One Church, Four Generations , livre ebook

One Church, Four Generations
Other books by Gary L. McIntosh
The Exodus Principle
Look Back, Leap Forward
Make Room for the Boom . . . or Bust
One Size Doesn t Fit All
Staff Your Church for Growth
With Glen Martin
Creating Community
Finding Them, Keeping Them
The Issachar Factor
It Only Hurts on Monday
With Sam Rima
Overcoming the Dark Side of Leadership

2002 by Gary L. McIntosh
Published by Baker Books a division of Baker Publishing Group P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287 www.bakerbooks.com
Ebook edition created 2011
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-for example, electronic, photocopy, recording-without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
ISBN 978-1-5855-8242-6
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Parts of this book were previously published by Revell with the title Three Generations 1995 by Gary L. McIntosh.
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture is taken from the New American Standard Bible , Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.lockman.org
Scripture marked NLT is taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
The internet addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers in this book are accurate at the time of publication. They are provided as a resource. Baker Publishing Group does not endorse them or vouch for their content or permanence.
Dedicated to the Builders in my life:
My grandmother, Wilma Thompson, who faithfully read the Bible in my presence as I was growing up and gave me my first knowledge of God and his church.
My mother, Billie C. McIntosh, who sacrificially gave me everything she never had as a child growing up in the Great Depression and constantly encouraged me in my education and ministry.
My father- and mother-in-law, Bill and Amelia Kurylow, who loved me as their own son and entrusted me with their daughter.
Nelle Roberts and David and Gladys Bishop, faithful servants of our Lord who introduced me to Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.
Rev. Erwin and Mrs. Wilna Ericson, who taught me the Word of God and gave me my first opportunities to serve Christ.
Rev. Bob and Mrs. Louise Duggan, who put up with my youthful exuberance and helped polish my rough edges.
Rev. Dennis and Mrs. Shirley Perkins, colaborers in the faith who befriended me as a young seminary student and helped me gain confidence as a pastor.
Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.
Psalm 90:1
Contents
Preface
Waves of Change
Part 1 The Builder Wave
1 What Shaped the Builders?
2 Builders and the Church
3 Aging Builders
Part 2 The Boomer Wave
4 Who Are the Boomers?
5 Boomer Believers
6 Reaching the Boomer Generation
Part 3 The Buster Wave
7 Why Are They Called Busters?
8 Busters and the Church
9 Reaching Busters
Part 4 The Bridger Wave
10 When Did the Bridgers Arrive?
11 Bridgers and the Church
12 Winning Bridgers
Part 5 Riding the Waves of Change
13 Reading the Waves
14 Linking Generations
15 Wave Runners
Notes
Resources
The McIntosh Church Growth Network
Preface
T here was a time not long ago when church leaders tried to minister to people as a single mass. No longer. Today s church leaders understand that ministry must take place among a mosaic of groups and subgroups-most notably generational cohorts.
Interest in generational research and studies has grown stronger as the world rushed into the twenty-first century. A good example of this interest was recently observed with the opening of the Ellis Island web site on April 17, 2001. A seven-year, 22.5-million-dollar project transcribing ship passenger manifests for the Port of New York between 1892 and 1924 was finished and placed on the web ( www.ellisislandrecords.org ). Officials expected heavy traffic but not the large number who logged on immediately. More than eighty thousand people logged onto the site at its opening and an estimated half million others were turned away! Traffic has dropped off some since then but remains steady at about forty to sixty thousand visitors a day.
The reason for the massive interest in the Ellis Island Foundation project relates directly to people s interest in generations. It is estimated that nearly 40 percent of Americans can trace a relative back to Ellis Island. Genealogists indicate that about six in ten Americans are researching their family history in an effort to shed light on the past-and future! What drives the desire to study generations? A large part of it is the search for greater understanding of ourselves.
Historically, four generations often exist together, interlaced in a particular moment of time: young, adult, mature, and senior. Today these four generations are called the Bridgers, Busters, Boomers, and Builders.
Not only are there four generations existing together, but there are four sets of value systems that are being advanced, each with its perceived needs and perspectives. When church leaders understand each generation s values, and how they were molded by events that define the generation, they can be more faithful in their use of limited resources to effectively fulfill the Great Commission.
The focus in the original edition of this book- Three Generations -was on the three older generations. At that time the Bridger generation was too young for many accurate predictions of their characteristics to be made. However, over the last seven years, Bridgers have gone through enough common experiences that a generational mystique is developing, a generational identity that touches all within their cohort in some way. While insights regarding the Bridger generation must be held loosely, due to the fact that they are still developing, there is enough information to begin building a helpful picture.
This new edition of the book builds on the first by adding information from new research on this newest generation to move into the spotlight. Also a few corrections of the first edition have been made, along with an updating of numerous facts and statistics.
It is my prayer that this new edition will continue to serve as a helpful resource as we together seek to win many precious souls from all generations to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As the writer of Psalm 89 exclaims:
I will sing of the lovingkindness of the L ORD forever; To all generations I will make known Thy faithfulness with my mouth.
Psalm 89:1
Waves of Change
S cripture uses the word generation in three different ways. It can be an age group in a family, a period of time, or a group of people connected by their place in time. The genealogical tables found in Genesis and Matthew are obvious examples of the first. When the Psalmist writes, I will cause Thy name to be remembered in all generations (Ps. 45:17), he could have said in all times or in all ages, which is an example of the second. However, the third definition is what I am thinking of in One Church, Four Generations. A generation is a group of people who are connected by their place in time with common boundaries and a common character.
The study of generational change has been an important aspect of my life since 1983. In July of that year I left a seven-year pastorate to become vice president of consulting services for Dr. Win Arn at the Institute for American Church Growth, then located in Pasadena, California.
Shortly after I arrived, one of my fellow consultants, Rev. Robert Orr, shared some thoughts he had on the Baby Boom generation and their impact on churches. The interest he created was intensified about one year later while I was traveling by plane to a consulting assignment in New Jersey.
While on the plane, I found a November 5, 1984, copy of U.S. News and World Report and began reading its major article Here Come the Baby Boomers. When I finished reading that article, I was hooked. For the past eighteen years, I ve read, clipped, and filed just about every article I could find on generational issues. I honestly do not know how many articles I have collected, but the file that contains them is more than three feet thick.
In 1986 I became professor of Christian Ministry and Leadership at Talbot School of Theology (Biola University), where I teach courses on church growth, evangelism, and leadership. The study of generational change has continued to be one of my prime interests, and being a professor has given me the opportunity to pursue it. During the past eighteen years, I have spoken on generational change at denominational conferences, local churches, and seminars. I have also written several articles on the topic.
Why Another Book on Generations?
There were very few books on the topic of Baby Boomers in 1983 and none on Baby Busters or the Bridgers. Today as I review the books available, I can easily name more than fifty dealing with one or more of the generations. In the collection of books I have on generations, many are on the Boomers. Some are secular books, such as Paul C. Light s groundbreaking Baby Boomers. Others focus on the challenge Boomers bring to the church, such as Doug Murren s The Baby Boomerang. Still others, like Cheryl Russell s 100 Predictions for the Baby Boom, offer insights on the future of the Boomer generation.
Among the first books to address the uniqueness of the Buster generation were William Dunn s The Baby Bust: A Generation Comes of Age and Steven Gibb s Twentysomething, Floundering, and Off the Yuppie Track. Since those books hit the shelves, a large number of books have expounded on the characteristics and future of the Baby Bust. Among the newer books focusing on Baby Busters are