Talking ‘Bout a Generation

Demographics have become our culture’s zodiac. More meaningful than being an Aries, or being born in the year of the boar, is that I entered the world within the demographers’ sacred bell curve: the baby boom. Based on my birth year, journalists and commentators wax eloquent on the shared experiences, traits, and fortunes of my boomer kin and me. And like the writers of horoscopes, they are often wrong or only blandly right (e.g. “Relationships are important to you”). Yet I continue to read them—because despite the flagrant overgeneralizations, and the amateur econo-socio-psychologizing, they point to a real experience of generational fraternity. These are my people.

Now the demographers have discovered a new landscape, a new nation: the baby busters, a.k.a. Generation X. A legion of writer/commentators tells us that this new tribe has its own music, language, philosophies, values (e.g., they don’t like the boomers).

But these are not my people. (I think the proper synonym for “grunge” is “ugly.”) So why should I and CT’s readers spend any more time learning about busters than we do reading other people’s horoscopes?

Jesus commissioned us to make disciples in all nations, whether we define the people groups geographically, racially, economically, or generationally. The church is called to reach Generation X just as much as it is called to reach the tribes of Papua New Guinea.

To that end, we asked journalist Andres Tapia to do a missionary survey of this new crop of adults. We also asked for guidance from some indigenous members of the Xer tribe: editorial assistant Helen Lee provided a sidebar, and project editor Edward Gilbreath did the editing. Now all we need are the missionaries.

Copyright © 1994 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Also in this issue

Reaching the First Post-Christian Generation: Baby Busters make new demands on the church

Cover Story

Reaching the First Post-Christian Generation

Randall Terry Attacks Religious Right

Christians Aid Forgotten Guyanese Poor

Christians Suffer Renewed Attacks

Muslim Death Threats Protested

Protesters Offer Silent Witness in Haiti

Florida Shootings Stifle Pro-lifers

Science Finds Religion at Symposium

NORTH AMERICAN SCENE: Fragrance-free Service Initiated

New Catechism a Bestseller

Christians Decry Rights Bill

Urban Relocators Build Bridges

Jews for Jesus Fights Cult Label

City Erects Pagan Sculpture

Has Rift Between Orthodox, Protestants Begun to Heal?

Group Picks First American Leader

Churches Challenge Synod Ruling

BOOKS: Rating Our Theologians

SIDEBAR: Worth Mentioning: News, notices, and curiosities of religious publishing

PHILIP YANCEY: What Surprised Jesus

Christians Suffer Renewed Attacks

News

FEC Targets Political Ad

News

News Briefs: September 12, 1994

News

Closing the Ultimate Sale

News

Media Campaign Targets Unchurched

In Praise of Premise Keepers

The Unrepeatable Tom Skinner

Editorial

EDITORIAL: Blinded by the ’Lite’

Editorial

EDITORIAL: AIDS Policy Failure

News

Hard-Core Porn Technology Hits Home

SIDEBAR: Busters Online

SIDEBAR: X-ing the Church

ARTICLE: Testing the Spiritualities

ARTICLE: Charting Dispensationalism

SIDEBAR: Dispensationalisms of the Third Kind

ARTICLE: Clocking Out

ARTICLE: Who’s Afraid of the Holy Spirit?

Classic & Contemporary Excerpts from September 12, 1994

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