A week ago, my son, David, and I found some free passes to the local ice skating rink and decided to take my wife, Ruth, on a date. We hit a local restaurant first and then surprised her with the skating idea. You have to know that it had been 30 years since I've skated. I'm 54, two crowns into a full set of dentures, with nagging aches and pains a present way of life. So when Ruth and I got onto the rink, my visions of coasting around like I had years ago ended abruptly. No, I didn't crash. I was too busy tightly gripping the hand bar all around the rink! I looked either like a drunk or an ostrich with prosthetics! Maybe a combination of the two! It took twenty minutes before I felt comfortable letting go. But the thing that got me was the kids whizzing all around me. I was the oldest guy out there save one and he looked like a former Olympic medalist. Everyone else was seemingly half to a fourth my age. One little girl looked about three. And they were casually skating around, talking up a storm and not even thinking about the fact that they only had two VERY thin pieces of metal between them and some of the slickest stuff on the planet. The place was alive. Loud music and piles of smiles. It had to be the hang out place of the city. I survived!!
Reminds me of working with the emerging generation in missions. No, I'm not THAT far behind in this area. I love connecting with these "kids" and hearing their passion for Jesus and his work. In fact, I just joined the board of my nephew's new missions organization, LaHash International, just to stay connected with this new generation of missions. And I'm hosting a Missions Pastor Retreat in May for Northwest mission pastors on the topic, "Missions and the Emerging Generation." I'm bringing in a number of young people working in missions just to mix it up with these mostly "boomer" missions pastors. Should be great! But, man, is it ever different from the way my generation does missions. Like Jeff Theissen, WorldVenture missionary to Uganda/Sudan once told me, our generation looks through the lens of the Great Commission when we do missions. The emerging generation looks through the lens of the Great Commandment. Interesting comparison.
I'd recommend a book to those of you interested in this area of missions. There's nothing about ice skating in it but it IS written by postmoderns on the topic of missions. The title is "Postmission. World Mission by a Postmodern Generation". Editor is Richard Tiplady and the publisher is Paternoster Press. Interesting and stimulating! I'm doing my best to learn so that I can "skate" with the kids.