Old men. Young men.

I had a unique opportunity to go to a leadership conference with some younger ministries (mostly my age) and some older ones (mostly twice my age). This really brought some clarity to me and put some vague thoughts into a precise focus. I hope to be able to write about some of those ideas and observations in the writings to follow.

One of my friends noted another author who stated something to the effect that 'it's in the nature of young men to take risks; to go after something with abandon and go whole-heartedly after it. While it's the nature of older men to protect that which they fought for and have won in earlier days. They lean towards protecting their prize, and risk much less in their latter years.' Therein lies an essential difference between generations. As I am on the younger side of this story, I would agree that I have a higher tolerance for risk, innovation, and new ideas than those in ministry older than myself.

A couple of examples come to mind regarding this difference in ministry pursuit. First, let me talk about my slice of paradise, my home. When I first bought the house and property it was new of course, but bare bones. No fence, no grass, no trees or landscaping. No pretty paint colors. Bland, taupe colored carpet covered all the floors, except the bathrooms. No work done in the garage walls. And no deck to barbeque on. So in that first year, I went to work on it like trailblazing pioneer. I worked long hard hours shoveling in soil for the grass. I dug holes, poured posting concrete, and hammered up my fence with my bare hands. And we build a nice 10 x 20 deck for our future outdoor evening of bliss, in my slice of paradise. And in the year or two that followed, we partitioned the garage, painted custom colors in the house and put in some Pergo and shag carpet downstairs. But lately, all I have been able to do is keep up with repairs and maintenance. I mowed the jungle, twice in one week, just to make a dent. I fix curtains, attempt to do minor plumbing under the sink, adjust the ice-maker (that stopped making ice: c'mon, that's all you have to do!), touch up chipped paint, and replace burned out bulbs. I still have a dream of more "project" items to get done, but am resigned temporarily to the world of maintaining what was already built and installed. So it is with church at times

And remember the days of being young? I mean really young, when you were single and pursued the girl of your dreams? I was creative, romantic, and would do anything to please and impress her. I still have that same passion for her, and really, even greater love now than before. It's not maintenance mode, but the dreaming about the life together is now in a time of living out the life you have with her. (Although I still have some dreams up my sleeve). In counseling I find men that enjoyed the chase in the blissful days of singleness, but don't enjoy the "journey" of their marriage now. Can ministry have an effect like that in our churches?

Lastly, my memory is always stirred by the story of Nehemiah, and the rebuilding of the city. It was when I first started my ministry and the story gave me such hope and vision in what God could do for a city; what He could do for a city through me, to be specific. Historically, it falls into a timeline with Ezra who rebuilt the Temple. You can imagine the joy of rebuilding something that was so meaningful to the people of that day. The young men had to carry the load of the the construction, because of the physical weight of the stones and the demands of the building project. In my mind, there is probably conversation around the camp fire that goes something like this: "Man! I can't wait to build this thing, what an honor. Our fathers can tell us how it was, what it looked like, and what God is wanting in the design." And so they go find out. Back at the campfire, "Let's build it like that, but let's add some cool elements to the foundation that will glorify God and be attractive to our people. We can also build it faster than they did if we use this new technology called pulleys, to get it done easier. And we will celebrate by putting a brand new color of paint on it! Something to say, 'this is new-look what God has done'". And off the the young men go, building it, but with the characteristics and style and technology of the new day they lived in; but with a heart to build what would please God and to honor the memories of the fathers.

Ezra 3 then haunts me:

Ezra 3:11-13 (New Living Translation)

¹¹ With praise and thanks, they sang this song to the Lord:

“He is so good!
His faithful love for Israel endures forever!”

Then all the people gave a great shout, praising the Lord because the foundation of the Lord’s Temple had been laid.

¹² But many of the older priests, Levites, and other leaders who had seen the first Temple wept aloud when they saw the new Temple’s foundation. The others, however, were shouting for joy. ¹³ The joyful shouting and weeping mingled together in a loud noise that could be heard far in the distance.

Some of them wept, some of them shouted for joy. Old men who did it one way, young men who did it another way. Both tried to honor God in the building of their Temples. Maybe the older ones wanted to protect what they had fought for and keep it the same for their own memories. Maybe the young men wanted to risk taking it to another level of excellence, and wanted to build for God what God was putting in their minds. Hopefully the mingling of noise will be both generations worshiping one God in the Temple.