Tyler Johnson, MDiv
Tyler is a pastor and a former NASA engineer. He loves to explore truth through God’s word and God’s works. He lives in Iowa with his wife and four children and spends what little free-time he has pondering the mysteries of light
Lately I have found my self in conversations around the ways that different generations experience and engage the church and the culture. It is really a fascinating topic that touches on all kinds of different issues. Far more than I can cover in this blog post. But the more I’ve looked into it, the more I’m convinced that this is an important area to dig into. I think there is some valuable insight that can come from this conversation, so I thought I’d broaden my range and bring you all into it. So for this week’s post I want to introduce some elements of the discussion and offer one example. And then we’d love to hear from you about your experience.
Let’s start with a quick description of the generations at play. There are three main ones, the Baby Boomers, the Gen Xers, and the Millennials. Generation Z follows the Millennials, but we don’t know as much about them right now. Here we go.
The Boomers
Born between roughly 1943 and 1960 (Currently ~60-80 years old)
Believe deeply in Absolute Truth
Value a faith based on facts and a Bible full of events that can be proven to have really happened.
The Xers
Born between roughly 1961 and 1981 (Currently ~40-60 years old)
Cynical and distrusting of institutions (including the Church & the Boomers)
Value a faith that is real and lived out, and people who are authentic and vulnerable.
Millennials
Born between roughly 1982 and 1995 (Currently ~25-40 years old)
Optimistic and hopeful but also narcissistic; they want to impact the world for good
Don’t really value faith, unless it is making a difference in the world. Focused on the here-and-now, not eternity
Generation Z
Born roughly between 1995 and 2010 (Currently ~10-25 years old)
Our understanding of this generation is still developing. We know…
They don’t know life without the internet.
They know less about the Christian faith than any other generation.
They tend to grow up quickly through exposure to mature content online
They may value a faith that is beautiful
These are some of the general outlines and trends that mark different generations. What I find interesting is how these are at play in the church. I’ve been reading a book on church leadership that starts by making the case that most churches are stuck in a Boomer kind of mindset and operation which is negatively affecting their ability to pass the faith along to younger generations. This explains why established churches tend to be populated by people of an older generation, and why newer churches tend to have a younger demographic. The established churches have failed to adapt to a changing culture, while the newer ones were “born” into that newer culture.
There are many ways that these generational shifts have impacted the church, but I’ll just name one that I think is rather important.
It is common in my experience to hear church people, especially of an older generation, make the claim that faith and politics should be kept separate. (Whether they actually do this in practice is another story. Can you tell I’m an X-er?) The idea is that pastors shouldn’t talk about political issues from the pulpit and churches shouldn’t take positions on political issues. I understand the motivation for such a position, but I find it troublesome. The problem I see comes when everything that happens in the world is deemed “political, ” which is more or less the state of the world today. If the pastor cannot mention human rights violations at our borders, or the immoral words and actions of our politicians, or various elements of systemic injustice active in our society, then how are they supposed connect the teachings of Jesus to the world we live in?
The problem grows when you realize that the younger generations are deeply committed to making a difference in the world, for good. If politics and faith have to be kept separate then it must seem to the younger generation that Christianity is a faith that makes no impact in our world whatsoever. And if it makes no impact, who cares?
This is just one example. I’m sure you have others and we would love to hear them. Do these generational traits resonate with you? Are there other ways that you’ve seen them at play in the church? Comment below this post, or on our Facebook page and let us know!