Tag Archives: generations

When God spoke to Samuel

1 Reply

In the bilingual group at the University Church of Christ in Abilene, we’ve started using the Narrative Lectionary to guide our preaching. This lectionary provides a text for each week, which helps those preaching guide their thoughts. This week’s text was 1 Samuel 3, when God calls to young Samuel during the night. I was preaching this Sunday, and some unusual thoughts jumped out at me as I worked with the text.

  • Eli’s physical blindness mirrored his spiritual blindness. As high priest, he led a religious system that allowed corruption and abuse to have a full-time seat at the table. Because of this, he had lost the ability to receive messages from God.
  • Eli had failed largely because he loved his sons more than he loved God. He failed to correct them. He failed to protect the people that they abused.
  • As often happens, a younger person could hear what the older person had lost the ability to hear.
  • As often happens, the younger person needed the guidance of someone with more experience in the faith in order to be able to make sense of God’s words.
  • And as often happens, the message the younger person received wasn’t a new message; the same prophecy had been proclaimed in chapter 2 in even more detail. What was significant was that God was showing how the prophetic voice was passing from one generation to another.

Those were some thoughts that struck me, though I confess that some could be because of where I find myself in my life’s journey. What thoughts strike you when reading 1 Samuel 3?

Traditions, generations, and a warning of death

Leave a reply

abandoned churchThere’s another side to the generational issue. Just as there are young people who dismiss their elders, so there are older Christians who “despise the youth” of those with less life experience. To many, it feels like the only thing that younger generations want to do is change things.

The reaction is often to fight back with three deadly phrases:

  • We’ve never done it that way before
  • That’s not how we’ve always done it
  • We tried that once and it didn’t work

In the end, it boils down to tradition. Dr. Wendell Broom once described the creation of a tradition. He said that there is a problem that needs to be solved, and a solution is found. That solution works, so it is used again and again. Over time, that one possible solution becomes the only solution; tradition becomes law.

This happens all the more in a movement like the Restoration Movement. When so many have staked so much on being right, having right understanding, and doing things the right way, any deviation from tradition becomes (a) deviation from what is right; and (b) a condemnation of what was being done before (and thereby those doing it).

If I’m convinced that I have fully restored the church and made it exactly what it should be, there is no longer room for “movement” within my movement. No room for thought or study. Rather than passing on a passion for investigative Bible study, we pass on conclusions; any Bible study that doesn’t reach those same conclusions is necessarily wrong.

And that’s when movements become institutions. What was an organism becomes an organization. What was an animate being slowly becomes an inanimate object. And death is not far away.

Fortunately, that’s an extreme. Few congregations follow that route to its conclusion. But it should stand as a warning to all. We give future generations room to grow, explore, and learn beyond what we know, or we condemn our churches to a slow, painful death.

photo courtesy MorgueFile.com

Ignoring the wisdom of generations past

2 Replies

elderlyWho wants to listen to the old-timers? When is the next generation going to get a chance to take the lead? Who cares about what people said and did 10, 20, or 30 years ago?

Some of these thoughts are stirred by the slight toward my friend Juan Antonio Monroy. This year is a special anniversary, marking a half century since a story that many of us in churches of Christ grew up with: how this man from Spain found the churches of Christ at the New York World’s Fair and learned that they shared the same doctrine. As Juan comes to the States to commemorate that event, there is one congregation that won’t be taking part: the church that supported Juan in ministry for three decades. There was no room on their schedule for someone who is part of their history, but apparently not of their present nor future.

I remember when I was working on my master’s degree in communication. At that time, I could choose to write a thesis or to do a non-thesis degree. I was considering doing a thesis, preferably something related to the two years I had just spent in Argentina.

That’s when two elders from the University Church of Christ asked to meet with me. These two men had been leading the missions committee at UCC, had made numerous trips to Argentina, and were excited at the thought that someone would do research that would be useful to the missionaries. They asked if I would be interested in doing a study in conjunction with the missionaries supported by UCC.

I was thrilled. It was what I had been hoping to do. I had even broached the subject with the missionaries, and they had expressed interest in the study and a willingness to help shape the research.

Then they mentioned, “But we’ve just restructured things at University, and the elders are no longer on the committees. You’ll need to get approval from the missions committee.”

So I went through channels and submitted a request to the missions committee. A few weeks later, the deacon in charge pulled me aside and said, “We’re not going to help you with this study. I don’t know anything that I need to know to do my job. And no one who has been involved with the Argentina thinks it’s a good idea.”

I was stunned. And saddened. And fully aware of how ridiculous this man’s words were, especially the last sentence. Two of the men who had been most involved in the Argentina work had approached me about doing this study. It was obviously that this deacon hadn’t spoken with them or hadn’t given their input any credence.

Sadly, though, I see the same in me. I give little respect to those who have gone before. Like your current plumber criticizing your previous plumber, I can only see the defects in what previous generations did; I can’t appreciate anything positive that they contributed.

History has value. Experience brings wisdom. We don’t have to be tied to the past, but we do well to be informed by it.

Was yesterday better?

5 Replies

On Friday, Steve Teel made a comment on Thursday’s post, an insightful thought that doesn’t deserve to languish in the comment section. Steve is a former missionary to Argentina who now preaches for the Hendersonville Church of Christ in North Carolina.

Steve said:

Tim, what do you suppose would be the snap shoot, or the bullet points on the North American Christian movement 50 years ago? 1961?
1. Racism prevades the Christian church. A number of “Christians” participated in a recent lynching in South Carolina (actually happened), and vowed that the KKK was founded on Biblical principles.
2. Christian colleges are staunch on their segragation policies, “after all there are Black schools for them to attend.”
3. Despite the growing number of studies against smoking, a majority of Christian men smoke at least two packs a week.
4. In the churches of Christ, large numbers of churches are taking a stand against orphan homes. Outsiders see it as a power play, though long public debates defend the split on doctrinal reasons.
5. Spousal abuse remains a closet topic among Christians. A new study, however, indicates that beating a wife falls within the range bringing her into subjection as dictated in Ephesians 5.

That’s a great reminder. It’s easy to look at the church today and say, “Oh, things are getting so bad.” However, if we look objectively, each era has its own problems. It’s not that we have challenges today whereas there were none in other times. We have different challenges today.

Any thoughts? Would you add to Steve’s analysis of the church in 1961? Any thoughts about the implications of the fact that each generation faces a different set of challenges?

“Say not, “Why were the former days better than these?” For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.” (Ecclesiastes 7:10)