By Ward Tanneberg

We’ve turned separating and disunion among nations, politicians and races into a modern art form. Religion, too. Over doctrine, over egos, over liturgical or free styles of worship, over what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit or merely filled with oneself. Over whether John 3:16 means more at a Sunday football game than it does in a Sunday church service. Unfastening. Disengaging. We’re good at it. Really good.

Sometimes we’ve sent folks away on a special mission; at other times, sadly, we’ve just sent them away. Who among church leaders has never said (at least to ourselves) that we would gladly send this person or that one to some other unsuspecting flock half a city away? The schismatics. They have the gift of dissent and divisiveness. They drive leaders nuts. They can be loud, argumentative, verbose and small-minded. It’s their way or the highway.

And when it’s the highway, voila, another group or collection of groups is soon ready to offer up to an already fractured world another splinter, another denomination. It’s hard to tell precisely how many denominations there are in the world today. Five new every week, 270 each year, 33,000 denominations worldwide and counting, according to the World Christian Encyclopedia. It is a statistic that aptly defines the word, “Protest-ant.”

But one of the most subtle and silent schisms in today’s church is not racial or political and often goes unrecognized. It is ageism. Young and old. A dangerous detachment, and when left untended by you or me, guaranteed to diminish the local church until it is a weak and wounded community. Yes, in the midst of our own busy multitasking in the spiritual realm, sometimes the unintentional schismatic is us!

Generative bridge-building is called for in the church today, such that is capable of producing a vigorous spiritual offspring. It is a crucial ingredient, often missing in today’s self-centered society. It falls upon we who are older not to fail the youth and children of this age by a lack of spiritual passion or poor leadership. Our young should not have to flounder in their search for living stories of faith. Your older adult faith story is important to them. A major battle is being waged daily to win the hearts and minds of our young. And as with Joshua of old, the unprecedented longevity of our elder generation has given us extra time and places us directly in this battle. “The sun stood still in the midst of heaven. And there has been no day like that, before it or after it, that the Lord heeded a voice of a man; for the Lord fought for Israel” (Joshua 10:12-14).

We don’t like to talk about it. We excuse ourselves from its reality. We blame society. We disavow ownership. It’s the culture. They’re not our children. Not our teenagers. Not our young marrieds. We can’t be bothered. It’s one thing when the culture detaches itself from the church. It’s quite another altogether when the core of a community consciously unfastens from within. The latter is a dangerous detachment.

The Barna Group reports that 6 in 10 young people will leave the church permanently or for an extended period starting at age 15. Fuller Youth Institute and Rainier Research testify to similar or higher findings. According to Barna, the number increases to as much as 80% in 20something adults, with half or less of that number expected to return in later years after marriage and family. Today’s young people are marrying later, if at all. An August 2013 issue of Time magazine reports that in 1976, 1 in 10 women in the USA, age 40-44 had never had a child. In 2010, the number was 1 in 5. As the nation’s population continues to age (40% of America is 50+), the number of new births steadily declines, and all the while, teens and 20somethings continue to exodus from the church at an alarming rate.

Some church leaders refuse to accept this as reality. Not in our church, they say, choosing to ignore the situation, or trust that time and children will bring the prodigals home again. Then there are opposite extremes. Dress a certain way, make worship cool and contemporary, a shot in the dark for that illusive target that will make the message more relevant to a young audience. Whatever it takes to attract the teens and young adults has often become our whole focus, to the exclusion of the spiritual well being of older members. David Kinnaman states that the use of “all means possible to make their congregation appeal to teens and young adults builds the church on the preferences of young people and not on the pursuit of God.”

Thankfully, growing numbers of visionary servant leaders and churches are refusing to bend to the skewed hope that young adults’ views will be righted when they are older and have their own children. Unafraid, their elders are busy building bridges, contending in the faith for all generations, valued and involved and more engaged in building Christ’s Kingdom than they’ve ever been! Their churches are thriving and striving to be healthy interGen churches.

In prescribing intergenerational ministry, Kinnaman says that it “means changing the metaphor from simply passing the baton to the next generation, to a more functional, biblical picture of a body that is the entire community of faith across the entire lifespan, working together to fulfill God’s purposes.” As Jesus reminds us, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked” (Luke 12:48).

Thank you good friend for caring, for being so passionate about all the generations that God has placed in your sphere of influence and care. Let us help you in your work. That is why The CASA Network is here.

 

Ward Tanneberg served as a pastor for 35 of his more than 55 ministry years. He became president/executive director of CASA 50+ Network in 2008. He speaks and writes to 50+ and intergenerational ministry leaders and is the author of several inspirational novels.