The Sins of the Father...Generation

* WARNING: This post is probably less thought out and more reactionary than it ought to be.

This weekend I attended the World Mission Workshop at LCU. The main theme was “Crossing Over: Bridging All Barriers” and classes centered around reaching out to people of different faiths or backgrounds. But the secondary theme that seemed to be just below the surface of everything was the idea of “the 5th generation.” Essentially there seemed to be this underlying belief that we as the “5th generation” have the opportunity and responsibility to clean up the mess that the Christians of previous generations left.
Okay, Hold it! “The mess that previous generations left?” Is this how we should speak of our parents and grandparents. Certainly I agree that mistakes have been made, but honestly can we look at the people we have learned from and say, “Well, I guess I better go clean up the mess you made.” Not one single person, people group, culture, or generation has everything figured out. No one does everything right., if they did then this whole Grace thing and Christ thing wouldn’t be needed at all. The generations before us did what they thought was right and we are hopefully going to seek to do what is right also, but to look back on previous generations and discount their sincere efforts to share the gospel I believe is wrong.
I believe that things must change with each generation, but it is immature to throw out everything that those who are older did just because it is…well…because it is old. We need to look at everything and evaluate it for what it is rather than just reacting to its origin (wow, that sounds familiar). I personally know a number of missionaries who are of my parents and grand parents’ generation who have wholeheartedly served God and from whom I can and have learned a lot. It frightens me when people of my own generation refuse to learn from the wisdom of those before us. There needs to be a two-way conversation between generations. The greatest mistake may be in ignoring the potential wisdom that can be gained from other generations (older and younger).
I realize that the purpose of the original idea of “the 5th generation ” was probably to inspire all of us to get off our butts and do something, but building ourselves up by criticizing those before us helps nothing.