14 Things Older Leaders Should Know About Younger Leaders part 2

I did not write this, but I want to share it with not only the older leaders of the Church but also for the younger leaders of the church.  Also for anyone who has ever entered into Church.

I am going to pull a few of the points from the original post and add some comments. 

6. Not willing to wait. Young leaders are ambitious and passionate about making a difference now. Not willing to wait their turn. They want to influence now. Evidence of this is the explosion of church planters in the last 4-5 years. Reality is you are never really “ready” for anything. Some say that you should wait until you are “mature” enough to pursue certain things in life. But we’re never really ready, are we? At 22, I didn’t think I was ready. At 25, I didn’t think I “knew” enough. As my friends from the UK would say…“Rubbish!”

In a post 9-11 world, many young people have a very strong understanding of how quickly life can be taken from us.  Which is why in many ways young church leaders are not willing to wait for a lot of things in life.  This is only re-enforced with the "instant" world we find ourselves in, but more that that it is a healthy understanding that life is fragile and to sit around and wait for things to happen when we could actually do things right now, even if they are not perfect, is something that really gets on young church leaders.  

7. See social justice as the norm. Leaders who care about the poor and lean into causes and see the social gospel as a key ingredient to following Christ are no longer seen as the exception. Young leaders see taking care of the poor and sharing the Gospel as BOTH crucial to the advancement of the Church and of God’s Kingdom. Twenty-somethings, I believe, are and will continue to become more balanced in their pursuit of both. They don’t have to be one or the other.

Micah 6:8 theology is not only deeply rooted in young church leaders, but it also connects to the idea that life is short. As such, we ought to be working, in the words of John Wesley, to "do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can to all the people you can, as long as ever you can."  Mission is the new norm, even in worship.  

14 Things Older Leaders Should Know About Younger Leaders

I did not write this, but I want to share it with not only the older leaders of the Church but also for the younger leaders of the church.  Also for anyone who has ever entered into Church.


I am going to pull a few of the points from the original post and add some comments. 


2. Willing to work together. Twenty- and thirty-somethings are more willing to collaborate than any other generation before. They trust each other. Really. And see collaboration as the starting point, not some grandiose vision of teamwork that is far off in the distance. Collaboration is now the norm. It’s hard to believe, but it’s true- young leaders don’t care who gets the credit. For the next generation- it’s way less about WHO and way more about WHAT.

While this is a bit rosy of a picture, I am going to have to agree with this comment/observation.  Most of the young adult church leaders I encounter are in a constant state of healing from allowing the church to break our hearts.  Most of the time these heartbreaks come from un-wanted egos of others dominating the Church in a way that leads to divisive leadership and a cementing of the Church in a dead custom that is masked as "tradition".  I cannot tell you how many times we share ideas with one another and how few of us get really get credit.  

3. Generosity and sharing are the new currencies of our culture. In business, relationships, networks, platforms, technology, distribution, content delivery, etc., open source is the new standard. This new wave of leaders has tools/resources such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr, Instagram, and tons more social media tools that make influencing much more readily available and easier than ever before. The currency with all of these social mediums is being generous. Sharing your ideas, sharing links, sharing friends, sharing networks. This is a complete paradigm shift from 30-40 years ago.

One of the things that I hope to help change in the Church is a movement away from being nice and move toward generosity.  Friendly means we are nice in as long as we are not troubled too much.  Generosity comes at great cost and expense of the generous one and it is these sacrifices which carry more weight in a world which we "millennials" feel there is an abundance for all.  

Freakonomics and Church

In a continuing and lame effort to co-op the brilliance of others and put forth content that is psudo-original, here is another installment of my take of Freakonomics and Church.


There is a wonderful little book titled 30-Second Economics (which can be found on goodreads.com here)  Near the end of the book, there is a little economic theory written about known as "The Tragedy of the Commons".  Here is the explanation given:

Several herders graze theirs cows on common pasture. From each herder's point of view, it's rational to add more cows to his herd, because his profits will increase. However, every additional cow depletes the pasture's resources. If every farmer acts "rationaly" by adding more cows to his herd, the common land will eventually be overgrazed, grass will stop growing and all the herders will suffer. In essence, actions that are rational for the individual may be irrational for the group.(emphasis added)"

While it is easy to see how this tragedy is common among environmental situations, but how does the tragedy of the commons play out in the church?  A few thoughts:

1. Ministers:  The UMC is a church that has ministers who are appointed to the congregation. So in essence, the ministers of the conference (a large geographical region) are shared by all the churches. While it is rational, good and logical from one congregation's point of view to have "minister A" it may very well not be rational, good or logical for the conference for that congregation to have "minister A" because there are other congregations that would better benefit from the resource of "minister A". As a United Methodist, I have bought into a system that places a greater importance on what is rational, good and logical for ALL churches not just a few.  
2. God's Grace: On the flip side, many Christians hold to an idea that God's grace is limited.  While not using those words, the idea is expressed in a number of ways such as "Only these type of people are real Christians" or "You 'get saved' only after you accept Jesus by way of a prayer." The idea that God's grace is limited to a select, or the 'elect', is arguing that God's grace is limited.  And if we think there is limited Grace then we are going to act differently than if we believe Grace is limitless and boundless and endless.  When we believe Grace is limited then of course we will live in a such a way as try to get as much grace as possible and, just like the herders above, that is very logical and rational.  However if Grace is thought of in these ways, then we also will indirectly restrict other's access to Grace because there is only so much (grass/Grace) to go around. So the question for the Church becomes - Do we hold to an idea that Grace is limited and thus fall victim to the "Tragedy of the Commons" in which we act rationally in self interest but ultimately to the demise of others? Or is Grace unlimited and we believe no matter how many cows there are there is always enough grass?

There are other applications to this economic theory, but these are just a couple of jump starts to consider.