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Serving our generation

Bill McRae

The greatest challenge that the Christian church faces as we move into the 21st century is to so adapt in our rapidly, radically changing days that it will be said of us as it was said of David, that he “served God’s purpose in his own generation” (Acts 13:36).

Twenty years ago, E. Stanley Jones, the great Methodist writer and missionary, was asked what he thought was the number one problem in the church. His reply was irrelevance – failing to show in concrete ways how Christ is relevant to all of life today. Elton Trueblood, an influential Quaker teacher and writer, said, “It is hard to exaggerate the degree to which the modern church seems irrelevant to modern man.” The greatest challenge we face is how to adapt in our rapidly changing days so that we will be relevant.

Effective churches are in touch with their times.

Is there a model that we can use as we move into the future? I think there is. In 1 Chronicles 12, nestled in the midst of genealogies and dull historic facts, is this gem: “The men of Issachar . . . understood the times and knew what Israel should do – 200 chiefs, with all their relatives under their command” (12:32). This small, rather obscure tribe of Israel was living at a time when there was rapid, radical, risky change taking place. Yet it is said that they understood the times. For example, in 1 Chronicles 10, when King Saul and his son Jonathan were slain on the battlefield, they understood that that was the judgement of God. Saul had sinned, and God had disqualified him and his family from leadership. In 1 Chronicles 11, when David was crowned king over a relatively small community around Hebron, the men of Issachar understood that David was God’s anointed successor and that God would expand David’s kingdom to include all 12 tribes of Israel.

Effective churches must understand their times, and in our time the changes are radical and rapid; they cause all kinds of upheavals. Most of us aren’t comfortable with change. Mark Twain said, “The only person who really likes change is a wet baby.” Yet we need to understand what is happening in our time if we are going to serve our generation.

In order to help us to understand our times, I want to introduce three people who represent three segments of our generation. First, “Gus” represents the group that we call the “builders”, the segment of our population that was born before 1945. These are the people who may have founded our local church, poured their lives into it and financially supported it for years and years. “Martha” represents the “boomers”, that generation of people born between 1946 and 1964. “Jason” represents the “busters”, those born after 1965, sometimes called “Generation X”. These are three segments of the generation that we have been called to serve. That is no easy task, because there are some very important differences between these segments.

Program styles. Gus likes programs that are formal, structured, planned, organized and controlled. Martha likes relational programs, where there is lots of give and take and relationship building. Jason likes spontaneous programs; he doesn’t want to plan them; he likes to just let it happen and have fun in it happening.

Focus. The focus of the builders is on programs. The focus of boomers is on people. The boomers tell us that if a program isn’t meeting the needs of people, we need to chuck the program. But the builders say, “We can’t chuck that program, we have had it for 40 years, and I love that program.” Jason is not interested in particular programs or particular people. He is interested in community, people enjoying interrelationships and fellowship. He is much more focused on the fact that we are the people of God than the fact I am a child of God.

Ministry. Builders are motivated to ministry by a sense of duty. Boomers are motivated to ministry by the sense of personal fulfillment and achievement that the ministry gives them. Busters are motivated to ministry by the challenges. Now, if we want to motivate people to do Christian ministry, the things that are going to motivate them are significantly different according to the segment from which they come.

Worship. Gus and his people like to worship in an atmosphere of reverence. They think you have to be a little quiet and a little solemn and definitely serious if you are going to be worshipping God. On the other hand, Martha is most comfortable worshipping in an atmosphere where there is dialogue, interaction and participation. Jason just likes energy – lots of noise, movement and activity.

Music. Gus loves the good old hymns of the faith; they are theological, doctrinal; there is meat in those hymns. Martha likes hymns, but she also enjoys praise choruses. Jason, of course, loves the contemporary praise choruses, where there is a lot of energy. He loves them because they are more personal and more experience-oriented, and because they talk to the Lord in the second person (“You”) while hymns generally talk of the Lord in the third person (“He”).

Sermons. Gus loves expository sermons. He wants the preacher to move through the Scriptures, explain them and apply them to life today. Martha loves “how to” sermons – how to be a Christian businesswoman, how to be a godly wife, how to be a spiritual mother, how to be a Christian woman in our culture. Jason wants the issues of our culture and our society addressed.

Financial support. Builders support missions, while boomers support missionaries  – and there is a world of difference. Boomers support people, while builders support organizations and institutions. When it comes to the busters, they support causes. They are the people behind crisis pregnancy centres, group homes for delinquent children and food banks, the people who push us to address poverty questions.

In a word. Three sayings catch the differences between these three segments of our society. The saying that Gus is most famous for is, “Are you sure?” Gus has run enough risks in his life; when he was younger, he stepped out in faith; but now Gus has come to the age when he is a little nervous about risk. He wants to be sure that a proposed direction is God’s leading. Martha is in the Nike generation. She says, “Let’s just do it. Let’s get on with it. Let’s get it done.” The saying for which Jason’s generation is most famous is: “Whatever.”

Builders (1920-45) Boomers (1946-64) Busters (1965-84) Program Style Formal Relational Spontaneous Focus Programs People Community Ministry Motivation Sense of Duty Personal Satisfaction Challenge Worship Reverence Interaction Energy Music Hymns Hymns/Praise Praise Sermons Expository “How to” Issues Support Missions People Causes Saying “Are you sure?” “Just do it!” “Whatever!”

These are three major segments in our generation that we are called to serve. Now, when we look at the individual characteristics of the builders (see the chart), we would say, “That’s OK”, “That’s all right”, etc. If we were to look at the individual characteristics of the boomers, we would say all of those things are also fine. The same with the busters. None of these characteristics is wrong. That is not our problem. The problem comes when we put the various characteristics together, when we look horizontally at the chart. The fact of the matter is that these folks are different, and it is because there is a difference that we have such difficulty. There are churches all across our nation that are being torn to pieces over this issue. What we must do in the church as we move out into the future is to recognize that our calling under God is to serve our generation, not just one segment of it.

Effective churches are in step with the Spirit.

The second thing that is said about the tribe of Issachar is that they “knew what Israel should do”. They were in touch with their times, but they were also in step with the Spirit of God. Understanding our times is not the biggest hurdle. The biggest hurdle is deciding and agreeing upon what we should do to address this dilemma that we have in the church.

There are two very basic things that we must understand or we will never move forward in step with the Spirit of God, doing what we should do in our generation. The first is that there are differences between “principles”, “precepts” and “preferences”.

There are lots of principles for God’s church. One of the great principles is that Christ is the Head of the church. Another great principle is the priesthood of all believers. Now, the way that we practise these principles in our church may be a little different from the way a church down the street practises them, but we are both committed to the headship of Christ, and we are both committed to the priesthood of all believers. That is the nature of a principle; it can be practised in a variety of ways, and there is a lot of freedom as to how a church should practise it.

Then there are precepts. Precepts are specifics, and are to be obeyed. For example, one of the precepts is “A new commandment I give you: Love one another” (John 13:34). A precept is a command, and it is to be obeyed.

There are also preferences. Every single thing that I have mentioned as a characteristic of the three segments of our generation is just a preference. We all have preferences. The danger is that we hold so dearly to a preference that we put it into the category of a precept. We love that preference so much that it becomes our identity, our distinctive. And then the way that we defend that preference, the way we argue for it, the way we hold on to it, the way we fight for it, brings us into direct disobedience to the precepts of God. I don’t know of any precept that is being more violated in evangelical Christian churches today than the precept “Love one another”, and the way that we violate that precept most consistently is in defending our preferences. What we need to do is to understand and respect each other’s preferences and work within the context of those preferences.

A second thing we need to realize is that we need to implement the apostolic model. In 1 Corinthians 9, Paul says, “Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew. . . . To those under the law, I became like one under the law. . . . To those not having the law, I became like one not having the law. . . . To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some” (9:19-22).

The apostolic model is as clear as it can possibly be. Paul says that no matter what age or segment of the population he was dealing with, his message never changed, and his motive never changed. His message was Christ crucified, and his motive was to win men and women for Christ. But his methodology was always open to change. To paraphrase the text, Paul is saying, “When I am reaching out to the builders, I respect their values and work within their context because my commitment is to win those builders and to bring them to maturity in Christ. When it comes to boomers, the message stays the same, but I am ready to change the means of communicating my message in order to win them and bring them to maturity in Christ. When it comes to busters, though my message never changes and my motive never changes, I am willing to let the methodology be adjusted in order to reach them.” If we are committed to serving our generation with all of it segments, we will always have the same message and motive, but our methodology will always be open to change.

Effective churches move forward together.

The final thing that is said of the tribe of Issachar is that there were 200 leaders and “all of their relatives” were “under” their command”. Can you image the day that the leaders stood up and said, “This is what is happening, and to address the present situation we need to make some changes”? The remarkable thing in this rapidly changing time is that the whole tribe stood up and said, “We are at your disposal. We are ready to follow your leadership.” They moved forward together and made a difference by serving their generation.

That’s a wonderful model for the church today. I look at it, and I say to myself: “How did these leaders pull it off?” I know pastors who would give two legs and an arm for the ability to do that. I know elders’ boards who are pulling their hair out, asking how they can get their people together so that they can move forward and have a united commitment to serve their generation.

How did they do it? One thing we know about the leaders of Issachar is that they were men of vision and that the vision they had was God’s vision for Israel. My observation is that congregations delight to follow leadership that has God’s vision for the ministry – not their vision, but God’s vision. When they express God’s vision for the ministry, there is a ring of truth, the hearts of the people resonate with it, and they say, “That is the will of God. Let’s move forward together.”

The second thing about the leaders of Issachar is that they were men of courage and conviction. They were willing to step out, run some risks and change course. They were people of commitment. That’s the kind of leadership that we like to follow.

The thing I don’t know about the leaders of Issachar is something I would like to assume. I assume it because it is absolutely necessary. If churches are going to follow leaders, our leaders must be people of integrity, people who are honest, genuine, authentic and truthful.

My prayer for the church is that we will have leaders who are people with God’s vision, people of courage and commitment and people of integrity. Then, as a congregation, we can stand with our leaders and move forward together, accepting the challenge to serve our generation.

Bill McRae is President Emeritus of Tyndale College and Seminary in Toronto. This article is based on a message preached in The Peoples Church, Toronto, and broadcast on Vision TV in September 1998. Reprinted with permission of Dr. Bill McRae and The Peoples Church.

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Last modified May 12, 2000.

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