness of the organization and administration of the programs of the church.
8. For leaders from the older generation: welcome young, new leadership enthusiastically. The 1990s will be a decade of transition. Churches and Christian organizations will be taken over by more and more baby boomers, if they haven't been already. We know that leadership transitions are not easy, but they must take place. In many cases there are young men and women moving into positions of leadership who have yet to receive the enthusiastic support of the older boards that oversee that work.
Boards of directors, or elder/deacon boards made up of older people in these churches and Christian organizations can cause a great deal of grief for the young boomers with a new generation of values and approaches. I admire the older leadership that says, "We've had our chance; now let's let them have a go of it." There comes a time in every generation when the torch must be passed from the older to the younger, and that time is now upon us.
9. For leaders from the baby-boom generation: honor older leadership respectfully. There is a critical balance here that must be maintained. It would be the ultimate mistake for baby boomers who come into leadership in our churches to write off the older generation and clean them off leadership teams. We must tap into their wisdom, yet help them gracefully let go of some of their traditions.
Baby boomers, beware. We must get past this immature notion
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that everything old is bad and everything new is good. Worshiping change for change's sake is a shallow value that too many in our generation have adopted. No one wants to drive an old car or wear last year's fashions or use programs from a previous decade.
Old things can be beautiful and work better than newer innovations. Just look at the 1966 Ford Mustang, a beautiful car that was ruined as young designers kept trying to improve on something that should have been left alone. Now everyone wants a '66 Mustang!
Isn't it ironic that my generation hates tradition but loves antiques? There are traditions that are good, necessary, and completely functional in the 1990s and beyond. Let it not be said of our generation that we were too foolish to listen to the wisdom of our elders.
Baby boomers are having a great impact on churches, whether the churches like it or not. My prayer is that the churches of our land will have an even greater impact on the baby boomers, for there is much to harvest and much to harness among my peers for the cause of Christ.
