Welcome to the Arid Zone - it's been a long, strange trip.

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This is a bit of a departure for me (on this blog anyway) but since I'll be dealing with many of these issues in my comic, I thought I'd post a letter I wrote to my pastor today. It is talking about my generation, generation x, and the traditional church. For some background I go to a pentecostal church, but I think much of what I talk about can be found in any denomanation. As christians we are one body; I think we should remember that.

Anyway on to the letter (This is five pages long in word, btw):

Pastor

I’ve been thinking about my generation, generation x, over the last few days. Much of this has to do with conversations I’ve had with Wes, but this is also something I’ve thought about on many occasions over the last few years

It seems sometimes, gen x has been lost in the shuffle of life. On marketing quizzes there is no choice to say your “between the age of 25 and 40 and have grown up in a different world then your parents and grandparents.” We are lumped together with people older then us or people younger then us; never really having a niche to call our own.

I think this is especially true in the modern day church. There are programs for older adults and programs for younger adults/teens and children. What about us? Seems like there is a weird void that, in many churches, hasn’t been addressed. A

You don’t find a lot of my generation in church. If we are in church? Very rarely are we sitting in the pews. We are often the youth leaders, the tech people, the ones leading or participating in the praise and worship team. Often we are behind the scenes helping to run the church. Sunday is suppose to be a day of rest; as anyone that has worked in a church knows that is very rarely the case.

Of course then you have many of the older generation decrying the value system of Gen X. Often we are lumped together with others (Yet again) and not given a voice. Many assumptions are made: We are to lazy, to whiny, to loud, to selfish.

One thing people should look at is many of us basically raised ourselves. We grew up in single parent or working parent households. If it wasn’t that our lives were often dysfunctional: Even when they parents were home they were screaming or drunk. I can’t say everyone was raised like that but many of us were.

Remember the concept of the latch key kid? I came from that background. Sure there was a lot of trust placed in me (Get home and do homework etc) but also no one was home when I got there. So I either flipped on the TV, Nintendo, music, or whatever. We were raised with constant stimulation.

This isn’t a comment on our parents; much of the time it was needed just to survive. However we can’t ignore these types of things happened.

We are often written off by the older generation; but if they just took a look and talked to us maybe their views would be different.

“You are to lazy.” To lazy? Nah I just think we don’t want to put effort into things of no consequence. To many of us have seen our parents work 40 years in a company just to get laid off or fired a couple of years before retirement. Who wants to live a life like that?


“You’re to whiny!” No we just tend to voice our opinions more. If we are not heard who will listen? Plus there is a trust issue: why put our trust in people that seem to be in it for self gain? (IE: Politicians, church leaders, community leaders, etc.)

“You’re to loud!” I think this goes back to the idea that we grew up with a lot of stimulation. We always had something going on; whether it be music, TV, video games, or something else. We like moves; we like video games; books; music. We find ourselves in these things much more then previous generations I think.

“You’re to selfish!” I think this is a total misconception of my generation. Many people my age have made noble efforts in various areas of the world: from the mean streets of L.A. to the war ridden deserts of Iraq. I think this idea comes from the fact we love our leisure time. Don’t interrupt us when we are not working; we must play! Also in this same vein I think we expect to be compensated for time spent at work: If we are there 14 hours there better be some darn good compensation. Work is to make money to do the things we really want to do in life; it’s not the goal of living.

In many ways we are spoiled: as I said before we need stimulation in our lives. It is hard for us to just sit and passively listen to preaching; especially if it’s not interactive. If we find the sermon to be stupid, dull, or untruthful? It’s just a waste of time. I think this is why you find, when my generation is in church, my generation in less passive roles inside a church body.

We love sights, sounds, explosions, loud music, etc. We want the roof to be blown off the building. A friend of mine said that a service we’d really love would give the older generation a heart attack.

Maybe we should rethink some of the ‘traditions’ of the church. Pentecostals were started to change the traditional nature of the denominations of their time through the power of God; have we fallen into our own traditions?

Is church a place to go on Sunday or a gathering of Christians in whatever context?

What can we do to start getting my generation involved in church…? Or actually involved in Christ?

We need to start thinking outside of traditions, I think. My generation is often in the role of youth evangelists because the young people like the same thing we do; maybe we should start doing things of that nature aimed not at the youth but at generation x.

We need to do something before we become generation ex…

Some ideas:

• Movie night. Take a group to the movies and afterwards discuss the moral implications of whatever it is we watched. Traditionally going to the movies is something looked down upon by those in church leadership. Let’s do away with that and start taking this medium back.

• Music nights: A night devoted to our type of music, which actually tends to be pretty eclectic. Invite the neighborhood.

• Interactive talks on various subjects: Talks, teachings. Not preaching… question and answer sessions. Bluntly talk about what it is we deal with from sex to drugs, to emotional issues and even dating.

• Game nights: A night devoted to games from Table Top Role playing games to video and board games. Just to sit around and have fun in a non hostile atmosphere.

These are just some ideas I have. I know it’ll draw younger people to; but that is something that happens a lot with my generation. We know how to talk to those coming up below us because we have the same interests.
These can’t be contrived either; they have to be something that we do because we love it. I think Gen X can sense a contrivance from a mile away…

Anyway Pastor this are just some thoughts I have. Something needs to be done I believe and we need to stop putting God in a box. He is, was, and always will be; He isn’t a propionate of traditions dating just from the early to mid 20th century.

I know what I've written here today is only a generalization of a few of the traits of my generation. We are more complicated then a five page letter can really talk about.

What do you think?


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