Other "Thinking Drafts" and writing by Keith Drury -- http://www.indwes.edu/tuesday .

Thousands of today's churches will become "Boomer Nursing homes" in the next twenty years. These churches are jammed now with vibrant middle aged boomers. But soon they will become spiritual rest homes for a packed house of AARP-joining gray-headed boomers. Of course, the self-absorbed boomers have barely noticed the next generation coming along, let alone been willing to listen to the changes they might want. Most will never even notice the graying of their church.

It's a funny thing how we revolutionary boomers have so quickly become traditionalists. It came home to me powerfully in a series of cross-country listening sessions with Xer pastors a while back. One twenty something pastor remarked, "Of course I've been raised on traditional music -- you know, praise choruses up on the screen, clapping, and all that." Traditional?! Yep, he's right. We have installed our kind of worship and management values about everywhere. Our generation is in charge. The WW II crowd has been beaten into submission. We are in charge. But now we've gone and become traditionalists. How'd that happen?

Easy. By establishing the reign of our own generational preferences, then simply freezing them in. We 'got it right.' Then we quit innovating. We quit listening. And quit changing. Many boomers don't even know the names of the Xers in their congregations, let alone an inkling about their worship ideas. Once we boomers had installed our changes we quickly took up defensive positions to resist all other change. After all, we boomers know best. I know a once-revolutionary boomer pastor who, when recently confronted with Xers suggestions replied, "It really doesn't matter how we worship, we're no longer into changing worship styles." Yeah, sure, now that he's got what he wants!

Of course the worship music industry hasn't helped. By far the most conservative force of all, they cater to the present style of whatever is the currently politically correct music. The "now style" sells. The "next style" doesn't. Xer preferences are not a even a recognized market niche. (Xers, of course, contribute to this by refusing to become a market niche or accepting any sort of label at all, even though they are just as predictable as boomers.)

So these forces will combine during the next two decades to produce thousands of evangelical boomer nursing homes. The Xers will be crowded out, marginalized, ignored. Most boomer ministers don't even know what busters want. Or care. They are tired of changing. Like old warriors they now preach peace once they've moved in the army of occupation.

However, there will be some churches who will buck this trend. They'll reach out to Xers. Gather them in. Listen. And these old revolutionary-boomers will let the Xers to breathe some new life into our rigid boomer-wineskins. Some of the changes will take us forward. Others will take us [gasp!] back. But in these churches the Xers will correct the excesses of the boomer revolution.

And, what of the rest of the boomers. They'll never even notice. Their congregations will age into the 50's and 60's in peace. They'll like their church. It will be pleasant there. A plesant rest home for spiritually aging boomers.

And the Xers not fortunate enough to find an open church? They're not very good revolutionaries, so it's unlikely they'll lead a revolution and take over the rest homes (like their parents did). More likely, they'll start their own churches. At least they'll call them "churches." Boomers won't. Boomers will dismiss their coffee houses, apartment churches, and Greenpeace churches as 'crazy experiments' or 'nutty ideas.' "They don't even have a building up over there do they?" The revolutionaries will have lost their fervor for new ideas. Few generations have lost the desire for change as fast as the boomers.

So how about your church? Look around. Add twenty years or so to the ages of your people. What will you be then? A boomer nursing home? Or a church who passes on the torch to the next generation? There's still time to choose.

So what do you think?

To contribute to the thinking on this issue e-mail your response to Tuesday@indwes.edu