Emerging Leaders

I just returned for our Church Foundational Network Family Conference in Peachtree City, Georgia. It was a powerful time of hearing from the "fathers" of our spiritual family and seeking the Lord together to impact us, move us beyond mediocrity and into our full potential for effectiveness. The high point for me was a special session that I felt to schedule with younger, emerging leaders. My concern for sometime was that I sensed a lack of connection with some in the younger generation to CFN and our future. I encouraged the group to share from their hearts and share they did! We talked for 1 1/2 hours about the challenge of generational transfer. This has been a particular burden on my heart for serveral years now. Let me share some of the things that came out of that meeting.

First there was a sincere appreciation of the past and the price the older leaders had paid to get us all to this point. There was not a critical spirit present. However, there was an obvious disconnect in some from the past leadership and a frustration of sorts about their role as we move forward as a spiritual family. There were other young leaders who approached me later to say that they did not feel a generation gap at all and were somewhat surprised in the meeting when this was brought up. One of the concerns voiced in the group was not only a generation separation but a cultural difference. There has always been a cultural difference from generation to generation.

What can we learn and do as we seek to marry the zeal of the younger with the wisdom of the older? Serveral positive suggestions came out of the meeting. There first must be this understanding that CFN is a "family". As with any family there must a gradual release as sons come to maturity. There will always be this strain on both sides as this occurs. It was interesting to me to notice that the ones who felt the tension were the ones who have been a part of this family for most or all their lives. The ones who didn't feel a strain were young leaders who have been adopted into the family and probably never had to work out the release within this particular family. We will find a rememdy to this as we allow the younger leaders to take a greater part in the family and release more responsibility to them.

This time of sharing helped me immensely and gives me an avenue for future planning and implementation. One of the questions that I was asked was, "how did you transition from the generation before you into your role as a leader?" I had never thought of it. While I do remember a generational gap of sorts, spending time on a daily basis in ministry together seemed to take care of the differences. I never remember it being a limiting thing. This would make me think that if there is a day to day functioning together of spiritual fathers and sons in practical outworking of ministry, any generation gap would be a minor factor.

May the Lord give us wisdom so that we don't continue to start over with each generation and never making real progress. I am committed to working to see the natural flow of transition occur.

The Dumbing Down Of America

We hear quite often this term, "the dumbing down of America" in the arena of education. Teachers are greatly frustrated by having to spend so much time, energy and money getting students preped to take acheivement tests rather than educating them. The bottom line is that the level of education falls to new lows year after year. One only needs to read the writings of 15-25 year old students from 100 years ago to see how far we have fallen. Yet, education is not the only place America is being "dumbed down". I see it in our daily language, in our manners and in our dress. The average 25 year old doesn't know which fork to use in a nice restaurant. He doesn't know which verbs to use where and he probably doesn't know how to tie a tie or to avoid wearing a brown belt with black shoes. He may not open the door for a lady or give an older person his seat if one is not available for them.


Then, we come to the church. The average Christian couldn't find the book Song of Solomon if his life depended on it. Doctrine has become an ugly word and protocol is seen as bondage. Why? What's causing the deterioration in our Nation? It's all about the God of comfort. We have made comfort the bench mark to which we aspire. In the 1960's the anthem that rang out was, "that ain't my bag". That being translated for you today means, "do what you want to do but don't put any parameters on me". When we remove the parameters, the measuring stick, we fall into a downward spiral. Well, we can't change the world today and make everything march to our drummer, but we can start with ourselves, our families and our churches! Let's boldly lead once again and set higher standards for ourselves and those we lead.