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As We See It

Gateway Staff Members Give Their Take on Their Emerging Generation and John Burke
Outcomes, Jul/Aug 2006

Many staff members at Gateway Community Church are in their mid-30's. We asked two of those team members for their take on their emerging generation and on John Burke, their baby boomer leader. Charles:Dishinger, Director of Operations and Te? Beasley, teaching pastor, are both 34 years old.

CMR: Complete this sentence? Baby boomers, don't make the mistake of …

Charles: … assuming you know what our generation is like. Don't just get to know the generation by what you read in books, but go out and experience it. At Gateway, we are out there in the world where that generation is. Also, our generation throws out labels. I don't call myself anything. We often don't want to even be part of a church membership—to be labeled that way.

Ted: … thinking that the church can function like a well oiled machine. It doesn't operate in a rational manner. Things move so much faster these days with technology and there are so many demands on people that you can't control relationships. You can't control the moving parts in this so-called machine. They all operate in unpredictable ways. It's impossible to create a perfect church service. We can have 50 things go wrong. Because of complexity, I can't expect my team to have things run perfectly. What I can expect is that they will improvise. Sense-making (paying attention to the moment, feeling confident and freed to adapt a game plan to a situation) and improvisation—those are two skills that we are looking for in our leaders.

CMR: What do you want us to know about your generation?

Charles: People in our generation look to see if you practice what you preach. If you aren't authentic, what you are saying doesn't have value for me and I won't listen to you. We don't want someone to be flashy. We want others to share what they are struggling with, to share what God is teaching them. We don't necessarily want someone to preach at us, but tell us how you grew.

Ted: This generation is skeptical and I think future generations will be even more so.? Unless you get past the resistance, they won't take steps toward transformation. As teaching pastor, I initially approach [messages] traditionally? establishing theme, central question and what scripture says about that question. I dig into scripture. But I then immediately ask, "What is my audience's resistance to that truth? Why don't they want to believe or accept?" I battle at resistance. I build my message around their thoughts, not my thoughts.