Comments on: Talkin’ ‘Bout My Generation: How Generational Insights Have Gone Overboard

By: Hal Taylor

Hal Taylor — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 23:17:10 +0000

I enjoyed the article and thought it to be well balanced. There are generational differences that are often generalized. The work place joke that asks the question, “What is the definition of loyalty to a company for a Gen Xer, a two week notice” is a harsh exageration but an easy laugh at a seminar. Why do you get a good laugh out of these generalizations? As in all humor there is usually a kernal of truth to it. Not to use all the information available to us is not good stewardship. All truth is from God and his children should not run from it. The key is balance and I thank you for admitting some generational validity in your article.
The greatest loss in all this is that we have lost the natural mentoring that different generations bring to the church.
I too am about sick of churches going after one generation and I believe it is one of the contributing factors of the lack of depth in most of the churches that do this. But most of these churches have good or even great preaching and teaching from the stage. It is the what Ray C. Steadman called “bodylife” that is missing in the church. They are missing the generational layering that helps bring about maturity and commitment. That is why in the scripture older people are to mentor and children are supposed to honor.

By: JR Maz

JR Maz — Tue, 01 May 2007 16:49:45 +0000

Preach it brother!

By: Anna

Anna — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 15:39:42 +0000

Michael,

I’ll play a little devil’s advocate here as a person under 30.

>What about his unique experiences, unique history >and unique qualities? What about those things that >no one knows that make him UNIQUELY HIMSELF? How do >we love and respect someone when we prejudge him in >all kinds of ways based on “generational” research?

Defining generations have become more important, I believe, because our techno-capitalism has grown/changed rapidly over a short period of time. Research/studies/statistics are helpful in a limited way, just as doing mission field people group mapping is important, but not definitive.

There really are differences between the generations in the way we have experienced the world-as-we-know-it. Case-in-point: My husband is five years older than I, putting him squarely in the Gen X category. I am in the early part of Gen Y or “millennial”. I had helicopter parents hovering over my every move; he was a latch-key kid. We don’t need separate worship services but we do have differing perceptions based on our shared and unshared backgrounds. Sometimes this matters, sometimes it doesn’t. Check out the research done on folks under-30 and their brain activity patterns. We think differently and perceive differently on a biological level than those who are older.

Church is like a family table, there should be food offered everyone can eat from baby to elders.

By: Indi

Indi — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 11:18:28 +0000

“(If I hear one more person say “I can’t worship without projection,” I’m going to do something illegal and embarrassing.)”

You mind videotaping that and posting the feed?

Um, you know, for posterity!

“How do we love and respect someone when we prejudge him in all kinds of ways based on “generational” research?”

We don’t! Just like we don’t love poor people or foreign people or people who speak a different language…

Totally agree – and may I add, factual information, wisely utilized, does a happy congregation make, whereas sheeples represent much that is unfruitful in organized religion.

Just my two cents.

By: Oloryn

Oloryn — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 01:28:49 +0000

I find myself reminded of something you see in the software development industry: Whenever some new programming technique comes along, some shops will drop old techniques and convert wholly over to the new technique….until the next new thing comes along. The new technique is treated as a ’solution’ that overrides all of the old techniques.

More mature shops treat new techniques as additional tools for the toolbelt. You don’t throw out old techniques when the new ones come along (though occasionally some old techniques will eventually be superceded), you add them to your ‘toolbelt’ and learn to use your various ‘tools’ appropriately, according to the problems you’re dealing with.

Generational insights (and other insights and changes) strike me the same way. You can either treat them as ’solutions’ and end up as ‘children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine’ (note he doesn’t say ‘wind of false doctrine’)(Eph 4:14). Or you can add them as another ‘tool on the belt’ and prayerfully let God teach you what tools are to be used when.

By: Kyle Potter

Kyle Potter — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 17:52:41 +0000

Sorry, what? I can’t hear you…

I give thanks that I’ve never heard many of those phrases before, and I have to say, with all the youthful arrogance I can muster, if someone can’t worship without “projection,” they’ve never learned to worship at all.

By: Gerald

Gerald — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 15:48:35 +0000

Michael
you are so right on the money. I have pastored small rural churches for the last 20 years and i agree with you 100 percent. We have such rich resources in the church in our sesoned citizens, we are much wiser to use them.

By: Joel

Joel — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 14:33:17 +0000

One thing I enjoy about visiting Catholic parishes is that you see all generations and races under one roof. You don’t have to do an ‘old folks outreach’ because they are already in the same church with you. Likewise with race, youth, whatever. Catholics don’t have to think in the market segment way that Protestants are now trapped in since the collapse of the mainlines and the charismatic rise.

By: John

John — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 03:02:07 +0000

Thank you for that breath of fresh air. We’re doing our best to fight the trend by being intentional about exposing teens to the broader church community, even when it seems painfully “un-hip.” You might enjoy a friend’s recent insight on the phenomenon and our need to be inclusive, even on a multi-generational level.
http://ibrianorme.wordpress.com/2007/04/27/inter-generational-tribes/

By: Kat

Kat — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 02:23:29 +0000

I appreciate your voice of sanity, and the term “sheeple” is right on target. We are all winners in an intergenerational church. The Titus 2 woman would have a hard time teaching the young woman in a “peer group only” church.
Kat