Deconstructing church
Five Stages of a Generational Revolution
Since
1970’s I have been an eyewitness to the Boomer revolution in church. In 1970
all the power was in the hand of the so-called “greatest generation.” We
Boomers didn’t think the way they did church was so great. We had our own ideas
and initiated a massive revolution and by the 1980’s we had overthrown this
older generation and were solidly in charge of the church which we promptly
changed into the kind of church we envisioned. Now come the emergents and want
to do the same. How will we react?
While
pondering the Boomer revolution I think I see five stages of a generation
revolution. And I think most Boomers are now at stage five while the emerging
generation is at stage one and two. Here are the five stages I’ve come up with:
1. BAD. The first stage is a “prophetic stage”—the
new generation speaks out again what it sees as bad about the church. They see bad and complain. At this stage the
Boomers bitterly complained in the 1970’s about all the bad in their parents’
church: legalism, separation from the real world, second-rate old-fashioned
music, dark poorly-lit sanctuaries, formal organs and robed choirs, judgmental
preaching, extended altar calls, lack of preparedness, denominations, camp
meetings, prayer meetings, and business meetings. In my denomination Boomers rebelled openly defying rules forbidding attending movies,
divorce, anti-Catholicism, and all other church rules about “externals” like
jewelry, dress, and hair along or anything praising the plain, the poor, or the
small. At this stage many Boomers weren’t even sure they ever wanted to take charge of the church. Some complained for a
half dozen years then simply walked away from church forever. Those who
remained complained and criticized and pointed out what was wrong with the
church until eventually they moved into the second stage.
Most of today’s emergents reside squarely in stage
one—they are developing their
generational list of everything wrong with the church and deciding if they even
want to inherit it at all or maybe they’ll simply walk away. Stage one is a
sour place to spend much time. Fortunately for the Boomers, it was fairly short
since we outnumbered our parents and knew how to fight these power wars. Plus
Boomers had a bunch of sympathetic denominational leaders who provided cover
for us. And we were so numerous we got in charge fast. Today’s emergents have
been slow in grasping power and seem stuck in stage one complaining.
2. ADD. This second stage grows out of the first and overlaps
with it. It is a tad more positive in its negativity. Now the new generation
adds to its criticism of what is bad by seeing what is missing from the church—what needs added. Some
of today’s emergents are already in this stage as they complain about the
church needing to add more ministries and programs addressing the poor, the
suffering, AIDS, and the environment, and serving the world. This stage still
deconstructs as long as it focuses in the past at what is missing, but once it
shifts to the future and the new generation begins to envision a church adding
these new values a positive imagination (a vision
of sorts) will begin to draw the new generation into stage three.
3. KEEP.
Eventually the new generation know well everything
wrong with church but the more mature members starts asking the third question—what should we keep? Here
they recover the baby from the bathwater they are tossing out. This stage is
led by thoughtful leaders of the emerging generations—they are “conservatives”
in asking what should be conserved from their parent’s church. Those who get to
this stage first often are elected leaders first for they are seen as consensus
builders. This is a “consensus stage” as the new generation finds core common
ground among themselves and the previous generation. Here they start to make
peace with some from the older generation as they show they are going keep some
things precious to the older generation. A few thoughtful Emergents are at
stage three right now. They will probably be the
leaders of the future.
4. BUILD. IN the
following decade the younger generation gets solidly in charge. At stage four
they develop the infrastructure for their new church. They shut down the bad, introduce their add as they retain some keep.
They build the church after the fashion of their own values. They shut
down programs, start new ones, launching initiatives, organize conferences,
introduce new methods and discard old ones. The Boomers did this in the 80s and
90’s. Eventually there is such consensus among the new generation in charge
that these new values are enshrined as denominational goals, expectations,
values and even rules. A new kind of
legalism emerges where everyone is expected to line up with the new consensus
and “get with the program.” A new consensus emerges. The new generation’s
changes become “normal.” Those who don’t line up are opposed, dismissed or
quietly sidelined as “out of touch” or “not on board.” By the time the “build
stage” matures most everyone in the church is on the bus and the foot-draggers
have been marginalized or chased to the back of the bus. In my denomination the
Boomers peaked at the “build stage” about the year 2000. At the peak the
leaders can hardly imagine church any other way but the way they have remade
the church. They believe “we got it right finally.”
5. PROTECT. The
peak doesn’t last long. Once the Boomers built their revolution into the fabric
of the entire church here comes a new generation who isn’t impressed with the
church we’ve made. They see what is wrong with the church we made and want them
to inherit. They see bad (!) in our
church and see lots of things missing that should be added. They complain. We Boomers who now have all the power forget
we were once the complaining revolutionaries and now act like we are guardians
of the faith and practice The emergents become a threat. The builders have
become protectors, like the old
conservatives we once faced. Our children are at stage one and two while we
live in stage five becoming protectors of our precious revolution. The
emergents complain; the Boomers defend.
Boomers
have a choice. We can ignore the
coming generation completely and make sure they never get any power. Or, worse, we can attack the emergents and simply drive them out of our churches thinking
we are preserving “the right way” to do church. We can leave the emergents
languishing in a pool of negative deconstructing and never share enough power
for them to change things. We can drive them out of our churches and collect each
others’ tithes making a comfortable church for ourselves for the rest of our
lives. But, there are much happier endings too. We
could mentor the emerging generation into taking power in the church and making
the changes God lays on their hearts. Or, if we insist on preserving our own
kind of church for ourselves we could at least sponsor emergents as they plant
new churches fashioned on their own values. It is our choice. We have virtually
all the power in today’s church. I wonder what we will do?
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While
thinking about the above over summer I have been asking myself three questions:
1.
What mistakes might Boomers make at the “Protect stage?”
2. What
will get emergents to move beyond the drop & add stages to deciding what to
keep?
3.
Might individuals go through similar stages in their own personal faith
development?
So, what do you
think?
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