Category Archives: Generational differences

Didn’t we say that the building wasn’t the church?

cathedralSome final thoughts (for now) about buildings and the future of the church. In churches of Christ, we have traditionally fought about the identification of a building as “the church.” In my experience, we don’t emphasize that in our language as we once did, but we have tried to hold onto the concept.

That being said, it’s hard for a church to separate its identity from a physical location. Some of it has to do with memories and tradition, a bit like a house that’s belonged to your family for years. That house is not your family, but you have a lot of emotions invested in that house, lots of memories of who was born there, who died there, all the things that happened there.

The same happens with a church building, but on a larger scale. More memorable things happen in any given church building. You have multiple families with memories of weddings and funerals, baptisms and special days. It’s hard to separate that physical location from the identity of the church.

Older generations feel it even more. Besides the special memories, there’s the investment of money and effort that has gone into a building. There’s a since of pride and accomplishment in what the building represents, and there’s a deep sense of hurt when younger generations don’t share the feeling.

Of course, it’s not just the building that evokes that feeling. As younger generations reject doctrinal stances, question the structure of the church, and seek to develop their own liturgy, previous generations feel that they themselves are being judged along with everything else.

Randy Mayeux once pointed out that generational struggles come from the fact that one generation has built something, while the next generation wants to build their own projects. It takes great sensitivity on both sides to keep from exacerbating those differences. It takes a real focus on the Kingdom and the good of the Kingdom, getting beyond personal feelings and pride.

 

photo from MorgueFile.com

Generational differences in the church 2

A few quick things:
Long-time missionary to Thailand, Robert Reagan, is undergoing studies and treatment for tumors on his pancreas. Please keep him and his family in your prayers. Robert and I lived in an apartment together while at Abilene Christian University.
I got an e-mail from two ladies in Havana, listeners to my radio program. They were concerned about my safety following the hurricanes!
I’m pretty much “offline” this week due to the ACU Lectureship.
An interesting thought came up during the discussion about generational differences. The goal of “doing church our way” probably isn’t a good one. It’s all about yielding to others, looking to the interests of others, etc. It’s not about “my way” (and never “my way or the highway”).

Generational differences in the church

How many times do we see problems between the different generations at church? I was discussing with my wife the other day at what point we would turn into “the old folks” at church that complain about everything.
Twenty-five years ago, a friend of mine made an interesting analysis. He said that the problem is basically this: you’ve got one generation that has built something. It may be flawed, but its theirs. Then you’ve got another generation that is ready for their chance to do the building. When they propose something, the older generation takes it as a criticism of what they have built. One group wants the chance to build, the other wants to protect what they have already built.
I see a lot of truth in that analysis. What do you think?