As Ive been reading the gospels over the last couple of weeks I am again reminded of the huge amount of opposition Jesus faced from the religious people. He had all sorts of attacks thrown at Him. People didn't like His message or His methods. Time after time people would tell Him off, accuse Him of heresy, of being controlled by demons and the list would go on.
It amazes me how Jesus dealt with these religious people. He just told them how it was and called them to faith and repentance. He wouldn't take a backward step. Not only that He was very sure that if they didn't do those things they would be condemned, so He told them that as well.
Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, 'For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?'Think of how we can apply this to our ministry today...'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.' "
- Jesus (luke 13)
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“Clique Maintenance: The need of one generation to see the next generation as deficient so as to bolster its own collective ego.”
The tedious game of constantly having to define who is “us” or “them,” who is “cutting edge” or “irrelevant,” or who is “in”or “out” is no more uncommon among adults than it is among squabbling children in the school playground.
The “other syndrome,” the need of Christians to endlessly draw lines to see who is “in” or not. This counter-productive to our mission in the world to have a mindset that requires us to constantly be categorizing people to see if they “fit” or not. Community cannot be honestly built with these worldly ways of looking at people.
Unfortunately, the same attitude of clique maintenance shows up regularly in Christian circles, but with a curious twist. If I could rewrite the above definition as I’ve observed it in many places, it would look like this:
“Clique Maintenance: the need of one generation to see the previous generation as deficient so as to bolster its own collective ego and sense of ‘calling’.”
The place I have seen and heard this sentiment the most is usually in conferences focussed on the emerging generations. Having been called to and involved with the emerging generations for most of my Christian life, I have had ample opportunity to see and hear it first-hand. It usually sounds something like this:
“The previous generation(s) blew their opportunity to do great things for God; but now God is raising up this generation to do great things for the Kingdom, to take the land that the previous generation(s) failed to.” The inference, and often baldly stated judgment, is that everyone over a certain age is automatically part of the generation of failures due to their lack of faith and a willingness to go where no man has gone before.
There are a number of problems with these kind of grandiose pronouncements:
1. Who says the previous generations failed? And on whose authority has that judgment been made? (Rom. 14:4)
2. What criteria are being used to make this assessment? (1 Cor. 4:3-5)
3. What if “honouring father and mother,” in principle, means honouring those who have “carried the torch” before us? (Eph. 6:1-3, Deut. 5:16)
4. If God opposes the proud, why would we want to have people convince us that we are the “chosen” generation - better, stronger, more passionate, more anointed than those who came before - and not expect to find God opposing us? (and then be surprised to hear in ten years that now “we” are “them,” and the truly anointed generation is only now emerging)? (James 4:6)
5. Can the emerging generation (however you define it) say to the other generations “I have no need of you,” and vice versa? And should the older generation(s) say, “Because I am not young, I am no longer necessary?” (paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 12:21)
6. How can we honestly expect to be Biblically obedient to the call for the “older to mentor the younger” if we keep listening to people urging us to judge and replace, and thereby dishonour, the older? (Titus 2:3-10)
My dream is for the day when our main identity is that we are adopted sons and daughters of God, servants of the King, and the friends of Jesus. I hope for the time when we no longer have to resort to a “worldly way of thinking” (2 Corinthians 5:16-17), which results in the division of the Body and slander and judgments between generations.
My prayer is not only that I will run the race well, but also to finish well (2 Timothy 4:6-7). Like the Psalmist, I pray that God will enable me to pass on what he’s given to me, even as I continue to run! (Psalms 71:17-18)
A number of years ago, I was at a conference where the speaker was saying the same sort of things that were listed above. At that time, “Gen X” was the anointed generation, and the poor Baby Boomers who’d “failed” needed to stand aside and let the younger generation show them how it was done.
I turned to an older officer (who at fifteen years my senior, was clearly part of the failed generation), and asked him how hearing these things made him feel.
He just smiled a knowing smile and said, “They told us the same thing ten years ago. And they’ll be telling your kids the same in another ten.”
Does this mean that there is no specific, God-ordained “call” on the emerging generations? I absolutely believe there is! Every generation has a call on it to further the kingdom - Keith Green once said, “this generation of believers is responsible for this generation of unbelievers,” and that is an ongoing statement. But to assume that the call on the next generation necessitates and requires the nullification of the call on the previous generations is based in a spirit of pride and elitism.
If we allow, on a generational level, “clique maintenance” to become entrenched and therefore fail to embrace both the generations who went before and those who are coming after, we will find ourselves living out a modern version of 1 Corinthians 1:11-13, where Paul rebukes the Corinthians: (I am paraphrasing, of course) “One of you says, ‘I am of Gen X’; still another, ‘I am of Christ’,” (inferring that the others weren’t, I suppose). We will only see the cycle of prophesied promises turn into prophesied judgments over and over again.
My heart for all the generations and expressions of the Body of Christ is that we will stop finding ways of pitting people against each other (to bolster our own egos), and learn to bless what God is blessing, and to choose to walk in a radical humility (the opposite of selfish ambition) that prefers others above ourselves (Philippians 2:3).
Interesting points...
What do you think of Jesus' interaction with the Pharisees?
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