X + Y = CHAOS

Yesterday in my travels of ministry I ran into many different types of people who represent our Church. As I look back on those interactions I realize that I engaged 4 different generations that make up the modern (or postmodern) Church of America. As I reflect on yesterday I wonder to myself if we understand our generational differences at all and even respect them? The answer is a simple no! Unfortunately we (all generations in the Church) kick and scream at times like little children wanting things done our own ways so that each generation will get what they want from Sunday morning worship or from the ministries offered from the Church.

In the past couple of years I have started to notice a trend with 2 specific generations that is starting to trouble me. The generations are X and Y (sometimes called millennials). In the modern Church I represent GenX being in my 30's and those who are Y are usually in their early 20's. The trend that I am noticing with these 2 different generations is what I like to call a "catered mentality." These 2 generations that have grown up at the height of the technological revolution are the most restless generations that this nations has probably ever known. We have grown up with television as our babysitter and our world is full of screens. Our attention span has been said by experts to have only a 3-5 seconds. We need to be entertained and always seem to be on the go. Slowing down for us is watching television for an hour or so. We have an expectation of being fulfilled or we will take our desires somewhere else and that includes that Church. These 2 generations have seen the largest divorces among any other generations in our American history that has lead to drug use, sexual addiction, homosexuality, and disrespect of most authority figures. But you would think that once a person has entered a relationship with Jesus that most of these problems would take care of themselves, but that is no the case.

Generation X & Y are two completely different generations. GenX is probably the last generation of teens who worked thankless jobs and have a quasi-hard work ethic. GenY are the children of those who did not have much and what they did have gave all of that to their children in the hope that it would bring them happiness. With all of this baggage some from these 2 generations enter through our Church doors every Sunday morning looking for fulfillment. We need to realize how they think and learn how to connect the preceding generations to them. X & Y need to learn from the generations who are ahead of them and need to connect to those from those generations for the Church to become a place of spiritual growth and nurture. Instead of battling over music and ministries we need to be finding some middle ground in light of God's Word together. The generations above X & Y need to be ministering to these younger generations who will and have begun to take over the operating functions of the Church. If generations do not learn to move forward together in the Name of Jesus there will be more chaos in the future than there is today in the modern Church. No matter what generation you are in you have a command to work together for the Lord in unity. Someone who answers Jesus' call to "love his neighbor" will respect other generations and do their best to minister too them.