Generation Gap

I was talking with a group of people at the Raise Your Tents event this weekend. Between the half dozen of us we represented four different churches and youth centers. They had several books full of stories to tell about the ways that they were volunteering their time since they had retired (everything from working at a youth drop in center to serving struggling veterans). But...

NOT ONE OF THEM HAD EVEN CONSIDERED THE FACT THAT THEIR YOUTH MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN BEING INVOLVED IN THE EVENT.

Our culture has so firmly established a generation divide that the mere fact that there were retirees sleeping in tents outside of a church meant that it never crossed anyone's mind that there maybe ought to be teenagers sleeping there as well.

It works the other way too. Had it been a youth centric event, it would have seemed odd to consider the possibility of inviting the Red Hat Club to join in, or even to invite families with younger children. When activism becomes just another program, rather than the natural outpouring of faith in the divinity and sacrifice of a Jewish carpenter, it is far too easy to divide it along the lines of all of our other programs.

The youth go this way. The kids go that way. And, even the "adults" are divided up by age and stage of life.

But, effective activism isn't programs. Effective activism is people, all kinds of people. Effective activism bridges the generation gap.

(Photo Credit)