Today’s church is going through a transition. Baby boomers are growing in numbers and in most cases are making the decisions for the churches of America. At the same time the younger generations are getting tired of a faith that stays inside the walls of our buildings and doesn’t reach out to the dying world. There is definitely a storm brewing on the horizon, and not so much because of the enemy’s schemes as many as they are, but because of the rift in the current generations. Before going any farther let me clarify by saying that not every believer would fit these characteristics, but from my experience a majority do.

The older generation is very versed in scripture and the history of the church, while our generation is very outreach and servant minded. Neither of these is wrong, but every believer was meant to be a mixture of all of these things. In 1 Corinthians Paul discusses the secret wisdom of God that was destined for our glory before time. This secret wisdom represented the knowledge that Christ would come to die for all men. It was secret wisdom when Paul wrote it because until Jesus came no one could understand this amazing gift. There is even more secret wisdom of God for our generation though. 2 Corinthians 9-10 says, “However, as it is written: No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him, but God has revealed it to us by his spirit.”

I want something deeper than my typical knowledge of God that I learned in bible school and church camp. The kicker is plugging into the spirit in order to understand this secret wisdom. In verse 12 of chapter 2 it says, “We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.” We have heard it a million times, read your bible and pray if you want to get closer to God. Like I was saying before the older generation is very versed in scripture and the history of the church and our generation is very outreach and servant minded. What do you think are the reasons for that? I have a couple of ideas. Our parents and their parents grew up in a time when there weren’t as many distractions and they actually had plenty of time to read the bible. Not only that it was more socially acceptable to read the bible and go to church. In other words that was just what they did. On the other hand our generation grew up in the arms of technology, cable tv, and so many other distractions. We feel the need to be constantly available to others and we don’t get alone often. Plus it is now more socially acceptable to be basically any type of activist.

Here is the difference between the church today and the church of Paul’s time. Their faith was their life. Not their knowledge of the word, or their desire to help the less fortunate, instead it was their desire to know the deep things of God, the desires and secret mysteries of the Lord. Is that our passion, or our parents’ passion? One can only hope. After all it’s impressive when someone can recite scripture like the alphabet, or when we can admit that we planned a trip to feed the homeless. It shouldn’t be though, after all we are called to write scripture on our hearts, and the original church was also the original activists.

Recently our church tried to switch from separate contemporary and traditional style worship services to blended services. As you can imagine this didn’t go over well because the younger age groups liked the contemporary services and the older generations liked the traditional worship services. On top of that some people were asked to stop leading worship regularly in order for someone completely new to lead the blended service. Well we as humans had already developed our allegiance to certain leaders. The truth is we were all wrong. In chapter 3 Paul talks about how the Corinthian church was divided over who they followed Apollos, or Paul. Yet both he says are just mere men, called to the same work.

I guess what I’m getting at is we have the opportunity of a lifetime to reunite the church, not just our generation, but our parents as well. The deep mysteries of God are attainable, the proper way to worship isn’t necessarily just through our actions, and neither generation has it right. In order for us to know the desires and the heart of God we have to focus on making our faith our life. The spirit wants to connect to our hearts through the word. To make us well versed in scripture, servant hood, compassion, and love. It is all available in God’s word and the spirit is willing and able to help us understand it deeper than just what is on the surface. Older generation, you don’t completely understand it, younger generation get by yourself so you can hear the Lord. We all need revival and the church needs to be reunited. It is a grand calling, but once we do, the world will wonder what the deep mystery to our faith is.

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