Generation Conversation

Ecclesia Semper Reformanda est: Reframed

by The Rev. Eric Luedtke, Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, Knoxville, TN

I recently read the September/October 2011 issue of Relevant Magazine (http://www.relevantmagazine.com/digital-issue/53), and was particularly struck by the cover article about “The Generation of Contrast”. In light of full disclosure I should note that I first took an interest in generational study about 10 years ago when the pastor at the church I was a member of lead a multi-week series on how the different generations engage differently in church (based on Gary L. McIntosh’s book One Church, Four Generations.)

After reading the Relevant article, I began noticing several other articles on generational study – particularly the Millennial Generation (aka Generation Y) - and the church. I was led to articles at Pew Research Center (http://pewresearch.org/millennials/), a fascinating blog from Nadia Bolz-Weber (http://blog.newmediaprojectatunion.org/2011/10/listen-to-millenials-please.html), and I began seeing the generational divide everywhere I looked, including a Today Show panel of three Baby-boomers discussing how “Tatooed Barbie” couldn’t possibly be a “real toy” offered to kids.

As I began to ponder the information in these articles, I began to wonder what it means for the future of the church. I serve a small congregation attended largely by people who fit rather firmly in the Builder generation (aka The Silent Generation - born prior to 1945). We do have a representation of Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964) but Gen X and Millennials are barely represented. Statistically, we are a typical Lutheran congregation and we ask the typical question, “how can we get ‘young people’ back in the pews?”

The question we ask is timeless. I recall Dr. Susan McArver presenting “Lutherans in the South” to the Southeastern Synod Professional Leaders Convocation in Fall 2010. She read from the notes of a Synod meeting of the 1800’s in which the data showed an absence of post-confirmation and pre-marriage age men and women. Yes, in the 1800’s the same question was raised: “how do we get ‘young people’ back into the church?”

Many of us have assumed that the “young people” will come back when they settle into a career-oriented job, get married, and have children. But as the research from Pew Research and the Barna Group has shown, this is happening later and later (if at all) for Generation X and Millennials. They simply aren’t “coming back” to church. (To be honest, many of them were never raised in the church to begin with, so it’s not even a matter of coming back - it is a matter of coming at all.)

Add to that a whole different worldview that is held by Gen X and Millennials. What is articulated in each of the sections of “The Generation of Contrast” appears to be the difference of a generation of “absolutes” for the Builders versus three generations of “increasing relativity” (the boomers may be seen more as a generation of opposition). The problem is then that the church is perceived as associated with absolutes, not allowing for questions and beliefs that may differ. It’s similar to the issue that Oldsmobile faced in the 1980’s when they came out with the slogan “this isn’t your father’s Oldsmobile. There needs to be a way to “be church” without it meaning “only if you think exactly like your grandparents” which, like it or not, is the perception that many Millennials and Gen Xers have of the church. It’s like asking them to give up their smart phones and use only a landline – they just aren’t going to do it.

So what are we to do?

Let’s look at Jeremiah 29, a well-loved passage for many, especially that memorable verse 11, “ 'For I know the plans I have for you' declares the Lord…” Many of us have read this passage over the years and used it to say “good things come to those who wait, especially if you wait in the Lord” but that’s not exactly what God is saying here. This verse is declared to the exiles in Babylon who have been begging to go back to their homeland of Jerusalem, but the Lord says to them (verse 5) “now settle here (Babylon) and build houses … plant gardens … get married, have children.” You can imagine the exiles asking, “In Babylon?” and this is why God responds, “I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans for a future and hope.”

It may be time to admit that we are in a modern day “Babylon”. America in 2012 is a world very different from the “Jerusalem” we knew as American in 1960, 1970, 1980, or 1990. The question is then, do we spend our time longing for Jerusalem and pining for the days of old or do we begin to build houses, plant gardens, and marry and have children?

What if instead of asking the question, “how do we get the ‘young people’ back into church,” we ask the question “how does the church exist where the ‘young people’ are?” Or as Bolz-Weber put it in her blog, how do we start listening to Millennials instead of seeing them as targets of a campaign?

This is where I think the Lutheran tradition is uniquely positioned to engage in conversation with Gen X and Millennials. Ecclesia Semper Reformanda est. Dialectic Tension. Bound Conscience. As a friend of mine put it, “Lutherans have always asked questions. How often does Martin Luther ask in the catechism 'what does this mean' ?” I don’t have to tell you the diversity shared by Lutheran congregations. I bet we would be hard-pressed to find any two that are the same, but we all have similarities, a core of beliefs that keeps us together. The question is how to present this acceptance of diversity and willingness to ask questions without being a “wishy-washy” church (especially in a region where the Southern Baptist Convention has worked so hard to make it about the absolutes). How is it that we as a church body can embrace congregations that take a strong feminist perspective (Her Church/Ebenezer Lutheran, San Francisco) and those that would rather not call a woman to lead from the pulpit (I’ll leave anonymity here, but I know concretely of at least one such congregation) How do we embrace members of our congregations who are members of the National Rifle Association sitting in pews with those who are against the private ownership of firearms? The list goes on, but I think the answer lies in the concept of adiaphora and getting to the core of what we believe as Lutherans. What really matters?

We can no longer assume that if we open the doors of our church and say “all are welcome” that people will come in (no matter how many ways we invite them). We have to go out and “be church” where the people are. Would it be possible to hold worship in public places and have a liturgical flow to conversation that would include Confession and Forgiveness, the Word, and the Meal? This might mean holding “Coffee and Conversation” at a local coffeeshop so that people can drop by and ask questions, wrestle with answers, and be fed by the interaction. Maybe it could be done at a restaurant – literally breaking bread together as an act of worship. At a dog park? In an exercise facility? Around a pool table? While tailgating before a sporting event? Would it be possible to be a worshipper and to not step foot into a building labeled "church"?

These ideas generally challenge the Builder generation because they think very differently than the younger generations. They want to reach out, but they do so by saying “come, be like us” – the old story of the miserly man drowning and the rescuer says “give me your hand, give me your hand”, and the man refuses to be rescued; another person comes up and says "take my hand" and the man takes the rescuer’s hand and is pulled to safety. Until we as a church get out of the “come, join us” mindset and get into the “we’ll come to you for conversation” mindset, we may be destined to struggle.