The Church Answers Podcast

How the Boomers Killed Many American Churches, Part 1: A Brief History of Boomerism in the Church

While much has been written on this large generation born between 1946 and 1964, Thom argues that we have not explained why this generation hurt many congregations, some to the point of death. In this first of three episodes, he examines a brief history of Boomerism in the church.

Duration:: 12m
Broadcast on:: 28 May 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Welcome to the Church Answers podcast presented by Chaney & Associates. Chaney & Associates are the accounting firm for the church. Now get ready for fast-paced insights on key issues affecting the local church today. We release three episodes each week, so make sure you've seen or heard them all. And now, here is the CEO of Church Answers, Tom Rayner. I have a confession to make. I am a baby boomer. Oh, I know you know that. Not only am I a baby boomer, that generation born between 1946 and 1964, 76 plus million live births during that time. Native immigration has kept us pretty much about the same number. There's been deaths, of course, but we're still right around 75, 76 million. We're at the time we're the largest generation in history. And this generation is problematic. My generation is problematic. So much so that I have a three-part series called How the Boomers Killed Many American Churches. That sounds a bit bleak and maybe dogmatic, but I want to tell you it is true. And we'll be talking about that in these three episodes of the Church Answers podcast. My name is Tom Rayner. For those of you who are watching us on YouTube, hello, for those of you who are listening to your favorite podcast app, thank you as well for listening to this audio portion. We are so glad you're here. You heard the introduction. Chaney and Associates is our sponsor. Hey, in case you didn't hear the interviews that I had with the founder and Chaney of Chaney and Associates, go back and listen to those three episodes. Incredible what they're doing for the Church. And I just love the fact that they are our ministry and business partner. But this particular episode is about how the Boomers are killing many American churches. The part one is a brief history of Boomerism. I don't know if that's a real word. I just made it up. A brief history of Boomerism in the Church. So let's go back and look at a few review matters. I heard you heard me say that the Boomers had about 76 million live births between 1946 and 1964. I am at the middle of those roughly at about 19-- about I was born in 1955. So you can measure my antiquity accordingly. The Boomers at the time were the largest generation and they were primarily the sons and daughters of the World War II generation. When Chaney came marching home again after World War II, Chaney had a lot of catching up to do. And so Chaney started building big families and that required bigger homes and bigger cars and one thing led to another and the Boomers transformed American culture, American society, the American financial system. And the transformation was not always good. Many times it was negative. I'm going to apply the issue of Boomerism to the Church. And I do mean this. I do think the Boomers as a generation have hurt American churches a lot more than they have helped them. Now I understand many of you are Boomers. You're part of my generation. I know you. And you're listening to me saying, "Come on, Tom. We're not that bad. Well, you may not be, but remember there are 76 million others of us." And collectively we overall didn't help the Church. The Church is in America very much. And so I'm going to talk about the history of Boomerism. And I'm going to talk about what happened as they started coming into the Church. So here's the picture. These Boomers are kids and they're growing up under World War II parents essentially. And these World War II parents, to say that their euphoric would be an overstatement, but they are indeed optimistic. The next great war has been won. The Allies have defeated the Axis. All of the military who survived the war are coming home. And there's a sense of mightiness in America. There's a sense of we cannot be defeated. There's a sense of possibility. And that type of euphoric attitude began to transfer to the children of the World War II generation whom they were raising. And they, these World War II parents, wanted their children to have those things that they did not have. Many of them came from a depression era. Many of them had to sacrifice during at least one World War. Some of them even two World Wars. And they did not want their children to have to struggle and sacrifice like they did. It was a new era and a new time. And so the attitude of many Boomer parents was essentially, "Hey, we want our kids to just have it all." Well, it did not take long before these Boomers started growing up. And by the time they became the first way became teens and those behind them were children, marketers were getting to see that this is a lot of kids, eventually a lot of adults. And we're going to market to them. Let me just give you one example. One example was two fast foods. One of them is called McDonald's. The other is called Burger King. Now, Tom, what does this have to do with Boomerism in the church? Allow me to explain. Well, McDonald's, many of you have never experienced this. I did. McDonald's, if you wanted back, when I was a kid and a young adult, if you wanted a cheeseburger any way other than the way they made it with onions and a few other things I don't remember, it was called a special order. And you knew the minute that you made a special order at McDonald's that that person who took the order did not like you. It was like, "Oh, this is a special order." And they were speaking to the microphone, "Well, we have a special order." It was like I committed some atrocity because I like my cheeseburgers. Catch up only. I don't like onions. I don't like it anyways. And so I got where I did not want to go to McDonald's. Well, Burger King started tapping into the attitude of the Boomers who just want everything their way. And they began to overtake, not to overtake McDonald's, but to grab some a significant amount of market share from McDonald's. And what was their spiel? What was their presentation at Burger King? You can have it your way. Hold the pickles. Hold the lettuce. Special orders don't upset us. All we ask is that you let us serve it your way. Wow. And Burger King began to grow because they were tapping into this felt need of Boomers who were being raised to. We can have it all. We should have it given to us. The Boomers, ladies and gentlemen, my generation, became a generation of what have you done for me lately. And in some ways, you can't blame us. That was the way we were raised. But then again, I don't want to have the victim mentality and say that we were not responsible. I remember some of that myself. I remember how my parents let me do things that they would have never done themselves or had done for them. And so our generation, the Boomers, largely grew up as the generation that expects. The generation that is waiting with a handout, the generation that thinks they can have it their way to use the words of Burger King. Now, what is a church? What is a local church? Oh, I could spend forever on that, obviously. Well, first Corinthians 12 makes it very clear that we're all part of the body of Christ. And we all have different functions within the church and everybody's to function accordingly. Now, what does that mean? That means if we are a part of a church we're supposed to serve, we're supposed to give, we're supposed to minister to others, we're supposed to share the gospel. Do you hear what I'm saying? To be a part of the local body of Christ means that we have an other focus. We're focused on God and others. Being a part of the body of Christ is not of what have you done farmed lately. It's not a group of people that get the worship style their way. It's not a group of people that want the building to look a certain way because they gave their money to it. No, that's not the local church, but that's what the boomers brought to the church. And the boomerism as it began to come into the church, the boomerism began to be an entitlement group within the church. And you know what many churches did? They accommodated. They just said, okay, come on in. Make yourself comfortable. We're not going to ask anything of you, expect anything of you. You can remain anonymous if you want to. And by the way, that's one of the reasons that we'll get into more while the mega churches grew because anonymity among the boomers was easier. And so what did boomerism do to the church? What boomerism did to the church? It created a group, I'm now going to call it congregation, a group of people who began to expect to be served instead of to serve. It was deadly for the church. It created division within the church and ultimately, no one wants to be a part of something that really didn't make a difference. The church started making less difference than it used to because it had a bunch of expectant, me-centered boomers in it. And the church began to, quite frankly, be a weak church that could no longer be effective in its community. I want us to just continue to talk about this. I want to expand upon this mega church issue just a little bit, not because mega churches are bad, but because mega churches are largely the outgrowth of the boomer generation. And if that is so, what are the implications for mega churches in the future? Stay with me. This is a three-part episode. This first part is here. This first part is all about the history of boomerism in the church. The second part will be, here comes the mega church. We're going to now tie in the history of boomerism to the mega church, and we'll be talking about that in the next episode. Hey, two things. One, have you downloaded the Every Church Guide, the Everything Resource Guide for churches, the Everything Church Resource Directory? I'm going to get that right. The Everything Church Resource Directory, if you have not downloaded, is free. It is incredible. You say, "I need this for my church. I need this for my church members." There it is. There it is. There it is. It's all free. I downloaded it. You can look at it online, or you can print it out, just whatever you want to do. And you are going to be blessed by all of the listings that are there. And also, don't forget Janien Associates, our friends who are the accounting firm for the church. We appreciate you so much being a part of the Church Answers Podcast. Hey, you YouTubers, you who are viewing us, give us a thumbs up, and please subscribe to this channel so that we can get the word out even more frequently. And for those of you on your favorite podcasting out, thank you for the ratings and review that you are giving us, you're getting the word out even more. We're going to talk about Boomerism just a little more in the next episode when we talk about mega churches. Stay tuned. I can't wait to talk to you or see you. You have been listening to the Church Answers Podcast presented by Janien Associates. Janien Associates are the accounting firm for the church. You need to focus on ministry. Janie will focus on finances. Also, please subscribe and give a review to the Church Answers Podcast on YouTube and on your favorite podcasting app.