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Countering Ageism As early as I can remember, Miss Elsie Dennison was my Sunday School teacher. The years have swiftly passed, but I can see her now, clear as then. Shes 75, a little hunched over, with brown hair that I now suspect wasnt entirely natural. Shes standing in a classroom in our small Baptist church in coastal Maine. There arent many of us; just three or four kids. Yet a magic is in the air. Miss Dennison loves us, and she teaches us the gospel, using the churchs flannel-graph board and her own earnest faith. There, in that little classroom, young and old joined together in the name of Jesus Christ. This kind of gospel unity across generations is challenged today, as some Christians over-emphasize friendship with their peers and lose out on opportunities for cross-generational fellowship. This separationcalled ageismdiminishes the gospels power. TYPES OF AGEISMEarly Christian leader Cyprian once said of division that "Anyone who rends and divides the Church of Christ cannot possess the clothing of Christ."[1] Such behavior takes shape in two ways when it comes to generational differences. First, the old separate from the young. We have all heard of churches in which youth is distrusted and elderly church members have control over church affairs. Though many elderly Christians adore young believers, aged Christians do sometimes distrust those younger than themselves, and create division within the body of Christ.[2] Second, and more commonly today, the young separate from the elderly.[3] When youths are not taught to reverence the aged, their behavior "opens wide the door to pride and folly," in the words of theologian David Wells. This posture misses the blessings that accrue to those who seek to love and respect their elders.[4] The strongest form of youthful ageism involves a sullen dislike for the elderly. Though many well-trained young people avoid this spirit and love the elderly, ageism does seem particularly manifest in my generation, the anti-authority cohort. Some churches, wittingly or unwittingly, practice youth-oriented ageism. It is of course well and good to contextualize, to use ones natural proclivities and background to reach the lost. However, the matter seems to shift when congregations practice a style of music, sermon, and dress that potentially excludes an older generation. Though such congregations may not intend to practice exclusion of the aged, the elderly will likely stay away from them, and God will lose glory that is rightfully His.[5] BIBLICAL TESTIMONY ON AGEThe Bibles teaching on this matter pushes us away from our natural tendency to associate based primarily on common background. To those of us who sometimes overlook the elderly, the New Testament authors direct us to love all who believe, regardless of how different from one another we may be.[6] Christs parting words to his disciples in John 15:12-13 lay the foundation for this idea: "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."[7] Paul reinforces this principle in Titus 2:2-6. Here, he teaches that an age-integrated church enables members of varied life situations to encourage and strengthen one another. He writes:
This is a beautiful passage. Christians of different ages do not simply fill the same pews. We reach past our differences and build one another up in mutual faith.[8] But theres more. When Christians of all ages gather together, something strange and magical happens: we display the gospel and we declare our true identity. This is what Christ promised in John 17:23: "I in them and you in me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that you sent me, and loved them, even as you have loved me." Here, John teaches ageism-prone people like me that the unified church speaks the gospel with a force we never know as individuals. The world may only fully understand the gospel when it observes the gathered church. In so doing, additionally, we show the churchs true nature. We are not a social club or a religious organization, a group of individuals paying dues and holding meetings. We are a little heaven, a living preview of a place to come. Our unity now shows the watching world a snapshot of a place where love is perfected and God is exalted. ADJUSTING OUR PERSPECTIVERock or soft pop? Ties or jeans? Hymnals or power point? Wise choices on these matters may affect our ability to connect with unsaved people. God is glorified in the diversity of His people, and He uses our natural interests for the advancement of His kingdom. Yet it seems clear from the brief textual survey above that congregational unity attests to the gospels power with unique efficacy. Understanding this, theologian Francis Schaeffer challenged the church: "We cannot expect the world to believe that the Father sent the Son, that Jesus claims are true, and that Christianity is true, unless the world sees some reality of the oneness of true Christians." We might ask ourselves, then: am I a vessel of unity for the furtherance of the gospel? None of us who love Christ desire to obscure the gospelbut is this happening in our lives and our churches? If so, how can we change this? With my lack of experience, I cannot suggest a perfect answer. Yet surely there is nothing lost and much gained in devoting ourselves to the cultivation of congregational unity. Such devotion promises to strengthen not only our evangelism, but our churches themselves. CONCLUSIONMiss Dennison passed away some years ago. She worships in heaven now. As our Sunday School teacher, she taught us children a foundational truth: that the gospel is magnified most not in our clever words or strategies, but in local churches that proclaim Christ, places where the young and the old gather and bring a flannel-graph gospel to life. Owen Strachan is a master of divinity student at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. He also works as an editorial assistant in the office of seminary president R. Albert Mohler. 1 Cited in Alister McGrath, The Christian Theology Reader, 464; originally in Cyprian of Carthage, de catholicae ecclesiae unitate, 5-7; in Corpus Christianorum: Series Latina vol. 3, ed. M. Bevenot (Turnholt: Brepols, 1972), 252.117-254.176. |
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