Generations of Faith

THIS BOOK SURPRISED me. Millennials and the Mission of God incarnates the “prophetic dialogue” of the subtitle. There are many books about millennials, but here a representative speaks for herself and an older interlocutor listens and responds to the concerns and arguments voiced. Together, baby boomer Andrew Bush and millennial Carolyn Wason ponder the future of the church, how Christianity is changing, and how to engage millennials.

Those with no affiliation, the Nones, are growing; traditional ministry models are failing. Wason, with her background in anthropology, sheds light on why. Her prose is playful and filled with self-deprecation as she laughs at her generation’s idiosyncrasies. As she muses on hashtag activism and Harry Potter, she is frank, openly discussing the role fear plays in millennial evangelism. The long history of Christians oppressing people of other faiths weighs heavily on the shoulders of this emerging generation. Afraid of unconsciously leveraging an ill-gotten Christian privilege, many millennials retreat from traditional evangelizing.

For Wason, the question of faith is not “Is it true?” but rather, “Does it matter?” Thus, her doubts and questions center not on the Bible’s veracity, but on the influence of the church on the world. Her observations will resonate with many millennials.

Bush, ever the professor, guides the conversation along a narrative and missiological reading of the Bible. For him, mission is driven by a biblical mandate, but not just “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). The whole biblical narrative tells the story of a God who calls people both to evangelism and to seeking social justice. Despite this wide view of mission, Bush struggles to understand the millennial need for relevance over truth; at times he cannot grasp what Wason means by doubting her faith in terms of its capacity to establish justice.

Bush journeyed from hippie to Pentecostal—from a political radical to traditional missionary. He recognizes how his generation’s reversal contributes to millennials’ disillusionment. Perhaps if much of the boomer generation had not retreated from the prophetic call, assimilating into U.S. dominant culture, millennials would not feel burdened and even repulsed by an irrelevant church.

However, Bush and Wason agree on much. Through their conversations, they offer each other, and by extension the reader, a vision of what ministry could look like moving forward. Both Bush and Wason understand the power of narrative. Bush uses the biblical narrative as a lens to understand the purpose of mission; Wason notes how millennials see personal narrative as a reliable source of truth. Both take the time to tell their own stories, how they came to faith, and the influences that have deeply affected their spiritual journeys, showing the reader how they approach the problems at hand.

The book does not offer answers so much as perform the struggle many churches must take on to reach the next generation. Listening closely to another across a cultural divide is difficult, and the first few chapters are slow going as the authors position themselves and begin the work of listening. Underneath a discussion of culture and faithful practice is the faithful discernment of what the mission of God is and how the church will participate.

Hence my surprise. At a time when many expect the church to die, Millennials and the Mission of God shows that true dialogue can happen. People divided by generations and different cultural backgrounds can come together to forge a path forward for the church. The book bears witness to how the church may indeed be surprised by the hope of deeper listening.