MINISTRY TO A RESTLESS GENERATION
A deathbed contrast reveals the needs of the driven and self-absorbed people of today.
David Hansen
April 1, 1990
Harold's parents came from Norway around the turn of the century. They ended up farming in eastern Montana, where Harold was born. His parents were pious, peasant Christians-Lutherans, to be sure. They were not overly impressed with the "enlightened" wealthy classes of Norway. Harold grew up working hard. Witnessing his parents' faith as they toiled to make a living in the harsh environs of the Montana highline, he embraced their faith with a full heart. Early in his adulthood, Harold stopped believing that God spoke Norwegian, but that's also about where his acceptance of modern thought halted. He married a woman of German Baptist origins, and they decided to be Baptists. Wheat farming never suited Harold, and the Depression took their farm, so the family moved to western Montana, where Harold and his wife ranched. They raised cattle and kids, in no particular order-they lovingly cared for all of them. The cattle, who were practically pets, always took top money at auctions. And the kids, raised on blue skies and hard work, became successful adults. The New World
But somewhere along the way, Harold's kids didn't pick up his faith. They were all married in churches. And they all made sure Harold's grandchildren were baptized or dedicated, depending on the church they attended. But their professional lives and the hectic pace and abundant possibilities of the fifties and sixties had separated all of Harold's children and grandchildren from church involvement by the time the middle seventies rolled around. His children and grandchildren, all about the nicest people you could meet, formed the inner core of the "me generation." Although not all of them graduated from college, each of them ended up thoroughly pickled in modernity. Amid ...
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