Selected
responses to “Will the Boomers [ever] retire”
è I think there can be success when leadership is transferred. When the Boomer leader names the successor, instead of a next generation coup. This type of transfer of leadership could take place, when personalities match up and egos do not feel jeopardized. Example sounds like the situation you stated at the end of your article. I know of a situation where the pastor (a little older than a boomer) brought on an assistant pastor, for that very reason, transfer of leadership. Senior Pastor is leaving sooner than was originally planned and the people seem to be drawing towards the new leadership. "Coups and Force" lead me to think that the innocent bystanders (congregants, members) are going to be the ones who would suffer most.
è My
gut-level answers...
Simple
answer = Most won't
till way past prime
Emotional
answer = I sure the
*&%$ hope so
Spiritual
answer = After
years of exceptional competence this will finally test their character
Political
answer = Nothing is
more difficult than gaining power, except releasing it
Real
answer = The ones
that will let go shouldn't and the ones that won't should
It's not about having the right
generation in power. It's about having
the right people.
è Who
cares? Boomers hold on to power and
offices and free cars and travel accounts and the senior pastorates of the
large churches thinking they have won the lottery. Sorry. We are not
impressed. You can have those things Boomers—we don’t care. You’ve sought all your life to be successful
in the eyes of others now along come the next generation who is singularly
unimpressed with the signs of your success.
I’d rather be church planting than have your Lincoln town car
anyway. The top of the ladder is not in Kansas City but in
the inner city.
è I'm on the other end, born in '62, technically a boomer but on the late edge. I don't know how willing boomers will be in turning over power. So much of the discussion of issues has been in the frame of "we're right and those OLD guys are wrong" that it will be hard to let go and let these young guys who think they know better have to much power, they might mess it up now that we've worked so hard to get it right. For myself, I'm not much of a power person, but I hope that when the time comes I'll trust God to lead the next generation to be what is needed to reach their generation, and that they will stand in awe of the same great men and women of God who have inspired us. Maybe finding in us few to add to that line of heroes, and add some of their own to the next.
è The boomers don’t have very good models in the next generation up. The rear guard of “Greatest generation” denominational leaders have hung on way too long… they continue into their 70’s collecting their full salaries, collecting their pensions and collecting their Social Security laughing all the way to the bank which they are breaking. They are breaking the Social Security bank by drawing out money while at their richest era of life. They are breaking the pension bank likewise. But most of all they are breaking the “confidence bank” by riding the denominational Titanic down while living sumptuously. This is what you left out of your column. The boomers really aren’t in charge of our denominational structures. These leftover “greatest generation” are still dominating the power structures keeping many of the Boomers are “associates” or “assistants” when it comes to the highest levels of power. Which means for many boomers they will finally say farewell to the final “greatest” generation leaders at about age 60. Boomers who are 60 should be thinking of a plan to turn over power to younger leaders, but having just gotten the supreme power we certainly are entitled to lead a while aren’t we? You may be correct in stating boomers have all the power at the local church level, but I think you’ve missed the real situation at the “upper” levels of the church—boomers are still trying to get in charge.
è
Obviously no one really knows but I have a hunch that there will be some
self-fulfilling prophecy on this one. I
think Boomers will hesitate to give over high-level leadership for fear there
is a lack of capable leadership.
This will put the younger generation in a holding pattern when it
comes to developing their own leadership potential. Some stuff you just have to do to learn. By the time the boomers get old enough that
they have to at least begin considering giving up leadership they are going to
look around for competent young leaders and find few or none and so they will
keep leading until they are forced to give over leadership because of health
concerns or because they have become completely irrelevant. And who will take over from them? Some bright middle aged guys who have had
their leadership growth stunted by a lack of opportunity to lead at higher
levels who eventually will be great leaders but who it will take several years
to "catch up". It won't kill
the denomination but it will make for a turbulent quadrennium or two. Perhaps there is a reality TV show in that
somewhere. I am faced with a dilemma. I
can relate this story with some name dropping or I can veil it all in terms
like "respected pastor" and "major denominational leader"
and sound like I am trying to make this a bigger deal than it is. I'll do the Gen X thing and be authentic. At the 2000 General Conference I was having
breakfast with Orval Butcher. This was
the morning after all the drama about HC Wilson returning to the post of GS. Dr Wilson was and is my DS. I asked Dr. Butcher what he thought of the
way things went and about the other guy (Marlin Mull as I recall) getting voted
in as GS. He responded that he wasn’t
really that happy about it. Assuming he
meant like seemingly all non-Atlantic district Wesleyans that he wanted Dr.
Wilson to be GS I said that I could not share his disappointment and I was glad
Dr Wilson had turned the position down in order to remain our DS. I'll never forget what Dr Butcher said next. He said "oh I didn't want him to get it
either! It's time for these old guys to
get out of the way and get some new blood in there." I was blown away. Here was an elder statesman of the Wesleyan church if ever there
was one, calling a couple of boomers (or slightly older than boomers) "old
guys" and saying they needed to get out of the way and let some young guys
lead. I always respected him for
that. That story always gives me a
smile but it also gives me hope. Hope
that Dr Butcher's generation "got it". And hope that maybe by refusing the position of GS and staying DS
of our little district far away from Indiana Dr Wilson was showing that he and
at least some of the boomers "got it" too.
è The boomers who will relinquish leadership are the very ones we need to stay in. The boomers who cling to power are the very ones who should leave.
è Gen X and Y-er's say, "Don't the baby boomers know they're no longer in power any way?"
è I'm not
sure if the Boomers will ever let go!
I'm serving in a church now where there is around 15 boomers who hold
all the power and decision making ability.
They are so stubborn and stuck in their ways. Over the past 5 months we have lost nearly 50 people. It's a staggering number! I keep telling
them that we need to be more relevant and more welcoming as a church, but they
always vote to do something that never worked in the past. I've shown them quotes from smart people
like Dr. Bob Whitesel, John Maxwell, Keith somebody, and still they refuse to
join the 21st century. Can you believe
that over the past 20 years no one has gotten saved in this church. No one! The boomers have scared away all
their kids and now are fending off what youth we have left. I fear that if they don't let go their
church will close. Only the Lord’s will
can tell.
è Here’s
a related question: Will the American church ever share power with the
church overseas? In our
denomination that’s where all the growth is happening, yet all our leaders
(fine men, one and all) are products of the
è I've always been told that God has the final say over who is called to leadership in a church. Oh, wait. That is assuming we humbly seek His will and are willing to accept His leading. If the leadership, both pastoral and lay, are truly seeking His will then that makes the entire discussion about handing over power rather irrelevant. Yes we are human beings and are thereby prone to not always being tuned in to the correct heavenly frequency. When properly dialed in we will be able to listen to the true Authority concerning these matters of eternal importance.
è Once again your articles bring up a conflict in my thinking. I agree and disagree with you all at the same time. I'm 27 and called to be a senior pastor. I'm tired of the "hang out in youth ministry until your 35" attitude, which I have encountered and am working around. But I also disagree with the attitude that once someone turns 60 or 65 or 70 they should relinquish influential positions, which seems to be an underlying thought in your article. Age doesn't equal obsolescence. But there are only so many influential positions to go around. When it comes to pastoring a boomer friend of mine believes church planting is the answer. I start a church and pastor it, when a young person called to be a lead pastor emerges, I train him and help him plant. Churches have a life cycle like people, they are born and die. When my church is at its peak, the daughter church will be young and growing. When the daughter church is at its peak, my church will be in decline numerically. Mega churches complicate this but even then this model may work. A large church in our denomination planted a daughter church and it began with 500 people and is now running a couple thousand. I don't know if this is the answer but it's an approach some boomers will use. Maybe it falls into one of your categories or is a fourth one.
è
Within my own denomination
the average age of pastor is 60. My
father is 53 and falls in the bottom 25% age wise. To my knowledge an incumbent has never been voted out of the GS
position and this past year they tried to put through a vote that would extend
term limits past 16 years. Although it
got voted down it is worrisome that the idea was even thought up. I continuously heard statements like
"We don't have another leader or other leaders." Although on a more positive
note, at my own church a former GS who is 70 is the associate pastor under my
father who he was over for so many years.
I am hoping to get on staff after I graduate here and/or seminary and
eventually would like to switch places with my dad. When egos are out of the way it seems that this sort of
transitions are easier. But hey I'm young and idealist eh? (I'm new to your
site, and I don't always agree, but I always love to read your stuff)
What goes
around . . . comes around. As the Gen-Xer's continue to flex their idealistic
muscles (as on the EmergentWesleyan website) boomers will be slowly
marginalized. The main thing I hear over there is how the boomers
(although not stated as such) have ruined the church. Us boomers were railing
against our parents 30+ years ago in almost every area of life and now we have
become our parents. The same will happen in another 30 years. Because boomers
have made such a big deal about themselves, this whole generational shift thing
has taken on a life of its own. If we boomers struggle with giving up power
then we will be reaping what we have sown. I have tried to be apart of the
emergent conversation (because I lean toward some of its thoughts). However,. I
have found myself somewhat ignored or marginalized. My first response to
this was a feeling of rejection. I would imagine this was the feelings of
our parents back in our heady days. Every generation wants its place in the sun
-- without the shadow of the previous generation hanging over it. It does not
matter that I may agree with them (at least to a certain extent). What matters
is each generation thinks it's their invention, their particular place in the
sun. It's my feeling that some Gen-xers have latched onto the postmodern label because
it sets them apart from their so-called modern parents. Some Gen-xers will storm the Bastille, some
will infiltrate the enemy lines with stealth, while many will simply ignore the
whole generational frenzy. It is my hope that the generation gap theory dies
with our generation. In the same way
some boomers will go out kicking and screaming, others slink away with their
feelings hurt, and many will just ride off into the sunset, waving their hat
and shouting 'Hi ho Silver . . . away!!'
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