Last week, the nation and world held their collective breath as elected officials on both sides of the ideological aisle played chicken with the national debt. In the end, they came up with a quasi-solution – but only after digging their heels in for months, refusing to compromise. Neither side really knew or even attempted to play nice together, and any attempt at civility or mutual respect was conspicuously absent.
In the rash of articles written in the aftermath of the debt deal, one caught my eye. The author, Laura Sessions Stepp, looks at the younger generation, or Millennials, and posits that this more open-minded, agreeable generation may be our hope for a less rancorous, more civil public discourse. Why? Because they know how to play nice without “threatening to take all [their] blocks, go home, and never play again.”
I think Ms. Stepp may be on to something, and not only in the political realm. The members of my generation tend to be many things, some good and some bad. Yet one thing we tend to be able to do is work (or play) well with others, even if we don’t agree with them on everything. Don’t we need people like that in all areas of society?
The trouble is, it may not be likely that younger generations will find a seat at the table anytime soon. I experienced this myself in church life. Serving as a pastor on a committee for the state convention, I found my then-27 year old opinion was somehow invalid in the eyes of the 60-something committee chair because I was too young. This was quite surprising, given that we were discussing ways of engaging 20somethings in conversation and ministry! I was told that, in his church, younger folks had to “serve their time” before they were allowed to take leadership roles, and that such a practice should be played out on the state level as well.
If this attitude continues, both in church and in the wider society, we may just find that we are squandering leaders who may be perfectly suited for the changing nature of our world. Millennials may be young – but they are no younger than the “Greatest Generation” was when they came back from war and led well, in church and in society. Maybe it is time we looked for the “little children” to lead us again – or at least give them a place at the table. They just might be as brilliant as they think they are, and be nicer to work with, to boot.
And to my fellow Millennials, I give a time-tested piece of wisdom: “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.” (1 Timothy 4:12) If we do this, we might just find a seat at the table that will let us change the world.
In Christ,
Adam
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