Generationally Challenged

This blog post won’t make sense without this op-ed, so read it first! First, don’t blame me—this article was sent to me by a WES member who is (I believe) an official baby boomer. I’m either a young Gen X or an old Gen Y, I never can tell. I’ve never been that tied into generational differences, partly because I usually feel a bit like a generational misfit, and partly because my vocation is one that calls me to be in, and build, relationships that cross generations. But still, I find the author’s thoughts interesting, particularly as they relate to religious communities. Congregations can get stuck in all kinds of ways, and can find different dividing lines: the kind of music they like, when they want to meet, which social justice cause they should take on. It makes sense that they might get divided generationally, too, and as a younger person I can resonate with the author’s charge that mainline Protestant denominations not only skew older, they seem older. Many of the forms, styles, and culture come from an earlier generation. What about in a community like the Washington Ethical Society, though? We’re a non-traditional religious community…does that mean we also avoid traditional generational divisions? We do have lots of members from the baby boomer generation, many of whom joined as a cohort when their kids were young. What would it look like if, as the author suggests, the baby boomer group specifically stepped aside? Do they need to? A different way of looking at the question might be to try a thought experiment: what would WES look like if we had a younger generation in mind? What do Gen Xers and Gen Yers and Millenials look for in a community? Would Sunday morning change? The music, or the platform address, or the meditation—or all of the above? Would our communication style change—would we text our members or use Facebook more? I don’t know the answers to these questions, even though I fit in that generation myself. And that may be part of the answer…we aren’t defined by any one aspect of our identity, and that includes our generational placement. But I’m curious about your thoughts on the article and the questions they raise.