Mind the Gap

For me, it was 'Madchester': a slice of music and mayhem in the late eighties that decried
mainstream pop and fashion and replaced it with the 'Happy Mondays' and the 'Stone Roses', baggy
jeans, hooded tops and Doc martin shoes. I wore my uniform with pride, eager to secure a place in
my era's chosen youth culture tour de force.
Most of us have our own Madchesters, or our Woodstocks, or at least our Isles of Wight. We
reminisce over our flirtations with Punk in the 70's or, if Old Father Time was less kind to you,
New Romance in the 80's. We all have some allegiance to a particular brand of youth rebellion,
experienced during those angst-ridden teenage years.
Or do we? Could it be that it's only the TV generations those born after that explosion of
communications technology when the sights and sounds of culture at large were broadcast into
every home, who choose to define their past in terms of pop culture passions instead of
significant historical events?
For some, memories of the Second World War may involve the music of the time. But think of
the Vietnam conflict in the 60's and you can't help but associate it with the cultural revolutions
of the same decade: Hendrix and the Stones, hippies, drugs and 'Hair'. No wonder Vietnam was
referred to as the first 'Rock'n'roll' war.

Technology paved the way for the rise and rise of youth culture because TV, radio and record
players did for youth movements what the invention of the printing press did for the reformation
- allowed the rapid dissemination of newly emerging 'revolutionary' ideas across a world
hungry to hear them.

The Eever-widening gap

The problem is, technology hasn't slowed down any. If technology largely facilitated the 'new
languages' of youth culture via expanded media influence, then as it develops it continues to
promote new forms of expression. These separate not just young from old but youth culture
from youth culture, until we're left with not only the division of generations, but sub-generations
spanning two or three years.
The contrast between current modes of cultural expression can sometimes seem as stark as the
difference between the English language and Mandarin - with a corresponding sense of
alienation, confusion and powerlessness. Many adults stepping into your average youth group
meeting may feel like a stranger in their own land. It's this sense of powerlessness that
exacerbates the division between generations and has probably been the root cause of the surge
in full-time youth worker roles within the Church.
We often feel that the divide is too great, so the youth worker becomes employed as an
interpreter or bridge between adult and youth congregations. Your average thriving inner-city
church may address the issue by targeting niche groups in the parish population and hold, on any
given Sunday, an 8am 'traditional' communion service that attracts mainly the over-sixties, a
10am 'family' service and one or two evening services that pull in teens, university students and
young professionals.

So are niche ministries and mono-generation congregations inevitable? Is the inter-generational
divide too great?
As difficult as it may seem, the task of healing generational rifts is a problem that needs to be
addressed by the entire Church. The youth worker can't be expected, alone, to bridge the gap
between youth and adults in a congregation. We should not allow scarce resources to be
swallowed up by the difficulty of appealing to the several generational strands that make up our
congregations. Being the true 'family of God' involves celebrating our diversity as a means of
revealing the Gospel to the world. As Christ prayed in John 17, 'May they be brought to
complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have
loved me.'
Of course, there are age-old problems (literally). At what age should someone stop attending the
youth group and be integrated into the 'adult' congregation? Should Wesley or Redman win the
battle for worship music? Should we have sermons or interactive pub quizzes to teach people
about godly living?

New wine for new wineskins?

Some would say that the Church has to accept age divisions - that the generation gap will work
itself out. This follows the 'new wine for new wineskins' principle, that young generations are
so used to rapid cultural change that they'll be ready, willing and able to adapt the future Church
to meet the demands of each new cultural context. Older generations who resist change will still
be served by niche ministries, but these congregations will eventually dwindle and die out.
Yet this has to be a worst-case scenario if we take Christ's prayer for the Church seriously. The
Church is not just a model of how community should be - it is God's ordained modus operandi
for expressing the Gospel of his Son to the world, and for revealing himself to the world in the
Trinity. We must not only be devoted to telling this Gospel to different generations, but also to
expressing the same selfless devotion and unity of spirit within our Church life that is
exemplified by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. As Christ prayed earlier in John 17,

We fail if we confine the role of various age groups within the Church to the limitations of the
cultural stereotypes placed upon them - something of which Paul was only too aware when he
exhorted the young Timothy not to let anyone look down on him because of his youth (1 Tim
4:12). An important new book produced by the Evangelical Alliance, God and the Generations
warns,

Bridging the gap

So how can we encourage growth as a family? At a more fundamental level, we have to develop
critical discernment within the Church to perceive those elements of society that can hinder
cross-generational communication. How hard do we work at understanding the cultural
expressions in our society today? One of the problems is that the language of rebellion against
the adult mainstream is engrained within youth culture today, so the Church is challenged to
nurture within young people a positive image of older generations. It's also important that adults
do not reject youth cultures because they are seen as alienating or too foreign.
An anti-cliché cliché is, 'Young people are not the future of the Church, they are Church.' Do
we act as though we believe that children and young people are as important to the Church as
any adult? Do our structures and programs ensure that the youth voice is heard on the church
organising committees, or that the youth are involved in leading services? This doesn't mean
confining activities to a monthly 'youth' service - shouldn't all services be aimed at young, old
and in-between?
Two practical ideas that have been tried by some churches in the United Kingdom are, firstly,
holding 'sponsor-an-adult' cell groups that meet during the teaching session of Sunday morning
services. Groups have a ratio of one or two adults to four or five young people and look at
issues raised by the Bible together.
Secondly the concept of 'godly play' to encourage the creativity and curiosity of children in
respect of biblical narratives. The children become involved in the process of telling the story as
they ask questions about it and interact with it. It is as fun for adults as it is for their offspring!
We also have to realise that teaching children and young people about faith in the home is just as
important as the teaching they receive at Church. Open dialogue about faith and the celebration
of Christian traditions at home are a vital part of establishing communications not just between
young people and God, but also between families. If a person's experience of adolescence
influences how they act as an adult, then it's also true that our childhood will in turn affect how
we behave in adolescence. Contrary to popular myth, young people do not turn into noncommunicative
Church-hating teenagers overnight!
Cross-generational ministry is a huge issue that's tied in to the heart of Church ministry and
mission today. As such, it's vital that the Church family involves all its members in discussing
how we can best commit ourselves to 'family' values, tapping into the rich vein of wisdom and
truth that exists within the vibrant and diverse body of Jesus' Church on earth. After all, Jesus
valued young and old alike, admonishing his disciples when they refused children access to him,
requiring them to become childlike in order to enter the kingdom of God. For as the twelve-yearold
Jesus in the temple at Jerusalem understood, the young have a lot to learn from the old, but

Jason Gardner
This article first appeared in the LICC's Eg magazine December 2002.

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