Roughly 46 years ago my parents were missionaries in Belize, Central America. Before they went, their sending church was singing hymns, and church services were held Sunday morning and evening as well as Wednesday evening. There was also Sunday School. We sang from the hymnal. That was the extent of it. The Jesus Movement hadn’t quite taken hold in the Midwest the way it had in California.
My mother has a condition that requires medical care during pregnancy that Belize couldn’t meet, so they returned to the States after less than a year so my sister could be born. The sending church had, in that short a time, changed formats over to repetitive worship songs and numerous programs. They left and found a church with fewer changes from their familiar church experience, but I was still raised in one after another program.
The programs were all designed around the child. Entertain the child. Include a snack. Maybe also some arts and crafts. Sing songs that are (honestly, in certain cases) closer to Mormon or Gnostic theology than Christian. And this was all done with good intentions! I don’t say this to mean that we were being lied to purposefully. It really comes down to one’s understanding of the Regulative Principle.
Are we free to worship in any way that is not forbidden in scripture? OR Are we required to stick to scripture when deciding what can be included in worship? I grew up in a liberal understanding of this, but not as liberal as many other churches. But at every turn, it was supposed to be fun. Fun was the attraction to these programs, and fun is what led us to invite our friends.
How many of these friends kept coming once the initial fun wore off? Very few. The fun the church could provide, with pictures to color, games to play, songs to sing, none of that could compete with the secular options they had. What you win them with is what you win them to.
I was raised and discipled by boomers until I was 18 and could move out of the home and reject the unseriousness of Christianity. Not that I sought to replace it with something serious. I floundered as a man, husband and father until the year I turned 30, when a reading of the Bible shook my understanding.
I became the troublesome father in church who wouldn’t let his son go to children’s church because it was a carryover of the same Jesus Movement concepts that I had found to be so vapid. The children’s church had added Jesus sayings into the SpongeBob theme song, not joking. My pants were not square, but the other parents thought my parenting style was.
Enough generational curse. What’s the deal with Jesus Revolution?
In Jesus Revolution, the hippies hear and accept the gospel, then quickly try to take over and change the entire dynamic of the worship. Regulative Principal? Never heard of it. Sounds about as attractive as “Roberts Rules of Order.” This is the same generation now that won’t allow their progeny any meaningful leadership position, just in case we might want to adjust anything.
He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.
1 Timothy 3:6 ESV
The Greatest Generation allowed recent converts to take over, then those Boomers refused to give up their place to the generations after them. I am not calling boomers the gates of hell, but the gospel message will carry into future generations, despite their myriad of programs, emotional appeals and insistence that only through the leadership of another boomer can we right the ship. Whitney Houston famously sang ‘I believe the children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way’ If we were never taught to lead, the result would look quite similar to the society we see crumbling around us.
Is this just a rant about boomers???
Baby boomers were called that because their parents, the greatest generation, came out of the great depression as well as World War 2 and had a lot of babies. A boom of babies. This boom grew up and became the largest voting block in history. They demanded certain things and changes happened quickly. Social security couldn’t be questioned because the voting block. Medicare. Abortion. No Fault Divorce. Endless wars without an obvious national interest. Printing money until it is worth a sliver of what it had been. National debt that these people would never have to repay. Their progeny would do that.
A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the sinner’s wealth is laid up for the righteous.
Proverbs 13:22
This generation is aging. There are many coming up who won’t be as loyal to the uniparty. This is not a blue VS red thing. Uniparty. The uniparty is now building a new loyal voting block. Antifa. BLM. Aliens unfamiliar with the ways of freedom. And then there are the migrants coming from all over the world through our southern border.
The boomers are being replaced.
During Covid, illegals weren’t required to wear masks, take injections, social distance, nothing. You were segregated forcefully. Your children were denied adequate schooling or meaningful interaction so your grandparents could feel safe. Why? Because they are the largest voting block. Some Christians still applaud at such actions of the government. Not all, but far too many. They are men who can’t see the times and wouldn’t do anything abut them if they could.
Today, the untouchable societal group is the one being sterilized. Hormone blockers can cause irreversible damage to one’s ability to procreate. Barbaric surgeries ensure a terminal generation. Many of these people will never reproduce naturally so they demand to reproduce via surrogacy, adoption and government school programs.
We are all being replaced. And I refuse to applaud.
Seek justice, as God defines justice
Love mercy, which God requires alongside justice
Walk humbly
Be salt
Be light
I am not a prophet or the son of a prophet. I am just a guy who is sitting in the cheap seats. And I’m not alone. Many others in my age group are relegated to the upper deck as well. We can’t see all the details from up here, but we do have a good panorama of the display. Our perspective is one that allows a societal look back and a view of what may be coming around the bend. We want to change course, but our most powerful voting block will have none of it. So we will be co-laborers in the coming troubles.
Act accordingly
