It Ain't Me, Babe

10 June 2009

The US census defines baby boomers as that segment of the population born between 1946 and 1964. As a “boomer” I am well aware of the deficiencies of my generation. We were the idiots who said “never trust anyone over thirty”…and now most of us are counting down to the days to our retirements thinking we are plenty trustworthy. We are the generation of free love and drugs. We had tuned in, turned on and dropped out. Woodstock…that was ours. And not something to be proud of. Flower Power, Peace, Groovy…blah, blah, blah. We were (and are) so consumed with ourselves.

And when it came to contemporary Protestant worship, I suppose even contemporary Roman Catholic worship, we have been told it was our fault The boomers wanted it. The younger folks weren't interested in contemporary mega-church worship. They want something more traditonal and reverent. But we were forcing it on them because we liked it. So, understandably I was ready to take more well deserved criticism for my generation. Even if that criticism didn’t jive with my reality.

In looking around my brother’s Life Teen Roman Catholic mass…there were plenty of boomers clapping away and one might jump to the conclusion that the boomers were to blame but that didn’t explain all the young folks there, nor my niece who said if it hadn’t been for Life Teen she would have left the church by now.

And I looked at my husband’s Lutheran church. It was the teens and young kids either begging their parents to take them to the local Baptist mega churches with their cool, contemporary services or going on their own once they were old enough to drive. His congregation wasn’t loosing boomers to the Baptist contemporary services but they were losing teens.

And then my under 40 former LCMS DCE friend who opted for Latte Lutheran Church when she moved to St. Louis.

Nonetheless, despite my anecdotal experience, I was prepared to take the hit. After all, the redeeming features of the boomer generation seem to be few and far between.

But the data is in and it doesn't support that conclusion. It appears the boomers, while a natural target, are not the ones flocking to the mega churches. It is, in fact, those younger ones...the ones we are told are interested in more traditional and reverent worship...they are the ones are making their homes in the world of contemporary mega worship. And they aren't anteing up either!

HERE is the skinny. (Boomers, this doesn't mean you can relax yet. We still have to gather up all the bell bottoms and burn them. We are responsible for that fashion disaster, too!)