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Mend The Gap: Can the church reconnect the generations?

Author:	Jason Gardner
Published By:	Inter-Varsity Press (Nottingham)
Pages:	218
Price:	£8.99
ISBN:	978 1 84474 284

Reviewed by Dave Faulkner.

Being minister of a church that has tried to face the issue of missing generations with the help of the Revd Dr Mike Bossingham and the Family Friendly Churches’ Trust (www.familyfriendlychurches.org.uk), I jumped at the opportunity to review this book. Jason Gardner is a youth worker and trainer, as well as youth culture researcher with the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity. It is a well researched and easy to read volume. However, his conclusions and recommendations call for a drastic transformation in church life, not only in how we minister alongside young people, but in how all the generations relate to one another.

Beginning by noting that the church is one of the few institutions interested in keeping the generations today and acknowledging the struggle we have to do so, he charts a history of social change. Whereas adulthood was defined in terms of economic independence, the recognition of adolescence redefines things biologically. He notes how consumerism aims to keep people of all ages as perpetual adolescents. Along with old media such as newspapers, the generation gap has been created and maintained. Add technology and pop culture to the mix and no longer are older people filters of wisdom for the young. Younger generations seek wisdom among their peers. Therefore, if churches purely separate youth from older generations, they will fail to hold young people later.

In contrast, he examines Chinese and Japanese cultures that recognise only childhood and adulthood, whereas we glorify adolescence and adolescent attitudes. We wrongly define ‘quality time’ with children as catering to their whims, rather than discipling them.

He criticises preaching that is limited to penal substitution as offering forgiveness and heaven, but providing no food for transformation and whole-life discipleship. He says that if churches employ a worker to do youth work for them, they are letting someone else do the task that faces us all, namely cross-cultural mission in our society. Thus, he advocates inter-generational worship and sharing of life, both in church and at home. This, he says, requires education and training. Children need preparing for adulthood, not adolescence. He provides suggestions and lists of resources.

I hope Gardner wouldn’t deny the need that some ministry needs doing in separate generations. Years ago I heard Steve Chalke say that church is like family, where we need to do some things together and some apart. However, I believe Gardner’s basic thesis is sound and challenging, and perhaps needed stating in a stark manner to get his point across. This is one of the most important books I have read for ministry. I shall be commending it warmly to friends and colleagues.