Rev. Dr. Devin Strong

Spirit of Peace Lutheran Church

Spirit of Peace Lutheran, the church that I serve, has been experiencing an uptick of young families with children lately. Our small building has been busting with small boys. Laughter and energy fill our hallways which, thankfully, spills into Sunday School and worship. Our congregation has always been younger than average for our denomination and even more so recently. I have been saying that there is holy commotion at our church!

This got me thinking about how often young people get blamed for two things—being glued to their electronics and being more self-centered than the generations before them. From where I sit, today’s youth are guilty of the first charge. They love their cell phones, iPads, and computer games (as if the rest of us don’t!). But the kids that I know are no less self-absorbed than anybody else. In fact, young people tend to be servant-hearted, passionate, and deeply concerned about equality. Just last night at our intergenerational Wednesday night gathering, I asked a question about who had done something to help somebody else recently, and immediately a bunch of young hands went up. They couldn’t wait to tell me how they are trying to make a difference in the world in practical ways.

My point is not to say that all kids are angels. They have their challenges as individuals and as a generation just as we all do. I want only to say that younger people and older people both need to learn from each other, especially in the church. Among Christian youth advocates it has been popular to say, “The youth are the future of our church.” That’s wrong! People under eighteen are the present of the church, right along with everyone over eighteen. We don’t have to wait for kids to grow up and fill our offering plates and staff our committees for them to matter.

Young people bless the church now!

In addition to my many years as a parish pastor, I spent five years as a campus pastor at Georgia Tech, and I can say from experience that the younger generations have a couple of things that we older adults need more of. They have enthusiasm, and they want to use that enthusiasm to change the world. Kids today are not satisfied to just go through the motions or do what has always been done. They desperately want to have a tangible impact on so many important social issues. More than that, they think that they can do it, if we will just get out of their way! The rest of us need their Christian fire in our veins.

We need to get excited again about taking our faith out into the world.

At the same time, older Christians have some skepticism and experience that can be very helpful to youthful idealists. Many of us with a few scars have tried—and failed—to change the world, so at the very least we have a perspective on what does not work. Older people can help guide younger ones on the more effective ways to accomplish change. We can also point them toward the right groups and the right mentors. Not every group promising change is necessarily healthy. I am thinking about misguided John Walker Lindh who became known as “the American Taliban.”

So I say, partner with the younger generations, celebrate them, learn from them, guide them, and help them to become what God needs them to be. We need more holy commotion in the church!

God Loves You, and So Do I!