Archive | January, 2009

Generating the Generation Gap

7 Jan

I, along with the rest of the Church world, have been troubled for some time with the gap that is so prevalent in our local churches…the gap that exists where 18-25 year olds should be.  Before you get thinking you know where I am heading, wait a sec.  Some may say they just don’t get it.  Some may say that’s the way it is and has been…they’ll come back (It’s just what young people do).  I don’t think that cuts it for me.  I wonder, if you asked those who are missing in that 18-25 range why they have abandoned ship, what would their response be…it could be that their priorities shifted (maybe their parents quit making them attend).  OR maybe it was because they were not effectively engaged as if they were a part of the church body.  Church was not a positive experience so why would they want to stay there.  The possibilities are endless.  But something that I have seen in a church or two in our area is that youth are not fully validated as a part of the church (present tense).  The youth are the future of the church…the not yet.  They WILL be the church, but not so much right now.  That is the equivalent of saying that anyone who has an AARP card is the church of yester year…they were the church but not so much anymore…it’s past for them.  They are really irrelevant.  I know.  It’s absurd.  But, unfortunately, it happens to young people.  So what I am wondering is this.  Would a group of people who were alienated want to remain in that place?  Is that why young people quit the church after Mom and Dad are no longer able to force them?  Why would they?  It seems that young people who are empowered and allowed to possess ownership in the church today are more apt to stick. 
Maybe I am way off base here.  What do you think?  

Leadership-the view from the bottom

3 Jan

I would consider myself an avid reader; however, I must clarify that.  I am a nerd.  I do not read fiction.  Lately, I have been reading some books about leadership.  The latest one was Tribes by Seth Godin.  (If you are looking for a great book on what leadership looks like, check this out.)  Anyway I have been thinking.  I know.  Dangerous, right?  I (and many other people I’m sure) read these books written by people who are at the top of the whole leadership thing.  The people who write these books are at the top, because what they do works.  I am curious about another angle about leadership.  What does leadership look like if we were to look at it from the bottom up?  What is it that people at the grass roots level and the middle levels would say they look for in a trusted leader?  What is it that draws them to a particular leader?  I have an idea or two, but I am more interested in what you think.