Barbarians at the Gate?

In my relatively brief lifetime I have seen a tremendous change in the Assemblies of God. When I was a little boy back in the 60's the A/G was unknown to most of my school friends. When we would talk about where we went to church I envied my Baptist and Nazarene friends, because the other kids had at least heard of their church. The A/G was regarded in many circles as a ragtag group of holy rollers, residing outside the mainstream of church. I find it a little ironic, now, to see the A/G viewed as not only mainstream, but hopelessly bogged down in old-school tradition in the view of the generation now coming to influence. The baby boomers, of whom I am a young member, are no longer the revolutionaries and world changers. We are the obstacles. We are the establishment we railed against so many years ago. Back then many articles were written about the "generation gap". There was a huge chasm separating the worldviews of the boomers from their parents. Now the boomers are separated just as far from their children. As we saw our parents holding us back, our children see us as obstacles to their clear vision for the future.

In watching the online streaming video of the business sessions of the recently completed General Council, I saw that the generation gap is alive and well in our movement. Resolutions were debated and although the words were civil, the attitudes were dismissive and distrustful in several instances. I saw resolutions which would have changed some things that had good technical reasons for their success or failure, seemingly voted up or down based on the emotional pleas of those arguing for or against their passage. It all boiled down to the attitudes of "protecting the institutions" vs. "bringing change to institutions that don't work". And it got pretty intense at times. Challenges were laid down, and threats of leaving were made.

It doesn't have to be that way. As we move forward, both young and old need to realize one important thing. The old will not be "in control" much longer. The old need to remember this and begin to think in terms of legacy. We need to see if the issues we defend so vigorously are transcendent issues or merely institutions of our own making. Organizational structures and matters of polity are not the altars we really want to sacrifice our legacies on. We need to explain the heart of how we got here instead of giving the impression that we are fighing off the barbarians at the gate. We need to be mentoring the young and asking for their counsel and advice on decisions we make that they will be living with. There is no room for "if you don't like it you can hit the road" attitudes. Let's be smart. The old might have a majority now, but their members are dying off. The ranks of the young are growing. They will be the majority soon. We can be mentors with respected opinions or we can wait to be replaced and see every change as an attack on what we have built.

The young need to realize the same thing. They have time on their side. They will be in charge, and soon. Much of what we are doing now will be changed, and for the better in most instances, because the changes will reflect current realities of how organizations should relate to the organized. Fabricating long-term solutions to short-term problems will cause greater troubles down the road. Threatening to leave the movement if a particular resolution is not passed will not help anything. Disrespecting the life's work of the current generation will not help. It is good that the young are frustrated. It means that they are thinking and that they are passionate about what they are inheiriting. In the few short years until the young take over completely, it would serve them well to get to know their predecessors; learn what to hold on to and what mistakes not to make.

Both groups need to be willing to try new things. We have much to learn from one another. Old folks, the non-essential stuff we are defending so vigorously now will be changed. Get ready for it. Young folks, some of your sure-fire ideas will fizzle. Count on it. But we will all benefit more from a commitment to unity than we will from a consolidation of political power.