Category: Faith & Society

5 Practical Ways Churches Can Bridge the Gen Z Baby Boomer Divide in the Pew

Published on by The Rev. Jason A BurnsLeave a comment

Bridging the Gen Z–Baby Boomer Divide in the Pew

We live in a culture that sorts us by age almost without thinking. Children gather with children. Teenagers stay with teenagers. Adults build friendships with people who share their stage of life. Even our online spaces often place us inside age-based circles.

Two women reviewing community outreach materials in a church pew
Two women review community outreach materials together during a church gathering.

That arrangement can feel comfortable, but it also leaves us with a problem: many of us rarely build meaningful relationships with people who grew up in a different decade. We may share a neighborhood, a workplace, or a church building and still remain strangers.

American churches have a unique opportunity here. We can bring generations together in ways that much of modern life does not. The church can become one of the few places where a Gen Z Christian and a Baby Boomer Christian worship, serve, learn, and grow alongside each other. That is more than a pleasant idea. It is a powerful gift.

Here are a few concrete ways we can start: pair older and younger members for weekly prayer partnerships, organize joint service projects like neighborhood cleanups or food drives, create mentoring pairs where a Baby Boomer shares life experience and a Gen Z member brings fresh questions about faith and culture, and simply schedule regular shared meals or small-group discussions that mix the generations on purpose.

The pew can be a meeting place

When we sit in the same worship service, we begin with something important in common. We may disagree about music, technology, politics, or the proper temperature for the sanctuary, but we gather around the same faith. That shared center gives us a reason to know one another rather than simply make assumptions.

A younger person may see an older believer as out of touch. An older person may see a younger believer as impatient or uninformed. Usually, those judgments become less certain once we hear one another’s stories. A conversation after worship can reveal the sacrifices someone made, the questions they carried, or the faithfulness they practiced when life was difficult.

The same thing happens in the other direction. Older adults may discover that younger Christians are not careless about faith. They may be trying to follow Jesus in a world shaped by pressures previous generations never faced. Younger Christians may discover that Baby Boomers are not merely defenders of old habits. Many have endured loss, doubt, change, and disappointment while continuing to show up.

Relationships give us what arguments rarely can: context. They help us replace caricatures with actual people.

We can make that happen on purpose. Start a monthly “story swap” after worship where a Gen Z member and a Baby Boomer each share a short faith journey. Form prayer triplets that mix generations. Invite younger adults to help older members with tech for online giving while the older members teach practical skills like budgeting from a faith perspective. These small, repeated actions turn the pew into a place where we actually know one another.

More than sitting in the same room

Being in the same sanctuary is a starting point, not the finish line. Cross-generational relationships grow through shared work and ordinary time together.

We can pair older and younger members for service projects, prayer partnerships, Bible study, mentoring, and informal meals. We can invite people from different generations to tell their stories, not as museum pieces or lectures, but as fellow disciples. We can create space for both practical wisdom and fresh questions. We can also form intergenerational small groups that study Scripture together, organize joint outreach events like neighborhood cleanups or meal deliveries, and set up skill swaps where younger members teach phone apps for daily devotionals while older members share how they navigated faith during major cultural shifts.

The exchange should go both ways. Older Christians may offer patience, perspective, and a long memory of God’s faithfulness. Younger Christians may offer curiosity, creativity, and a willingness to experiment. Neither generation has everything the church needs. That is precisely why we need each other.

A healthy relationship is not built by pretending our differences do not exist. We do not need to agree on every preference before we can listen well. We can ask honest questions, explain why something matters to us, and resist turning every disagreement into a verdict on someone’s character.

What we gain from one another

When generations worship and serve together, the church becomes a place where faith is not only discussed but observed. Younger believers can see what perseverance looks like over decades. Older believers can see the courage it takes to live faithfully amid rapid cultural change.

We also gain a wider understanding of belonging. A church family should not be a collection of age-based groups that happen to meet under one roof. It should be a community where people at different points in life recognize their responsibility to one another.

That kind of community takes intention. If we leave everything to convenience, we will usually choose people who are most like us. So we may need to change how we organize events, whom we invite to lead, and what we consider a successful ministry. A program that brings together three generations may look less polished than separate age-specific gatherings, but it can produce deeper relationships. We can start a quarterly “faith story night” where pairs from different generations interview each other and share highlights with the group. We can run a tech-and-tradition swap where younger members teach apps for daily prayer while older members demonstrate handwritten prayer journals. We can plan short mission trips or local service days that require mixed teams. These concrete steps turn intention into habit.

We should also be patient. One meal will not erase decades of misunderstanding. One conversation will not settle every dispute between generations. But repeated contact, shared service, and honest listening can slowly build trust.

A superpower worth practicing

The church cannot solve every difference between Gen Z and Baby Boomers. We should not pretend that generational tension is simple. Still, we possess something many parts of society have lost: regular opportunities to meet across age, experience, and background around a shared purpose.

That is our superpower, but it only matters if we practice it.

We can start small. Sit beside someone from another generation during worship. Ask about their faith journey over coffee after the service. Invite them to lunch and share a short Scripture reflection. Form a monthly prayer text chain with one older and one younger member. Volunteer together for a single service project like sorting donations at a food pantry. These tiny, repeated steps turn strangers into fellow travelers.

In a divided culture, these ordinary choices become a quiet witness. They show that Christian community is not built on sameness. It is built on love, patience, humility, and a shared commitment to follow Christ together.

The pew can be more than a place where we sit near strangers. It can become a bridge. And when we cross it, we may find that the people we were tempted to dismiss have wisdom, questions, humor, and faith that we need.

Embracing Differences: Lessons from the Weeds and Wheat

Published on by The Rev. Jason A BurnsLeave a comment

In today’s parable, the Master indicates that the weeds should be allowed to grow with the wheat because if the weeds are removed, then the wheat may be damaged. At face value, it appears that this parable is about the end times when the angels will separate the believers from the non-believers, but I caution us from jumping to that conclusion. I caution us about assuming that there is such a thing as those that are in and those that are out, and I do so because binary thinking is not only dangerous, but it is usually wrong. It is natural for us to want to have clarity, and on the surface this parable provides that: the people who follow the rules, the wheat, will enter the Kingdom and the people who don’t, the weeds, will not. The slaves, who represent us, want to hurry up and get rid of the weeds—the people that do not fit our vision of who belongs.  

The difficult truth is that we live in a world consumed by this exact kind of weeding. Our current landscape is defined by deep, exhausting partisan divisions and international standoffs. Whether it is political polarization here at home where we view the “other side” not just as neighbors with different ideas, but as enemies, or global conflicts flashing on our screens, the secular world is constantly demanding that we sort humanity into binary columns. We are told to pull up the weeds, to cancel, to exclude, and to isolate. We want the field clean, and we want it done now.

But when we do this, we miss the whole context of the world Jesus was talking to. In ancient Jewish teaching, a parable like this was called a mashal, basically an extended metaphor or story used to make a comparison. And Jesus follows it with a nimshal, which is just the explanation of the story. You see this structure all the time in rabbinic commentaries, where stories of kings planting orchards are used to show God building up or pulling up people based on whether they follow his will.

But Jesus puts a much more urgent spin on his explanation. He says that at the end of the age, the angels will collect the “evildoers” and throw them into the furnace. Now, in English, “evildoers” sounds like a word for the absolute worst villains of history. But the actual Greek phrase Matthew uses, poioūntas tēn anomīan (poy-OON-dahss teen ah-noh-mee-ahn) takes the word for the Law, the Torah, and puts a negative on the front of it. It literally means living against the Law 

And what is the Law according to Jesus? He tells us later in this same Gospel: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself.

So, if you look at it that way, the weeds aren’t people who hold the wrong opinions or fail our social litmus tests. The weeds are simply those who live against the law of radical love. The wheat, the righteous, are the ones actually enacting that love.

God has been lovingly tolerating humanity far longer than we ever will and it is not our job to decide who belongs; our job is to love each other like Jesus did. The hardest part of this whole situation is that we do not naturally love each other, mostly we just tolerate each other and try our best not to exclude the people that annoy us the most. So on one hand we know it is so much easier to just do what feels right in the moment, to just take care of ourselves and the people who are closest to us; but on the other hand our entire faith tradition says that we are supposed to do the complete opposite; we are supposed to give aid and comfort to everyone, no matter what; we are supposed to include everyone, no matter what; we are supposed to love everyone, no matter what.  

Earlier I cautioned us about binary thinking because it can lead to misinterpretation and inaccurate assumptions. The reason the master, who is God, said to leave the weeds is because he knew that some of those weeds might actually turn out to be wheat. There are many plants in my garden that I mistake, every year, but I leave them because I suspect that they might be flowers and when they do flower, I am grateful that I left them. It is also worth mentioning that a weed is only a plant growing in a location you do not want it to be in. It is very possible to cultivate a weed into a beautiful thing, but it takes time and that is what God in their infinite patience knows.

The process of becoming people of love takes time, and if we kick people to the side too soon, if we write off entire groups of people because of the political signs in their yard or the country they reside in, then they will not have the chance to grow into the people God intends them to be, and if in the end they don’t “make it”, that is between God and them.

Now, focusing on doing God’s will and loving people doesn’t mean we are earning our way into heaven by our own merits. This isn’t about “works righteousness” meaning doing morally correct things. Think of it like a mechanic who fixes up a broken-down car. Once the car is fixed and saved from its old state, the owner is expected to actually start driving it to get somewhere. If you just refuse to drive it, you completely ignore and undermine all the hard work the mechanic just did. It’s the same thing here. Jesus saves us from our sins so that we are freed up to actually do good works and live out that righteousness. Refusing to love, refusing to do those good works, basically cancels out the whole purpose of what Christ did on the cross. The parable is showing us what it looks like when saved believers actually live out that righteousness.

So, the only weeding or dividing, we can, or even should do, is within ourselves. We need to look deep into our souls and weed out those traits of our character; our tribalism, our judgments, our self-righteousness, that inhibit our ability to love like God. Daniel Berrigan, who was a Jesuit priest, once said, “If you are going to follow Jesus, you better look good on wood.” Let me repeat that, “If you are going to follow Jesus, you better look good on wood.”  

The message of Jesus was radical. It was radical two thousand years ago and it is radical today because it is contrary to human nature and that is the point. Jesus was nailed to a piece of wood because he told people to love each other and that idea was so radical, so contrary to the way his society thought, that they killed him. You see, Jesus was killed because people thought he did not belong, they thought he was the weed. Whether we are a weed or wheat does not matter because we are all children of God and we are all loved wholly and equally, even though we are really bad at loving other people.  

Jesus was willing to die for his radical message of love; he was willing to look good on the wood, are we ready for that? Are we ready to love so deeply, across ideological and political divides, that we will face discomfort or even social “death” for that love? My guess is no, and in the end, what matters is that we try to love each other, and when we fall short, not if, but when, we work even harder to make sure that we don’t fall short again.

Finding God in a Troubled World: Lessons from Micah and the Beatitudes

Published on by The Rev. Jason A BurnsLeave a comment

In the past few weeks, I have found it increasingly difficult to balance my emotions with my hopes for the world. As a history teacher I am acutely aware of the barbarity humanity has inflicted and continues to inflict on itself. Time and time again one group of humans has sought to declare themselves superior to others; we have created norms and laws that cement those beliefs, but over time those values bend, and ultimately break due to the strain placed on them by the people who resist the barbarity. I am not going to take us down the path of remembering what we have all learned in history class, instead I draw our attention to the words of Micah.

Micah was a prophet, his job was not to predict the future, but to point out where the Israelites had strayed from the path God has set before them. He begins by invoking creation, “Rise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice” this is to remind us that creation has witnessed it all. It has witnessed the entirety of human history; it has witnessed our rejection of God’s call to love; it has witnessed our moments of tenderness and inclusion; it has witnessed the things God has done for their creation. Micah then reminds his readers of those very things, the release from Egyptian bondage, the sending of Moses, Aaron, and Miriam to help us understand the kind of society God desires for us. He protected us from the curses of enemies, by turning them into blessings. This heritage defines us as people of God; it tells us that from the beginning God has been and is present among their people. Micah ends by telling us something that would have been harder to hear in his time, he says that God doesn’t want us to bow before them; make burnt-offerings; pour out rivers of oil; or give up our first born for our sins. God has said, through Moses, through Aaran, through Miriam, and now through Micah that they want nothing more than for us to do justice, to be kind, and to walk with God in humility. The only sacrifice God requires is the sacrifice of sin because it is sin that stands in the way of justice and kindness and humility.

 Matthew is echoing the message of Micah in his recounting of the beatitudes. There are many ways to interpret these famous lines, but the one I like the most is that the first four remind us of the different and most common ways that humanity suffers. We endure sadness, we, at times, feel abandoned by God, we, at times, adopt a sense of helplessness in the face of apparent authority, all the while hoping it could be different, but not believing it could be. The last five lines point us to the very things Micah pointed to as things that God does and desires for us, mercy, humility, and justice. Collectively the beatitudes are a reminder that God is with us through it all and if we can hold on to that then the glory of God’s kingdom in heaven will be revealed, we will find comfort, our thirst for justice will be filled, and we will see God among us.

It is difficult to see God in the world right now. It is difficult to see them among us as children are traumatized by the arrest of their parents or even themselves; it is difficult to see God among us as faithful people are gunned down while seeking the very justice God asks us to pursue. It is difficult to see God among us as we fight over government spending, or policies designed to ensure that all people are treated justly and humanely. It is difficult to see God among us as our neighbors freeze to death because communities ‘can’t afford’ to provide a warm space. It is difficult to see God among us when every day there are multiple news story about the lack of Justus, the want of kindness, and absence of mercy, which is why I know I have been finding it difficult to balance my emotions with my hopes for the world; but hope is not lost.

Hope is not lost because history tells us that God’s love always wins over the sins of humanity. God’s people were freed from slavery, they were comforted, they received mercy, and their desire for justice was fulfilled and the same will be true again, but how does knowing this help us now?

A key and unspoken component of Micah’s message and the beatitudes is that we must believe that God’s vision and hope for creation is possible and we must accept that we as individuals are not the solution, but we are a part of it. Jesus called us to be the church, to be his body in the world. A body that is imbued with the power of the Holy Spirit and empowered by God to act in their name as we seek justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with them. Walking with God, means that we are walking with each other, it means that we are aware of each other’s plights and even if we can’t help each other solve our problems, we can at least make sure we don’t make things worse. Walking with God means seeking to comfort and protect the oppressed in the ways the oppressed ask us to; it means speaking out when our fellow human beings are putting their beliefs about the world ahead of the humanity of their neighbors; it means respecting the dignity of every human being by putting their humanity before our political, cultural, and economic motivated views of them as “the other”; it means stepping back from the fray and asking where God is and accepting that if we can’t answer that question then perhaps we are the problem because as followers of Christ Jesus where we go, God goes.

Clinging to God’s vision for creation, as best as we can perceive it; gathering as a community of faith to remind ourselves of God’s vision and command to love; and engaging in spiritual practices that remind us that God walks with us; and trusting that despite humanities best efforts to interfere with God’s plans, God always finds a way to work through us to bring an end to injustice. This was true in the time of Moses, in the time of Micah, in the time of Jesus, and it is true today. We need only believe that it is true and do our best to help or at least not get in the way. Amen.