About 25 years I was at a concert for one of my favorite bands, Phish.  Phish is a band that built up its fan base by relying heavily on exhaustive touring.  Before the concert I walked the expansive parking lots and was able to see license plates from just about every state in the country. 

When I was in the concert, I looked around and saw that—just about all the fans were close to me in age.   I am from the generation known simply as X.  The variable.   You have search for the value of X.   Here I was with about 15,000 or more from my generation.

A question hit me like a ton of bricks:  Why is that so many young people will drive hundreds, maybe even thousands of miles, to go to the next Phish concert, but they won’t drive a mile to the center of their town to go to church?  

What is this concert experience giving young people—that our churches are not?  What can we learn from this? 

A few years later I am sitting in a classroom with three seminary professors listening to that same story.   They are going to determine whether it is a worthy goal for a doctoral project and if so, then who would get to be my mentor.   After I shared the story, each professor took a turn responding…

The first, “I’ve never heard of The Phish.” 

The second, “They are from Burlington, Vermont- that’s where my son goes to college.”

The third, “Aren’t they like a younger person’s Grateful Dead?”

I knew right then and there that my project wasn’t just about the spirituality of Phish fans—it was about the generational differences that make up a church.  I was a GenXer pitching my idea to Baby Boomers.  

I completed the project in 2002, and have barely looked back.  I led a few seminars, and served as the token GenXer on a board or two—but that was back in the day.   We’ve moved on.   

The question isn’t now—How do we reach Generation X? 

The question is now—How do we reach Millennials?  

The purpose of sharing all of this is because it is my hope that during Lent we can explore the themes that helped to shape a generation, and how we might be able to use them to invite a generation into the church.  

I believe that the values held by a generation can apply to the church and be used as a point of entry not only for Generation X, but perhaps subsequent generations as well. 

Each week during Lent, I will be exploring these themes and inviting the congregation to engage in conversations and dialogue about what it means to them and perhaps the church. 

Thank you for taking this pilgrimage with me. 

Let us prepare for the journey—Set the gearshift for the high gear of your soul!