I recently preached at an evening church service in which there were few members in attendance. Of the folks that were there, the majority appeared to be over 50 years old with quite a few appearing to be over 65 and one whom I know to be 87 years old. While there is significant reason to be disappointed that younger folks were noticeably absent, I personally find a great deal of encouragement in the faithfulness of these older saints. I just read a good blog post by Les Puryear about The Lack of Respect for Older Saints by some younger pastors. He did a good job of presenting a biblical perspective of how Christians from different generations should interact with one another. This is something that has been on my mind for quite some time. It has been personally discouraging to me to see a distinct disconnection of the older members from younger members in the congregations with which I’ve been familiar. We need more communities where the older Christians are connected with the younger, especially in passing on their wisdom. I don’t believe that our churches are lacking in this area because the older folks are unwilling. I believe the younger generations are largely to blame for the generational divide. The attitude of Gen Xers (my generation) and Gen Yers is that we know and can do better than our parents and grandparents. That attitude seems to have transferred over to the church, guiding our worship services and programs. It seems to have alienated many of the older saints in the process. As a result, many of these older saints have taken a place on the sidelines. If you’ll permit me to continue with a sports metaphor – many of these saints haven’t dropped completely out, but have become spectators in the church, with a few of the more vocal assuming the role of a “referee” to cry “foul” when the younger ones get out of line. What a wonderful experience the church could be if we could breach this divide with the younger generation showing humility by allowing these older saints to move from the sidelines and assume the role of coaches where they belong. I pray that we all will respect the value of these dear brothers and sisters in Christ.Technorati Tags: Older Saints, Generation X, Generation Y, Humility, Church, Respect
I started reading a book yesterday that addresses some of this about the emerging generation. Interesting to see your post today.
Check out today’s post on my blog — “They like Jesus, but not the church” because I wrote some things the author put just in the first two chapters.
Marcus,
Thanks for the link.
Les