Eddie Hammett and James Pierce, Reaching People Under 40 While Keeping People Over 60: Being Church for All Generations (TCP Leadership Series). Chalice Press, 2007.
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Referenced in: Generational Issues in Churches
See also: Church Conflict – Guides to Communication and Healthy Behavior
LifeandLeadership.com Summary
The strength of this volume is not in describing the generations or the culture trends, but in the “coach-approach” questions and assessment mechanisms to help churches become more multi-generational. They equip established churches to increase generational understanding, coexistence, and missional effectiveness.
Part One discusses the challenges faced by churches that are directly or indirectly related to the generational divide. These include ministerial burnout, congregational decline, and missional drift.
Part Two looks at the specific points of generational tension. They overview many of the contrasting preferences of traditional vs. contemporary groups, and suggest thoughtful questions and learning experiences that help each group understand and appreciate each other (e.g., pp. 32-35). They offer a brief sketch of the builder, boomer, buster, and bridger generations, which readers will need to supplement with other resources. A fine chapter, unfortunately entitled, “Is the Church a Business?” is actually better described by the subtitle, “When Mission Challenges Personal Preferences.” This is an excellent challenge to all generations, especially his list of probing questions on “Getting Honest About Our Personal Preferences” (pp. 53-54). The next chapter discusses cultural realities that impose on church traditions. These include the absence of older boomer leaders, the established church’s huge disconnect with twenty-somethings that is experienced both in high dropout rates and the very negative perceptiosn of unchurched youth (e.g. Kinnaman and Lyons UnChristian). This leads to their conception of the sixty-forty split, the over-sixty crowd that was raised and formed by modernistic and traditional values, and the under-forty group that was raised in the postmodern ethos.
Part Three, “Finding the Win-Win for the Church,” is the meat of the book. The authors present excellent coach-approach (questioning) strategies that help the church identify barriers to growth. This is not your typical “church-growthy” list of questions, but a reflective path of inquiry to reveal how committed a church really is to seeing the kingdom of God among them. They confront the tendency of churches to “cling to the past and sabotage their future,” and describe the devastating consequences for a church that decides to live in comfort rather than on mission in the world. They illustrate this by suggesting self-assessments to help the church evaluate practices that worked in the past but are not necessarily working today. This includes practices such as Sunday night services, church organizational forms that no longer fulfill any important functions, decision-making models that are overly controlling and not empowering, communication strategies that fail to take advantage of the newer preferences for open systems and web-based networking, meetings that are useless time wasters vs. fruitful, etc., compliant vs. creative lay leaders, and ministry staffs aligned more for maintenance than mission. Here they discuss creative new staff configurations such as part-time, bivocational, volunteer, adjuncts, multisite partnerships. They also suggest ways of being more accountable to the actual effectiveness of programs in discipleship, evangelism, visitation, bridge-building (especially pp. 124-125), membership policies and practices, and stewardship. One whole chapter is devoted to “Bible Study for Twenty-First Century Adults,” which is one of the best sections of the book. They say:
“Bible study will continue to flourish, but will radically change from just a church-based study to a variety of situations designed to accommodate a growing diversity, people with different belief systems, busy lives, and changing families with different needs for individual and community reflection. To trap or limit Bible study to a Sunday classroom experience will likely strangle the growing thirst in our country. Bible study lessons will be designed to release lay teachers in the world and serve as a catalyst for face-to-face classroom Sunday experiences that will function primarily as a pastoral care center and community builder. The new function of the face-to-face group will be more about connection and community than Bible study and outreach. The primary place of life-transforming Bible study will increasingly be outside of the church facilities and Sunday morning, and such settings will serve as a catalyst for deeper relationships and accountability through community. The characteristics of effective Bible study for adults in the next decades will become more and more personalized/individualized, decentralized, digitized, customized, and improvised.” (130-131)
Chapter nine, “What Are the Options For Creating a Win-Win Situation?” does a great job synthesizing the insights that are spread throughout the rest of the book. Chapter 10 offers some helpful seed thoughts for what to do with 40- and 50-somethings. Chapter 11 and the Conclusion are another excellent synthesis.
From the Publisher
Many established churches are facing a number of challenges in today’s increasingly secular culture. Such a shift in many communities creates a challenge of church growth and church health when it seems that satisfying the needs of one group creates barriers to reaching another group. So many are asking, “How do you keep people over sixty years of age-who often hold church culture values-while at the same time reach people under forty-who often hold postmodern values?” If a church is interested in growing, this situation becomes a major challenge.
Reaching People under 40 while Keeping People over 60 looks at the church as it seeks to function in a new world. It looks at the differences in the generations and at postmodernism-not just a generational difference but a global change. Most importantly Reaching People under 40 while Keeping People over 60 looks at what a church can do in this new age to help the church survive-and thrive!
About the Authors
Edward H. Hammett, PCC is a Professional Certified Coach through International Coaching Federation, prolific best-selling author, conference leader, partner with The Columbia Partnership, & Church and Clergy Coach for Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina. He is also a proven church and denominational leader and coach for over 25 years.
James R. Pierce is a speaker, author, trainer, certified coach and consultant with more than 20 years of experience in business development and organizational behavior. He has great passion and insight for helping organizations dealing with change and transitions.
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