The clock is quickly counting down on the Boomers.
The Boomers are dying. I ought to know. My boyhood friend, one year my senior, is gone. Just like that. Gone. We rode our bikes together, went swimming on hot summer afternoons, attended the same schools. We fellowshipped in the same local church where we tried—with fits and starts—to stir up our gifts, and stumbled into manhood together. You see him standing in my wedding photos. My heart holds happy memories of those times.
Anyway, two weeks ago, when I was in Ireland, his family stood around his grave. One morning at work he felt a tightness in his chest. He paid a visit to the local hospital, was given some medication, and was left for only a moment or two. But when the nurse returned, he was gone. Just like that. His passing was a solemn reminder to me that time is running out for reaching this generation.
There are no definitive dates that mark out the Baby Boomer generation, but many observers use the period between 1946 (when the end of the war in Europe began the dramatic climb in births) and 1964 (when the widespread use of the Pill led to a decline in the birthrate). One study (Spring 2004 Biography magazine) states:
By 1959 there were over 50 million children under the age of 14 living in the United States. Together they made up over 30 percent of the population. There were as many children in 1959 as there were people living in the US in 1881…
The baby boom would prove to be the single greatest demographic event in American history…. Boomers were so disproportionately numerous, so affluent, so blessed by the cold peace of the Cold War (Vietnam notwithstanding), that they would have the motive, means, and opportunity to reshape the nation (pp. 49-53).
Of course simple arithmetic shows that even the latest born of that generation are now 40. The oldest are approaching 60. If we are still going to reach this generation—my generation—for Christ, we must do it now.
What factors might help us understand the Boomers so we could be more effective in impacting them with the gospel? The Scripture states that someone who has built up a defense against us “is harder to be won than a strong city” (Prov. 18:19). When seeking to do exploits for God, it makes little sense to seek entrance to a person’s soul at the point of its strongest defense. Instead we should ask: What are the vulnerabilities of this generation? Where might we find entry into their materialistic, me-centered, often cynical hearts?
In assessing this generation, the article continues:
The Boomers have been dismissed by many commentators as selfish, or self-indulgent, a generation that never had to make the sacrifices of its predecessors…But this stereotype is short-sighted and misses other very different trends…the steady rise of church-going; the explosion of charitable giving; the explosion of entrepreneurship…Though they pushed the country toward liberalism when they were young, they pushed it right back to conservatism when they grew older.
Whether you agree with that assessment or not, it is the case that many who once embraced the free-wheeling, anti-establishment spirit of the 60s and 70s have turned 180 degrees from that. I know because I meet them in local assemblies all across the continent. Somehow they were reached and rescued by the gospel.
But it isn’t the 60s and 70s now. Boomers aren’t experimenting with hallucinogenic drugs and free love. Instead they now struggle with kids on drugs, crumbling marriages, financial uncertainty, bodies that prove to them daily that they are mortal (Superman just died!), and parents slipping into the netherworld of Alzheimer’s.
Many of them were inoculated against the Real Thing by their parents’ religion. But if we can gain their trust, they do have pressing questions, which many despair of ever having answered. Questions like: If there is a good God, why is it such a sad world? Is there any way of knowing for sure that there is a heaven? And knowing if I’m going? Can I really trust the Bible? Can I understand it?
I’m convinced that Boomers will listen if we prove our certain hope by living caring, contented and victorious lives before them. We need to be there for them in their times of crisis and be ready with real answers to their real problems (1 Pet. 3:15). And there is no time to lose.