A Tweener in a Hinge Point

I recently finished Reggie McNeal's book A Work of Heart: Understanding How God Shapes Spiritual Leaders. The book was required reading for a class that I'm taking at GCTS, and was one of those surprise gifts that God gives occasionally that leaves you speechless. It was an answer to prayer. A gift of encouragement. I've had plenty of cud to chew thanks to McNeal. Here's some of what I'm pondering:

God's arrangement of the universe and the timing of HIS story is perfect and elegant. Check out this quote from McNeal:

"You have entered human history at a hinge point. Be assured that God is not caught off guard by the cultural upheavals that characterize this period of transition. Neither is he surprised by your intersection with the planet. It is not accidental that you live and lead at time when the decisions you make, especially in regard to culture, will affect generations."

McNeal sees what Walter Ong also recognized as a seismic shift in the way humans perceive reality. McNeal talks about the collapse of the Newtonian world view, Ong secondary orality. The bottom line is that we are in the hinge of a historic shift - in Ong's terms like the shift that occurred when we shifted from an oral to a literary society (the renaissance and reformation happened during this era).

Ong describes how technology has influenced the changes. Think of something as simple as reading - a left to right (or right to left) exercise, verses TVs and computers which refresh top to bottom. Watch a commercial from the 1960s and compare it to one today. In the 60s commercials were longer, slower and typically showed one image. Today, images are flashed in quick succession creating an impression, a feeling. Ong said that we are entering a period of secondary orality. Folks today are more ready to hear and see and feel than read and reason. One might say that for the first time in over 500 years people are ready to HEAR the Gospel again.

McNeal's book obviously reaches folks of several "generations." Builders and many Boomers are not at all comfortable with what is going on in the world today. Gen Xers are for the most part, fully emerged in whatever this new thing is. Interesting for me, is that I'm not a Boomer or a Gen Xer. I'm a Tweener. I'm standing with a foot on each side of the hinge.

So what does the above mean for my life and ministry? I'm not entirely sure. Interestingly I find myself in a mainline denomination (PCUSA) and an aging congregation. I wonder about the future of the denomination and congregation. Without fundamental changes, the congregation won't make it in the future. Maybe having one foot on each side of the door puts me in a position to offer perspective to Builders and Boomers as well as Gen X and Y. May God give me the wisdom to discern my call in this time and place.