Rob McAlpine on Generational Cliques

Rob McAlpine, from Winnipeg, Canada, wrote an article for Next Wave a couple of years ago, “Clique Maintenance: Dividing the Generations”.

He started off with Douglas Coupland’s wry definition:

Clique Maintenance: The need of one generation to see the next generation as deficient so as to bolster its own collective ego.

Rob rewrote that definition to describe the cliquey behaviour he’s seen at conferences:

Clique Maintenance: The need of one generation to see the next generation as deficient so as to bolster its own collective ego.

I’m sure both definitions are at work all the time.

Part of Rob’s concern was the conference speaker or writer who tells young people that they are the ones who will bring in the new revival. I’ve heard it too. “It is your generation who will enter the promised land. You will bring revival”. “The previous generation missed the boat. Now it’s your turn”.

Winkie Pratney takes this line in his book, “Fire on the Horizon: How the Revival Generation Will Change the World“, published in 1999. Winkie’s a New Zealander living in the States. I’ve heard Winkie talk and I can tell you he’s one inspiring guy. He tells great stories. He helps people feel passionately in response to the heart cries of their peers. He does a great job at mobilising and motivating young adults. But there is something worrying when a generation is set aside as the messiah generation.

What worries me is the messiah complex that develops, usually associated with polarisation. Twenty something young adults being fed the dream of a widespread revival sweeping the land, and being told “This is not your father’s revival”. And with that, the challenge to see the world and the church with clear black and white thinking. The problem with ‘black and white’ is that it leads to ‘in and out’, ‘right and wrong’, ‘us and them’, and ‘winners and losers’.

I’d be happy if each generational cohort and generational unit were given the challenge of making a difference in their society, making a difference in their church, and making a difference to the environment. But with that they need a technicolor vision – in which they see the role of the previous generations, and the generations to come. This is the challenge given by Peter in his message to the crowd during the feast of Pentecost in Jerusalem, some two thousand years ago. The Spirit is empowering old and young, and will be poured out on our children and their children too.