|
 |
Seven
Dynamics for Advancing
Your Church in Missions
Page 10 — Three Values to Address
I suggest three expressed values that are particularly effective in relating
missions to boomers and busters. The first value is the idea of personal success.
This value has evolved as the “pig in a python” generation has grown
up. The hippies of the sixties said that personal success was “changing
the establishment.” As their dreams unraveled during the seventies this
value turned into materialism. Now, in the nineties, the boomers are re-evaluating
what success is all about. The status symbol in the eighties was the BMW;
in the nineties it is a job! Boomers are realizing that life in the fast lane
was not all it was cracked up to be. We have an opportunity to help them find
true success!
As
Christians we know that ultimate success, significance and fulfullment are
found only in God. If God is a missionary God, then our significance can be
found in participating in God's global cause. In the words of Jim Elliot,
“He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep, in order to gain what
he cannot lose.” We want to help boomers see that there is no greater
cause for their lives than world evangelization!
The
second boomer value is the importance of fun, challenge, and adventure. Boomers
have expressed this value in entrepreneurism, hedonism and risk taking. Can
we find a biblical expression to this and a substitute for this value? Hebrews
12:2 says “Jesus, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross...”.
The omniscent God-Man, when He set His face like flint toward Jerusalem, knowing
exactly what he would be facing, did it for the joy of it. Certainly, obedience
was an important part of the picture, but don't forget the joy!
There
is one common trait I have found among missionaries. They love what they do!
In my own experience as a missionary in Guatemala, my family and I experienced
fear, depression, lice, worms and an endless list of discomforts and sacrifices.
But we all look back at those years as truly the greatest in our lives. For
there is no joy compared to the pleasure of being part of what God is doing
and wants done. When we participate with God in His global cause, the nations
get the gospel, God gets the glory and we get the joy. That is a great arrangement!
The
third value is personal autonomy. This value is very important in understanding
how to manage boomers and busters, leading them to get them involved in missions.
The pre-boomer generation functioned generally under a hierarchical management
structure. That worked well because loyalty, duty and responsibility were
their expressed values. The boomers and busters, however, respond better to
participatory management. Therefore it is important to give as much authority
to them, along with the responsibility. If we involve the boomers and busters
in planning for missions, they will be more interested in its implementation!
The
pre-boomers had the attitude, give me a job, it doesn't matter what it is.
The boomers want a job that fits their gifts and experience. Boomers need
to be taken on a “niche hunt,” helping them find their gifts and
place. The apostle Paul alluded to this when he said that the foot should
not do what the hand was made to do, etc.
We
do not know the “ins and outs” of what world missions will look
like as carried out by boomers and busters. But I do know that it will be
different than it has in the past. Some of us have the privilege of being
paradigm pioneers. I believe with all my heart that boomers and busters will
play a key role in declaring God's glory to every nation on the face of the
earth. The North American Church has the gift of entrepreneurism and the ability
of sharing it with the global Body of Christ. It is my conviction and hope
that entrepreneurial boomers and busters, partnering with the third-world
missionary force, will finish the task of world evangelization in this generation
by AD 2000, or soon thereafter. So may it be to God's glory!
|
