Busters don't want to talk; they want to respond. This is their great strength.
—Dieter Zander

Perhaps no other generation has needed the church so much, yet sought it so little.

In Life after God, Douglas Coupland describes this generation: "Life was charmed but without politics or religion. It was the life of the children of the pioneers—life after God. A life of earthly salvation on the edge of heaven."

Coupland is writing about baby busters, those now in their teens, twenties, and early thirties. The surge in births following World War II gave us the baby boom and the huge, wellknown generation dubbed baby boomers. From about 1965 through 1980, the number of births went bust, giving a name to a new generation with a substantially different mind-set. Sometimes called Generation X, this group has been much maligned and badly stereotyped in the media.

I began working with busters while coaching the Pomona (California) College soccer team. I invited the players to church. They shook their ...