Generational Differences in the Church Causes Conflict

An article about generational differences in the church caught my eye recently.  It seems that the young pastor's communication style is causing disconnect with the older members of the congregation.

The question posed was "Our church just hired a pastor who is young enough to be the child of many members.  His language about 'the emerging church', 'post modernism' and 'interfaith dialogue' distresses older members." 

The result is unhappy constituents in the church.  The communication style and words used by the young pastor is causing sparks to fly and a disconnect between the generations.    Older members have trouble understanding what he means by "the emerging church" and the terms he uses makes them turn away from his sermons.

Michael Clingenpeel, pastor of River Road Church believes that the young pastor is responsible for the words he uses to encourage change.

I believe this is a continuation of the ubiquitous generational conflict we all face.  Regardless of the industry, people of different generations have trouble communicating with each other.  It is not simply a matter of verbiage.  It is a matter of mindset.  Yes, people don't like change, but the truth is change is inevitable.

In this instance, the responsibility lies both with the young pastor and his congregation.  This is an opportunity to open a dialogue whereby everyone can candidly hold a discussion about their faith.

If the young pastor relents to the older members of the congregation, he might lose the support of the younger generation.  They are the future of the church and we need them in order for there to be a congregation going forward.

I say, follow the action of the Pope. On January 23, 2010 Pope Benedict XVI gave a new commandment to priests struggling to get their message across: Go forth and blog.

As a matter of fact the Pople has several blogs and many are right here on blogger.  A  really good blog by the pope allows the visitor to choose the languge that works for them.

Just google pope: blog and you might be surprised at the quantity of blogs out there.

My point is, the pope has jumped on the social media bandwagon because he realizes that generational differences mean that you must communicate with your constituents the way they expect it.  He communicates with his flock using the medium that works for them.

Here is another good pope website.  He is on Facebook as well.  You go with change and meet the people. 

I dare say the young pastor should do the same.  Help the congregation to realize the value of varied styles of communication and work with them break down the barriers he currently faces.

Moving from Generation ME to Generation WE

It's the end of the decade and it's been an interesting one. We went from the "Me Generation" as the baby Boomers called themselves to "Generation ME" as the Gen Ys call themselves.

Generation ME focused on what happens outside of themselves. Everything begins and ends with "ME" - My videos, my Flickr, YouTube which is all about ME, MySpace, and numerous other online means of showing off how wonderful I am.

Admittedly, there were some positive aspects of creating videos for fun, but meaness, bullying and showing off was off the charts this decade. The decaide was filled with incidents where the good samaritans were scarce. If they helped at all, they did so *after* they took a video of the incident.

Book titles bore out the focus on one's self. Books like "Not Everyone Gets a Trophy" and "The Narcissism Epidemic" chronicled the mindset of the new generation and looked for ways to connect with the mindset of the young generation.

Even when alone, some took videos of themselves in various states of undress while debasing themselves. It seemed as though no one knew the word or the emotion called SHAME.  The hottest new means of becoming famous was a sex tape, done alone or with others.

Parents joined "REALITY SHOWS" to demonstrate how dysfunctional their families were. This type of 'entertainment' was so popular that one "D-List" couple crashed a White House Party so that they could get on a reality show. Another family pulled a stunt that included implying that their young son was trapped in a balloon that had taken off.   After thousands of dollars were spend and hundreds of emergency personnel tried to save the boy, we learned that it was a publicity stunt.

So let's close the decade on a positive note. We learned a lot about networking, connecting, finding and reconnecting and that there's more to life than just ME.

What's to come in this new decade? 
 
Lets commit to making 2010 the beginning of a new decade called the "WE Decade." Let's use the connections we made with Social Media to help each other enter the decade of wonderful possibilities where we come together to create a better decade than the one we just ended.
 
Let's commit to learning more about each other and communicate better.   Like anything else, the decade will be what we made of it.  We can use it to synergize our differences, use the best from each generation and forge a union of the minds.