Andy Crouch is a columnist with Christianity Today and spent several years as the editor of the magazine, Re:Generation Quarterly until its demise in 2003. He’s living in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, USA.
Andy can take the credit for taking the a lot of the wind out of the sails of generational research in the Evangelical church in the United States. In his Regeneration Quarterly review of Kevin Graham Ford’s book, Jesus for a New Generation: Putting the Gospel in the Language of Xers, Andy appealed for an end to publications on generational theory. His thesis is that the Baby Boomers as a generation have been formed together by shared experience. Generation X, he asserts, are so diverse that they defy the efforts of marketers to categorise them.
In 2001 Crouch wrote a Christianity Today column exposing three myths about generations, “Always in parables: Generation Misinformation”, published in Christianity Today and available online at his site, Culture Makers. Andy begins by bemoaning the popularity of seminars and books purporting to provide easy answers to ministry with Generation X, Y and Z.
The first myth busted by Crouch is the idea that ‘young people are a generation’. Andy points to the huge chasm between the murderous abusive intent of Eminem’s lyrics and the romantic ballads of Faith Hill. Both artists attracted huge levels of loyalty in the United States. Crouch cannot hold them together as members of the same generation. Instead of focusing on the distinctive features of the emerging generations, he would rather focus on the Biblical concept of each generation passing on faith to the next generation.
The scond myth is the idea that young people are disempowered. He points to the obsession with youth in prime time television. He asks if the time has come for members of postmodern generations learned to serve, love, and respect their elders.
The third myth is the idea that members of the emerging generations long for community. Crouch acknowledges that the emerging generations do crave a sense of connection with others. But, he explains, very few are prepared to pay the price of commitment required for intimate faithful community.
Crouch finishes by saying that ministry among young people will help us face our strategies for avoiding intimacy. It will call us to lay down our cherished distinctiveness from others, and invite us into that “chosen generation, royal priesthood, holy nation” that Peter calls the church.
I share Crouch’s concern about the over simplified nature of many seminars and books. That concern has led me to spending seven years paying attention to the factors that help us understand the development of emerging generations. Rather than providing people with generalisations, I am committed to helping people engage with their local context at a multi-generational level. That means, however, being aware of distinctive assumptions and starting points when coming to conversation. The point of conversation is not to alienate – it is to develop intimacy, cooperation and deeper understanding.
Critique of the Critique
So what do I think of Andy’s myth busting? I believe Andy, in his effort to introduce some realism to the conversation, has himself oversimplified matters and overlooked paradoxical trends. In some ways the ‘postmodern generations’ have exposed these trends rather than created them. Diversity has always been there in real life. We’ve always had a disparity between different approaches to music. Karl Mannheim was aware of this tension as he developed his theory of generational cohorts and generational units in the 1920s.
The complaint that young people are disempowered is a perennial one. However I think public policy in USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, at least, has favoured the Baby Boomers even if only because of the sheer numbers in their cohort. Yes there are successful Gen Xers who have attracted investment and opportunity. That doesn’t negate the relative instability faced by emerging generations when entering the workforce. Crouch refers to American Beauty, the 2000 film, in which a 42 year old tries to remake himself into (and make it with) a 17-year-old. That film was made for Boomers, not for young people.
It’s true that emerging generations are missing something when it comes for forming community. Even without inner factors such as fear of intimacy, community experience is muted by the extent of mobility. Longing for community does not necessarily mean capacity for community. And visa versa.
In other contexts Andy writes off generational theories as the domain of marketeers. I’ve seen a few references to this argument by other commentators. There’s almost an intellectual snobbery at work. I haven’t seen academics discounting postmodernism because marketing analysts are also paying attention.
At the bottom line Andy Crouch’s myth busting helps us steer clear of ‘easy peasy’ trendy pop sociology. Disciplines of cultural exegesis must be grounded in models of theological reflection that last the distance. Models that take us beyond particular life stages or cultural trends.
Andy and his colleagues at Re:Generation Quarterly took what might be called a new orthodox approach to theology and culture. This conservative approach comes through in Andy’s chapter in The Church in Emerging Culture: Five Perspectives, published by Emergent/Youth Specialties/Zondervan. Andy takes his myth-busting approach in his Christianity Today article on the Emerging Church movement for Christianity Today. More on those elsewhere some other time.
About Andy Crouch
Here’s a biographical note on Andy from Culture Makers:
Andy’s mission is to help North American Christians discover the meaning of the gospel in our cultural and global context. He is editorial director for the Christian Vision Project and a columnist at Christianity Today, a member of the editorial board of Books & Culture, and a senior fellow of the International Justice Mission‘s IJM Institute. More important, he seeks to befriend, learn from, and connect followers of Christ who are forging innovative paths of discipleship and cultural influence. Most important, he is a son, brother, husband, and father of two children. He lives with his family in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.
From 1998 to 2003, Andy was the editor-in-chief of re:generation quarterly, a magazine for an emerging generation of culturally creative Christians. For ten years he was a campus minister with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at Harvard University. He studied classics at Cornell University and received an M.Div. summa cum laude from Boston University School of Theology. A classically trained musician who draws on pop, folk, rock, jazz, and gospel, he has led musical worship for congregations of 5 to 20,000.
Back issues of Re:Generation Quarterly are currently being archived online at Christianity Today and will be accessible upon subscription.
This post has had a fair amount of interest in the last few days. There have been references from Tall Skinny Kiwi (Andrew Jones), Urban Onramps (Rudy or should I say LatinKiwi) and Circle of Pneuma (Phil Johnson). Thanks guys.
I emailed Andy Crouch straight after writing the review. And heard back within a few hours. Good man. Andy says that this is exactly the sort of conversation he hopes to start with his writing. He’s going to try and post his previous article, “For People Like Me: The Myth of Generations”, on Culture-Makers.com this week. He says it’s really the most substantive thing he’s written on generational theory specifically, engaging especially with Howe & Strauss. I’m looking forward to seeing it appear there – and will follow up with a comment or two.