Earlier this year the Pew Research Center released their definitive dates related to the four major generations alive in the United States. These are: (1) the Silent Generation, born 1928-1945 (ages 73-90); (2) Boomers, born 1946-1964 (ages 54-72); (3) Generation X: born 1965-1980 (ages 38-53); and (4) Millennials: born 1981-1996 (ages 22-37). Though not named in this Pew report, Generation Z makes up those born since 1997; they are age 21 and younger in 2018.<\/p>\n
I found this study interesting for several reasons. The first is that many Boomers continue to lead civic, business, educational and church institutions. As Boomers, we were influenced (for better or worse) by the major cultural changes in American life in the 1960s: the sexual revolution, the importance of the Civil Rights movement for black Americans and the acceptance of moral relativism in place of revealed truth.<\/p>\n
But at the same time, Boomers are part of an aging population. About 10,000 Boomers reach age 65 every day. (Click here<\/a> for more information). The second reason I found this so interesting relates to my location as I write this column. In July, Susan and I attended the IPHC\u2019s YouthQuest event in Covington, Kentucky. The focus has been on the IPHC 2018 core value, \u201cWe Prayerfully Value All Generations.\u201d<\/p>\n I was so grateful to see the emphasis given to Arise 2033 during YouthQuest. This generation of teens will be in their late 20s and early 30s when the IPHC gathers in 2033 to commemorate the 2000th anniversary of the death, resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the Day of Pentecost.<\/p>\n The Fine Arts part of YouthQuest includes short sermons. Because I am so interested in the young people the Holy Spirit is calling into ministry, I always enjoy listening to these sermons. I\u2019m grateful for the number of young women who are encouraged by pastors, parents, and congregations to participate in preaching. This year the preaching text was Malachi 4:6a, \u201cAnd he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers\u201d (NKJV).<\/p>\n As these young women and men preached, they all spoke with passion about the responsibilities of one generation to the next. Some told of Malachi\u2019s historical context and related it to our present. Some spoke with heart-rending personal stories of surviving the broken marriages of their parents. Some described how the reference to the prophet Elijah in Malachi 4:5 was fulfilled in the person of John the Baptist (Matthew 11:7-14; 17:12, 13).<\/p>\n As these young preachers read or referenced Malachi 4:6a, I had this picture in my mind of a stone engraved with the Hebrew text of that part of the text (see the photo on this page). Several years ago, while we were younger Baby Boomers looking to an older generation for inspiration and guidance, Susan and I found the engraving and keep it hanging on a wall in our home. It\u2019s a constant reminder to us of the opportunities and responsibilities we have.<\/p>\n It\u2019s important to note that Malachi 4:6 begins with a prophetic call to each generation of \u201cfathers\u201d (and \u201cmothers\u201d) to turn their hearts to those coming behind them. We who are older cannot wait for the younger to turn to us. We must first turn to them.<\/p>\n We turn with repentance, understanding, and patience. We turn not in some feeble effort to be \u201crelevant,\u201d but we turn with grace, truth, and love. We turn as people whose lives can be imitated. We turn not because we are better, but because we have gone further on the journey with the Lord of the generations.<\/p>\n I believe that as revival, repentance, renewal, reconciliation, and restoration occur among those of us who are older, it will be a witness and sign to those following us of the Lord\u2019s great faithfulness.<\/p>\n For us Boomers, the clock is ticking. Our time on this earth is short. Let us turn towards the younger generations with Spirit-anointed passion. Perhaps the closing judgment mentioned in Malachi 4:6b is always dependent on how and when we turn to those who are following us. Let\u2019s eagerly invest our lives in those who are coming after us. <\/p>\n By Doug Beacham<\/strong><\/p>\n This article was published in\u00a0the August 2018 issue of Encourage<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"excerpt","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2712,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1],"tags":[510,6,45,134,46,290],"class_list":{"0":"post-2697","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bishops-blog","8":"category-general","9":"tag-510","10":"tag-august","11":"tag-bishop","12":"tag-bishops-blog","13":"tag-doug-beacham","14":"tag-iphc-general-superintendent","15":"entry"},"title_es":"Cu\u00e1n r\u00e1pido olvidamos lo que Dios hizo en el pasado","content_es":"En agosto de 1996, el difunto superintendente general, BE Underwood, convoc\u00f3 a una asamblea solemne para confesarle al Se\u00f1or siete pecados sist\u00e9micos que formaban parte de nuestro pasado y presente: orgullo espiritual, prejuicio, esp\u00edritu controlador, racismo, dominaci\u00f3n masculina, codicia y s\u00edndrome del hermano mayor. Varios cientos de l\u00edderes de IPHC se reunieron en el santuario de Northwood Temple IPHC en Fayetteville, Carolina del Norte. Durante veinticuatro horas, confesamos, oramos, lloramos y buscamos el rostro de Dios para nosotros personalmente, nuestro movimiento corporativamente, y para nuestra naci\u00f3n y el mundo. Recientemente me encontr\u00e9 pensando en ese evento por dos razones principales. Primero, el movimiento #MeToo ha sacado a la superficie la realidad del impacto continuo de la dominaci\u00f3n masculina. Desde Hollywood, los medios, los deportes y la religi\u00f3n, una profunda conciencia ha puesto de relieve la realidad omnipresente del continuo abuso de las mujeres. Una escritora, Beth Moore, que habl\u00f3 en la noche de apertura de nuestra Conferencia General de IPHC el verano pasado, se enfrent\u00f3 a sus hermanos bautistas del sur el 3 de mayo de 2018, con \" Una carta a mis hermanos<\/a> \". Deber\u00edas leer su carta. Es relevante para la familia cristiana en todo el mundo. Cuando le\u00ed su carta, no pude evitar pensar en el pecado que nuestra propia iglesia confes\u00f3 hace veintid\u00f3s a\u00f1os. En segundo lugar, en un vuelo reciente, vi la pel\u00edcula Spotlight de 2015. Basado en una historia real, retrata c\u00f3mo The Boston Globe, en enero de 2002, expuso las d\u00e9cadas de abuso sexual de ni\u00f1os por parte de los sacerdotes y el encubrimiento eclesi\u00e1stico que lo acompa\u00f1a en la arquidi\u00f3cesis cat\u00f3lica de Boston. Esto condujo a la eliminaci\u00f3n del difunto cardenal Bernard Law y revel\u00f3 c\u00f3mo el Globo mismo hab\u00eda menospreciado la historia una d\u00e9cada antes. El poder oscuro de controlar esp\u00edritus por los sacerdotes abusadores, por la jerarqu\u00eda eclesi\u00e1stica e incluso por el Globo revela cu\u00e1n profundamente los tent\u00e1culos del pecado tejen su camino destructivo de mentiras y encubrimientos. Para que no seamos conscientes de c\u00f3mo el orgullo espiritual y el prejuicio pueden cegarnos, estos pecados han ocurrido dentro de los movimientos evang\u00e9licos y pentecostales, incluido el nuestro. Dentro de la IPHC, fue hace una generaci\u00f3n que reconoci\u00f3 estos pecados. Pero un evento no nos marca para siempre. Surge una nueva generaci\u00f3n que tiene poca o ninguna referencia personal o hist\u00f3rica de ese d\u00eda en Fayetteville. Incluso aquellos de nosotros que est\u00e1bamos all\u00ed somos muy conscientes de cu\u00e1n f\u00e1cilmente volvemos a las formas sutiles en que la cultura nos atrae con poder y prestigio. Cu\u00e1n f\u00e1cilmente justificamos y excusamos nuestras propias actitudes y acciones. Con qu\u00e9 facilidad nos convertimos en el fariseo en el templo que or\u00f3: \"Dios, te doy gracias porque no soy como los dem\u00e1s hombres\" (Lucas 18:11, NVI). Decid\u00ed escribir sobre estas cosas ahora por varias razones. Primero, nuestro \u00e9nfasis en el valor central para 2018 y 2019 tiene correlaci\u00f3n: \"Todas las generaciones\" es nuestro tema para 2018, y \"Justicia\" ser\u00e1 nuestro enfoque en 2019. Si bien hemos destacado este a\u00f1o el bien que Dios hace a trav\u00e9s y en cada generaci\u00f3n , y hemos resaltado cu\u00e1nto nos necesitamos, tambi\u00e9n debemos notar cu\u00e1n f\u00e1cilmente se produce la p\u00e9rdida de memoria generacional. Dado que \"surgi\u00f3 un nuevo rey sobre Egipto, que no conoc\u00eda a Jos\u00e9\", hace casi 3.500 a\u00f1os (v\u00e9ase \u00c9xodo 1: 8), nos sorprende que un titular del 12 de abril de 2018 en The Washington Post reza: \"Estudio del Holocausto\". : Dos tercios de los millennials no saben qu\u00e9 es Auschwitz \" Si bien no hice una encuesta, sospecho que la gran mayor\u00eda de nuestros miembros m\u00e1s j\u00f3venes de la iglesia no tienen idea de que los l\u00edderes de IPHC se reunieron en Fayetteville en 1996 para confesar nuestros pecados corporativos. Me sorprender\u00eda que la encuesta milenaria entre nuestros j\u00f3venes adultos fuera diferente sobre Auschwitz. Esto me lleva a la segunda raz\u00f3n para esta columna. Cada a\u00f1o, varios miles de adolescentes y adultos j\u00f3venes de IPHC en EE. UU. Se re\u00fanen para la conferencia Accelerant en enero y para Youth Quest en julio. Necesitamos ver a estos j\u00f3venes: tienen los \u00faltimos tel\u00e9fonos inteligentes, los juegos m\u00e1s geniales y las aplicaciones m\u00e1s populares. Ya sea que usen Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram o WhatsApp, pueden comunicarse por todo el mundo o por el pasillo antes de que el orador pueda llegar a su siguiente frase. Tambi\u00e9n nos dicen que les importan los problemas de justicia (Solo lea este art\u00edculo: https:\/\/theunstuckgroup.com\/2015\/06\/millennials-and-social-justice-insights\/<\/a> ). Creo que es importante que encontremos formas de decirles que nuestra generaci\u00f3n no ha olvidado lo que confesamos antes de que nacieran. Necesitamos mostrarle a la pr\u00f3xima generaci\u00f3n de hombres c\u00f3mo tratar a las mujeres como Cristo las trat\u00f3 a las mujeres. Necesitamos mostrarles que la manipulaci\u00f3n y el abuso sexuales no son lo que hacen los hombres y mujeres piadosos. Necesitamos mostrarles que el amor de Cristo rechaza el odio racial y \u00e9tnico. Necesitamos mostrarles, y recordarnos a nosotros mismos, que somos ciudadanos del reino de Dios. Por Doug Beacham<\/strong> Este art\u00edculo fue publicado en la edici\u00f3n de junio \/ julio de 2018 de Encourage<\/a> .<\/em>","author_name":"","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/08\/Beacham-Article-Featured-Image-e1534282488413.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pb62Bx-Hv","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nMillions of Boomers age 62 and older are drawing Social Security. They are dependent on Generation X and Millennials to pay the taxes necessary to handle Boomer retirement that will likely last another 35 to 40 years.<\/p>\n
\nYou can find more information about the Pew Research study here<\/a>.<\/p>\n