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From Taking Hills to Hanging Out

Managing the NeXt Generation's Need for Trust
John Burke | Outcomes, Jul/Aug 2006

Editor's Note: John Burke pastors Gateway Church in Austin, Texas and serves as president of the Emerging Leadership Initiative. At age 42, this young baby boomer ministers with and to those we often label as Gen X and Millennials (or as John calls them: the emerging generation). His church is dedicated to creating a come-as-you-are culture to mold a church out of post-Christian people. In his book, No Perfect People Allowed, Burke offers ways to bridge the chasm between the church and our postmodern world. CMA asked him to draw from his experience, to help our readers better understand this emerging generation (Gen Xers and Millennials).

I'm convinced that Christian leaders (many being baby boomers) must engage the emerging generation at all levels of leadership. To not pass the baton of leadership means marginalization of the local church and other ministries over the next few years.

Time's running out. Many of us are discovering that our leadership methods and programs, which met with slam-dunk success a few years ago, don't work now. We're baffled. It worked before, why not now? I know this dilemma all too well. Though raised in a boomer world, I've spent most of my ministry reaching the emerging generations.

I remember in the late 80s, "charge the hill" was kind of the ministry mindset in the parachurch organizations I was a part of. People were motivated by a hill to conquer. "Take the hill!" In the 90s, I was a campus minister trying to reach this generation (there were no labels like "GenX" or "Postmoderns" back then). But I found the methods and mindset that motivated boomers didn't motivate this emerging generation. I'd say "CHARGE," and start running up the hill. I'd turn around and they'd all be sitting in a circle at the bottom of the hill.

"What are you doing?" I'd ask.

"We're hanging out," they'd say.

"Well, don't you want to take the hill?"

"No, we kind of want to hang out first."

Different Values

Taking the hill versus hanging out shows a difference in values. At first, this drove me crazy. Then I began to see that their value-ordering might just be more biblical than what I inherited. The people sitting at the bottom of the hill valued relationships and doing things together. Not that they didn't want to accomplish anything or do anything, but they wanted to be valued as people first, and they wanted to do it together. They didn't want to be used as a means to the more important end.

I think an important thing for me to say upfront is that we're talking in broad generalities. Not every person is the same. There are trends, but no one I'm dealing with wants to be treated like a statistic. I think there are uniquenesses that make every generation their own culturally distinct group, with some values that reflect God's intentions and others that don't—this includes boomers and emerging generations.