"To be always relevant, you have to say things which are eternal." --Simone Weil
Out of Ur has been running a couple of entries here and here that speak about how younger pastors can relate to "Boomer" pastors. They are entitled (provocatively) "Disarming the Boomers:
Can a younger pastor bring change without getting blown away?" Here's the lead-in:
Let’s be honest. The distance between the Boomers and Busters isn’t just a generation gap—it’s a generation gorge. The cultural, technological, and philosophical shifts that have occurred in recent decades have given these two generations fundamentally different perspectives"
David Swanson writes,
One of the phrases that a young leader grows to loathe is, “You need to be patient.” Or at least I did. The truth is that “slow” and “fast” are very subjective. After a couple of years, I began to recognize the subtle looks of panic as I would suggest strategies or new ideas for the church. While these ideas seemed reasonable to me, to some of our Boomer leaders they sounded quite risky, radical even.
I am 53 years old, and I couldn't agree more, David. Speed certainly is subjective! Your slow may be my fast. But think about this: for both of us--as well as for those from the Psalmist to anyone who is suffering from evil and injustice--God's fast may be our slow. And similarly, for God, both Boomers and Busters must be incredibly slow. You might not be the only one who is impatient.
So maybe we should try to think about things not simply from our own subjective framework. (That is, after all a very Modernist thing to do, as Descartes--one of the Early Modernist Fathers--demonstrated.) Maybe neither Boomer modernism nor Buster postmodernism offer a perspective that is best able to be faithful to Christ.
Maybe we should be truly relational, and always be asking, "how can I keep in step with the Lord? What speed is He moving at?" None of us-- Boomers or Busters or Whatevers-- will ever be able to fully match His pace in the Kingdom dance Even as He is patient with us, we need to be patient with Him and with each other.
At the same time, we should always keep singing the psalmist's constant refrain, "How long, O Lord? How long?" All of us--Boomers and Busters and Whatevers-- share that song.
2 comments:
Hi Beth!
Interesting stuff there. I can see the validity in the camps on each side of this river. However, I would have to say, that I relate with the author more closely than the Boomer.
There are some good things to think about here. Thanks for sharing it!
I guess what I'm trying to say is that although I am technically a Boomer, and though I treasure my "Buster and Beyond" friends, I identify with the old Covenant motto, "I am a companion of all them that fear thee" (AV) --in its update, "I am a friend to all who fear you, to all who follow your precepts, " (Ps. 119:63).
Home can be where we come from. That can be a place, or a generation, or a culture, or a philosophical perspective. But home can also be where we are most comfortable. That can also be a place, or a generation, or a culture or a philosophical perspective.
A liberal education gives us the ability to transcend geography and generations; but it doesn't necessarily entail homelessness. Where I come from generationally is Boomerville, but that is not where I am most comfortable. Maybe the best education of all is that which points us toward our True Home.
Honestly, I doubt any of us will ever be completely comfortable with anything less than the New Jerusalem. My guess is that we will find it simultaneously both totally new and totally familiar. And I bet when we get there, we will also find that there will be neither Greek nor Jew, male nor female, slave nor free, Boomer nor Buster.
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