Can disparate generations coexist in the church?

Birds of a feather flock together. We all know that, but what we perhaps may not know is that in the flocking process there are bound to be some ruffled feathers.

The big flock known as the Seventh-day Adventist Church is no exception.

But why the ruffled feathers?

For one thing, we mortals have not yet "put on immortality"; for another, there's that thing we've all heard of called "the generation gap."

Some of us think we know what the "generation gap" is; others may know for sure; and others with furrowed brows sigh, "I don't know what it is." We do know that the generation gap is a multi-component phenomenon consisting of physical, educational, social, historical, and religious factors, to name a few.

An Adventist spot check

In order to understand the generation gap in the Adventist context, I did a spot check on 100 Adventists 50 years and older in churches located in cities, provinces, and country districts in the six conferences of the Trans-Tasman Union (most of eastern Australia and New Zealand). Each of the 100 men and women was asked to answer 24 questions (see page 9) about his or her church as each currently saw it.

The same 24 questions were also put randomly to 100 new students at tending Avondale College in Australia during 1995. The students were asked to answer the questions in relation to the church from which they had just come to college. Answer options for each question and for each group were the same: yes, no, not sure.

Some of the objective results of this spot check show up on the spreadsheet of percentages of answers to each question.

And what did all this add up to? We gained insights into some of the probable characteristics that describe the Adventist religious generation gap. The results revealed both what was to be expected and what was surprising.

When I did the spot check, I had been a Bible teacher at Avondale College for 17 years. I have been in the classroom with hundreds of Avondale's beginning students for many hundreds of hours. Naturally, there have been some very frank discussions. Student responses to class assignments on what it means to be an Adventist Christian have likewise, in the main, been quite frank and revealing. They have provided in sights into the minds and hearts of students. This interaction has taught me much. What I have learned from students has caused me to develop certain convictions that can help to narrow the generation gap or cut down on the ruffled feathers in our congregations.

Making coexistence possible

I am convinced that our coexistence can be made healthier and happier by adopting the following simple methods.

1. Do not confuse moral and nonmoral issues (see Micah 6:8). When we make nonmoral matters appear as moral issues, we weaken the overall impact of the moral, with serious con sequences. Giving nonmoral issues too much emphasis has a way of trivializing matters that are really important.

2. Major in principles rather than standards. Entering into the setting up of standards are factors of culture, time, and geography. These localized standards detract from the innate power of universal principle. Standard-driven people tend to be tense and frustrated; principle-driven people know freedom and joy in their faith (see John 8:36).

3. Teach that a key word in experiencing the gospel is "done," not "do" (see 2 Cor. 5:21).

4. Take the words of Jesus seriously: "Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment" (John 7:24, NIV).

5. Accept the plurality of human temperament and personality, with a corresponding legitimate plurality of attitudes and responses. ¹

6. Provide not only survival space but also ample living space for those whose temperaments, cultures, times, geographies, and personalities may be different from your own (see Rom. 14).

7. Cultivate an attitude of "praise the Lord" rather than "pick at the saints" (see Ps. 150; Gal. 5:15).

Can we all coexist? Of course we can. We are Christians! Christians work at living as Christians. There may be times when this will call for some thinking that we may find threatens our present position on some things. We need to experience the objectivity that produces tolerance and understanding.

And in all this we are not alone. We have the Holy Spirit. He works on our natural self-centeredness and replaces it with Christ-centeredness.