In the beginning

Everything has a beginning.  This little exercise begins with the concept of 20 year cycles of leadership.  While leaders usually have about 30-40 years to lead, most only have about 20 years of solid, front-line leadership to steward.  Some guys have less…some have more, depending on God’s plans and how an individual fits in those plans. 

In my estimation, two of the worst mistakes of leadership are 1.) Stewarding your 20 years of front-line leadership poorly and; 2.) Trying to extend your 20 years to 30 or 40 years, even when it’s not in concert with what God is doing. 

I recently came across a surprising article that George Barna wrote.  The article was basically a plea to his generation (the boomers) to begin passing the leadership baton to the next generation.  While I find myself rarely agreeing with Barna’s conclusions about the church, I think he’s pretty sharp when it comes to the study of generations.

From my perspective, it seems like the boomer generation simply will not admit they’re aging…and they certainly show no signs of willingly passing the leadership baton.  Of course, there will always be leaders that extend beyond the average 20 year cycle (movement leaders–we all know their names, so no need to mention them)…and nobody just expects these guys to retire to some pastor-pasture somewhere.  

But the leadership positions and focus of these seasoned pastors should probably morph into something beyond front-line leadership in their local church.  While I previously alluded to the exceptions to the 20 year cycle, even they need to think about their baton-passing strategy. 

One of the greatest modern examples of this is what C.J. Mahaney has done by passing the leadership baton to Josh Harris at Covenant Life Church.  Nobody would say that C.J. is wasting away as a result…he’s only changed the way his leadership muscle is flexed…and probably more vibrant than ever.  Besides…even Moses passed the front-line leadership baton to Joshua before his death…so I’m guessing that boomers can do likewise (preferrably without kicking and screaming).

It’s ironic that most boomers were frustrated 20 year-olds and 30 year-olds that went off to do their “own thing” back in the 70’s and 80’s because a generation of pastors refused to allow them vital influence in their churches.  In addition, many of these boomer pastors that started churches in their mid-twenties to mid-thirties consider current men of that age to be too young or immature to lead or have vital influence in their churches.  Is it any surprise the “emerging church” has done it’s “own thing”?  We have learned from the best.

Here’s the problem with all this.  The Kingdom of God is not generation-exclusive…or exclusive to any “grouping” for that matter.  For that reason, I’m a little disturbed (and perturbed) by the responses I see to this whole issue of passing the baton to a new generation of leaders. 

The first response goes like this:  A pastor notices a growing discontent among the younger generations in his church and notice that many are leaving (if they haven’t already left).  In addition, the senior pastor’s younger leaders are getting restless…wanting to lead…wanting to bring a positive influence and extend the generational reach of their particular church. 

Nothing happens…the boomer leader becomes almost hostile to the idea that previous methods/ideas aren’t working anymore.  Boomer leaders are especially frustrated with younger leaders’ lack of appreciation for how they brought “cool” into the church.  The younger leaders just shake their heads and leave eventually and the senior leader is almost relieved, believing that the younger leader probably needs to go start their “own thing”.

This is a classic case of the churches that end up serving one particular generation because they have no vision for what the church could look like without them when they’re gone.  These churches are becoming the very institutions they left 20-30 years ago.

The second camp works something like this:  Same scenario as above, except the senior leader begins surrounding himself with leaders that are younger–leaders that he can control.  He avoids the alpha-male types that will actually want to have influence and voice in the overall future of the church..mainly because they’re either a bother to him or simply intimidating.  Instead, the pastor relies on the younger, more-passive pastors to give the appearance of youth and he, himself begins dressing, acting and preaching out of character in an attempt to be “hip” and “relevant” to this new generation. 

This second camp might have success for a while…maybe even a long while.  Eventually, truth shines through…and the pastor eventually begins looking silly trying to dress, act and use language of those 20 years younger.  People (especially younger generations) begin to pick up on the inauthentic nature of it all.  In fairness, these pastors want their church to be relevant…but their one requirement is that the church become relevant with them at the helm…which is limiting and uninspiring to emerging leaders. 

A final camp pretty much ignores the next generation.  This camp might have the above scenario, but the pastor and/or other leaders are in maintenance mode and simply do not notice or care about the fact that their church is getting older and smaller.  This camp is rarely on mission (in a Biblical sense, even though they might support “missions”) and they will probably shut their doors by the time the older generation dies off. 

Friends…this cycle must end.  While I would LOVE to see the previous generation heed George Barna’s message, my purpose isn’t to change the boomers’ minds or their hearts–I leave that to God.  My purpose is to end this cycle with us…the emerging leaders.  It’s one thing to criticize and finger-point at previous generations…but quite another thing to avoid repeating the mistakes of a previous generation.  

So…will we have the fortitude to hand the baton gracefully…will we begin the process of passing the baton today, even?  For those of us in our 30’s, we should be investing in 20-something (and teen) leaders, giving them vital influence (and preaching opportunities) now!  Will we do this?  Will we repeat our parents’ mistakes or right this ship? 

To be clear, this little exercise (web log) has more to do with Kingdom than church planting, leadership, culture and trends.  Extending the leadership baton to new generations is a Kingdom action.  We’re saying that we are not the end…we are not the terminus…others will follow us and out-live us and God-willing, do things different than us because they want to engage the culture as badly as we do.

Hopefully, this can be a stimulus for good conversation that leads to positive action on our part.  These are the twenty years or so of front-line leadership we’ve been given…so let’s steward them well.