Chris Seay confesses to generational arrogance in his Counter Culture column at Leadership Journal, Spring 2005. (Vol. 26, No. 2, Page 13)
In his article, “A Casualty in My Own War“, Chris writes about his response to antagonism from an older pastor soon after the establishment of University Baptist Church in Waco, Texas, back in 1995. The local pastor wrote a scathing article about the new start-up in his church newsletter. When Chris called the man to talk it through he encountered a bitter rejection over the phone.
Chris writes, “I look back now and realize I adopted a new posture after that day, my wit sharper, my attitude more jaded, and my mind more skeptical about boomer pastors. My opinions and preferences were cementing into dogma, and without knowing it I was becoming the very thing I hated in others.”
Through the 1990s, Chris admits, he found himself attempting to talk down the approaches taken by the previous generation of ‘church growth practitioners’. Finally he realised that large numbers of people actually enjoyed the contemporary worship style offered by such churches. “If they didn’t mind our worship sounding a bit like Wilco or Coldplay, then theirs could relive the glory days of Neil Diamond.”
Chris is now pastor at Ecclesia, Houston, Texas. In his article he reflects briefly on walking through a transition that is now more about substance than style. He says that living out a gospel that unites rather than divides is easier said than done, particularly when we feel we’re under attack.
I found Chris’ honesty encouraging. I too remember moments when older pastors publicly criticised work I’d started or was working in. Actually, it still happens. But it’s not just older pastors. Developing alternative approaches to church and Christian faith can be threatening to younger leaders as much as older.
Chris is the author of The Gospel According to Tony Soprano, (August 2002), The Tao of Enron: Spiritual Lessons from a Fortune 500 Fallout, (December 2002), The Gospel Reloaded: Exploring Spirituality and Faith in the Matrix (June 2003), and Faith of My Fathers: Conversations with Three Generations of Pastors aout Church, Ministry, and Culture, (September 2005). He was a contributor to Stories of Emergence: Moving From Absolute to Authentic (February 2003) and is working with Brian McLaren to publish “The Dust Off Their Feet: Out of Oppression Comes Success” (June 2006).
I’m looking forward to the publication of the Dust Off Their Feet book which will connect the learnings of the first century church with the explorations of the emerging church conversation in the 21st century.