There’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.