BoomerS
AND Zoomers
pg. 14 — lightandlifemagazine.com
By Chris Kaufman
In the ’90s and early ’00s the prevailing belief was that
a good youth ministry would be a “golden ticket”
to growing a church. To some extent, that was true. A
“successful” youth ministry could bring an influx of families
to a church that was struggling to find “new blood.” But,
like many fads, once the new feelings faded so would the
church’s success, leaving behind a generationally segregated
and wholly disjointed congregation.
Today, it can seem next to impossible to keep up with
every new trend among teens. Knowing the latest slang
and most relevant meme is a dangerous game if one doesn’t
always stay on top of current trends. Often the life cycle of a
meme reaches the “dead” stage by the time Jimmy Kimmel
picks it up. If the outrage over the term “OK boomer” shows
us anything, it’s that the relationships between our oldest
and youngest generations are more strained than ever.
I’ve served as a youth pastor for the last several years, and
the main thing I’ve learned in that short time is that my
job title doesn’t really define the ministry I actually do. It’s
true that a large part of my day-to-day work is ministering
to the teenagers in my congregation, but, more and more,
I’ve come to view my place in the church as an ambassador
between all age groups. I spend a significant amount of my
time around congregants who have long since graduated
high school. My ministry is as much to the Boomers as it is
to the Zoomers.
Early on in my current role, I had an idea that pairing
older women in our church with teen girls as pen pals may
help foster relationships between the generations. What I
didn’t know at the time is how much fruit that would bear.
Nearly two years later, many girls still keep in touch via
snail mail with their ladies. Teenagers using snail mail; who
would have thought it? Granted, not every relationship
was a booming success, and many fizzled out after several
exchanges. But what did happen was that every one of our
Chris Kaufman is the
youth pastor of the
Pendleton Free Methodist
Church in Oregon and the
author of “Kingdom Over
Empire: Following Jesus
In the American Empire”
(fmchr.ch/ckaufman).
/ckaufman
/lightandlifemagazine.com
/ckaufman)