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On the FM radio dial, the low numbers used to tend towardclassical music, while the high end jumped with rock. But now you get tochoose between seventies rock, light rock, heavy metal rock, alternativerock, classic rock, or even classic light rock (and don't forget the "AllElvis" stations). Welcome to Niche Time, a.k.a. the 1990s.

Long gone are the days when Sears Roebuck marketers claimed, in a cleverphrase, that theirs was the store for "the middle 85 percent of Americans."In the nineties, nobody gets 85 percent of a market. The goal is to capturea niche, a targeted market that shares specific attributes or interests.

And therein lies a dilemma for the church. Our theology tells us that Godso loved the whole world that he is not willing that any should perish. Theapostle Paul insists that "all of you who were baptized into Christ haveclothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave norfree, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:27-28,NIV). Just how are we to make that happen in our niche-crazyage?

We have been trying hard, to be sure. The Promise Keepers movement has beenurging us to "Bring Down the Walls" (their 1996 motto), especially betweenraces. Also, we are more sensitive than ever to the matter of gender. Thesewalls, while not yet down by any means, are lower than they used to be.

THE QUESTION OF THE AGES
While race and gender are at least on our radar screens, we are still largelyunaware of two other major walls that keep the church from full unity andgrowth. One of those is age.

Watch how we socialize at church. When did you last have a conversation morethan a few seconds long with someone 20 years younger or older than yourself?We sit together in the same sanctuary, and we say hello politely in the narthexon our way out—as we head toward lunch with our "real" friends, those inour own age bracket. People of all decades are certainly welcome at our church,of course, so long as we don't have to spend much time with them.

Power naturally accrues to those age groups with the greatest numbers anddonor potential. Have you ever noticed that these are the people who tendto sit in the center of the sanctuary? They also tend to get to make thebig decisions.

I remember speaking at a church on a Sunday morning where the worship stylewas not just traditional, but stiff. I couldn't help noticing the handfulof bored teenagers who slumped on the very back row of the left section,almost under the balcony. Their faces—their whole body language—said theyweren't connecting.

I got to know the youth pastor that weekend, and I asked him how the teenswere relating to the church as a whole. "Not well," he replied. "I appealedto the leadership a while back to try to loosen up just a bit, to do somethings in the service that kids would appreciate. Do you know what the responsewas? 'That's why we hired you.' "

In other words, run your own little subchurch with the youth group, and don'tbother us with reaching across age lines. Just keep teenagers coming to thebuilding until they get old enough to buy into our style—a daunting task.

On the other hand, there are just as many congregations that do appeal toyounger, more progressive niches while abandoning older Christians. A frustratedgray-haired cousin of mine in a sizable West Coast church said to me a fewyears ago, "If I have to listen to my pastor exhort one more time about reachingboomers and busters, I think I'll scream. What about us? Is this not mygeneration's church anymore?"

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July 14 1997, Vol. 41, No. 8