WHERE HAVE YOU GONE, PETER, PAUL, AND MARY?

I'm a romantic. I think part of the good, old days were a lot better than today. Then, too, maybe I want to idealize that part of my history that shaped and molded me. Either way, I'll stand by my beliefs.

Part of those beliefs are the fact that much of the idealism my generation believed in, peacefully fought for and expounded centered around helping the helpless. That idealism was put into song and called us to our task. The Pete Seegers and Peter, Paul and Marys of my college days reminded us that putting another down in order to lift ourselves up was not only wrong but it was wrong-headed. It would come back to haunt us in the end. We were advocates of the Social Gospel.

Seminaries were full and they were full of idealists right out of college. The average age of those in seminary was 24-25. Today it is 45-46. The bottom dropped out of seminary enrollment about the time that the so-called Me Generation kicked in. Instead of others coming first, this new generation put them a distant second, expect where the other could be of use in making them even more comfortable and secure. Peter, Paul and Mary lost out to Looking Out for Number One.

The times? They aren't a changing very much. What is changing (and here I have no sociological proof expect my own assumptions, and you know what they say about assumptions) is that those who sold out to self found, twenty years later, that it was not all that rewarding or fulfilling. A few even went to seminary in order to serve those whom they may have once used.

The church, sadly and tragically for all involved including those who dropped out of being part of a church, did not recognize the loss of several generations until it was too late. Because of that we are older and grayer and want to know how we can capture young people again. We won't do it by catering to what the Me Generation desired: their needs. My opinion of the rapidly growing non-denominational churches is that they are Me-Generation Churches in disguise.

I say that not out of jealousy. Honest. I say it out of the conviction that our first call as Christians is a call to serve others, to serve, in the words of my favorite theologian, Robert Capon, the last, the least, the lost, the lonely, and the dead of this world. They are to come first, their needs. In Jesus’ own words: “I am among you as one who serves.” He did not need to add: “Go, and do likewise.”

If we are to capture the hearts and minds of our younger generation, we must do it by challenging them to think of others first, as Peter, Paul and Mary challenged my generation. What we discovered, if I may generalize, is that we have been rewarded one hundred-fold, although in ways we never imagined but better than we could have ever hoped for. There is more joy in serving others than in being served. We need to teach that, maybe re-learn that. And when we do, when my generation's grandchildren learn that, we'll need to build more churches. Guaranteed.