Turning our existing churches over to the young adults is not the answer. They cannot afford to maintain these buildings, and, honestly, they are not particularly interested in buildings. My parent's generation were builders. They were very interested in permanence; owning land and building facilities which would survive them were the things that motivated them. Many of the churches, universities and hospitals we enjoy today are products of the sacrifices of my parents's generation.
My generation, the infamous baby boomers, were organizers. We leveraged assets to maximize return on investment. We lobbied, we championed legislation. We guarded our voice and vote at all costs and the church annual business meeting was graded by the level of discussion and the adherence to Robert's Rules of Order. We prided ourselves on doing church with excellence, setting growth oriented goals and assessed our progress with quantifiables that could be compared to previous years and to other churches. We organized ministries, and when the local church failed to do a certain type of ministry, we organized parachurch ministries to fill the void.
Both generations were effective in their own times, but today we find ourselves bound by our facilities and reluctant to change or eliminate ministry programs which we were instrumental in developing.
Once again, an abrupt ending. More tomorrow.
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