Lynch on Leadership: One of the misunderstandings of fathering arises from the idea that they need to step back and let the young ones do the stuff, stop participating, to make room for a "next generation."

I've been reading these "younger than them" discussion pages for some time now, filled with "move over, we're here now" and a form of honor that says, "we young ones need to have some silent shadows behind us as we lead, to speak some advice in our ears sometimes."

The subtle yet obvious thing about them all is deep dishonor with heavy makeup that says, "It's our turn now. Shut up. Sit down. When needed, you will be acknowledged. You had your chance and blew it. We are the ones God is using now."

First, a generation is everyone alive at any given moment. Life is the measurement of a generation, not a time line. So, we have a generation with people in their 90's as well as their teens. There is not younger generation thing to discuss in the first place.

Second, God hasn't told those who are older than thirty-five to go to hell for failing so you can take over the kingdom. Stop acting like Paul was thirteen when touched by Jesus and kicked out all the other apostles to finally get things right.

Third, age has nothing to do with it. Working together by assignment and alignment with those who are expert and experienced as elders is more Biblical than some assumption that Jesus is sending a new type of leadership now because He is tired of the previous one and the new leadership is young.

Fourth, building networks of younger people from this bias, throwing some crumbs of honor at some people older than you are to look humble, is repeating the same mistakes you say you wish to avoid.

Fifth, these grouping nearly always prophesy what has already been prophesied, preach what has already been preached, do what has already been done, but believe it will all turn out better because they are doing it. It is foolishness.

It is nothing more than wax walls that melt in hot sun! The subtle, "it's our turn now" stuff is as rebellious as the 60's and creates a charismatic Woodstock. It reprocesses the blacktop, laying it down again with a fresh coat of oil, making the surface look new when it is nothing more than the same material on the same road going no further than it did before.

There is a hellish method as old as Eden to separate generations by creating division in the age groups. The more recent efforts merely underscore the prevailing spiritual conditions that diminish our opportunity to turn the hearts of fathers and children toward one another. And, the opportunistic leaders who use these methods always end up in the same dead end detours.

The phrasing about religious spirits are really code for "anything older than 5 years that doesn't wear our clothes." The commonly used "controlling leaders" phrase is code for the fact that you don't want to build something from scratch but empty out the youth from existing networks to avoid doing the fathering labor that has been going on to prepare the kingdom for this season.

The "God is raising up a new bunch" is code for "we need to scrap all God has done to get the kingdom ready and start over as the leaders ourselves." It is just a big waste of time and energy used to build unneeded redundancy into the present kingdom situation.

Jesus has been in preparation for this moment, and blending what is with what is coming next is His method, not your "It's our turn now" form of starting everything all over from scratch. Drop the thing behind you and get with some people who have been at this while you were growing up. You will find out that the infrastructure is all ready for you and the fathers stand ready to see you become all God created you to be while helping you avoid making these silly mistakes, the mistakes we are watching you make right now, the ones we recognize so well because we made them already.

​Don Lunch CEO at Minstry Matrix