It's time for my generation to lead and we're not ready

Tim Keller's death last May made me realize a) why I've always liked older people and b) that we're starting to lose our leaders. I disagree with a lot of Keller's views, but also, he was my pastor of sorts when I didn't have one for a decade due to church trauma. His work is an anchor when I started going to church again and all that old stuff about belonging/rejection, safety/accountability and walking with the Spirit versus being manipulated by people's use of the name of God, and his thoughts on walking with God through pain and suffering (the title of one his books) were exactly what I needed during the worst year of my life. His death was the first time I experienced the true joy that another believer has gone into glory and is now with Jesus face to face.

And also, we're starting to lose our leaders. We're starting to lose the giants of the Christian faith at a time when the world is getting exponentially crazier than it's been in living memory (and I've even talked to some who remember World War 2) without clarity on who the next generation of faith leaders are going to be. The only names that I can think of are a) all men, b) all in their late 60s/early 70s (Keller died at 72, which seems young to me now that I'm rapidly rounding the corner to 40) and c) not as able to speak to the mainstream issues in a nuanced way as Keller was (which, despite "nuance bro" criticisms from people who interpret not taking a side as being noncommittal or "neutral" - I'm usually one of those people, he did very well and for good reason). Whatever you think of Keller--he certainly was controversial to people on both sides of the political aisle--he was one of the few Christian leaders who finished the race without a major personal scandal that throws paint on the dress of the Bride of Christ and makes it even harder for people to hear what the gospel is really all about.

Perhaps it's just that the next-generation (by that I mean Gen X and Millennials) leaders just haven't emerged yet. Keller was 39ish when he planted Redeemer in 1989 and wasn't "famous" until at least his mid-5os I think. But that's the age range Gen Xers through Millennials are now and honestly, I just mostly see cynicism/resignation/bitterness and immaturity/radicalization/burnout respectively on the whole in our generations at this point, though there are some potential leaders maybe emerging. For better or worse, the Boomers are still the main leading lights in the Church, and we're starting to lose them without a clear plan of succession.

I'm not saying there aren't good leaders or that these generations are incapable of being leaders, but I'm seeing less mental and emotional stability, less respect for tradition, structure, and caution and less valuing of our words/keeping our commitments and morality the farther forward from the Boomer generation I go. Obviously these are huge generalizations and I'm sure you'll be able to think of a thousand counterexamples, but it's something to consider as time rolls ever faster on. The Boomers have their issues, of course, but the radicalization of the last ten years has done more than a number on my generation and the one right after me in a way I'm not sure how we'll recover from as we lose more and more people who grew up and old before the ubiquity of cell phones, the internet, or the dangerously radicalizing ideology scrambling everything the West has worked for, which, mostly only older people remember, wasn't all bad.