Bill Martin “Old White Guys”

I’ve become an old white guy.

Not really sure how that happened. Just the other day I was an up-and-comer in this industry. (The phrase, “up-and-comer,” properly hyphenated, is used only by old, white guys.) Dave, Carmen, and I were signing tee-shirts for hundreds of fans, hauling artists around to coffee shops in two states, working 16-hour days to make a blip on the Tampa Radio radar and create a lane in the crowded Atlanta market.

Then we grew and took on more responsibilities as a small network and—over against that—fought to keep doing radio the oldschool way. . .and then ratings success, and for me, chaplaincy, pastoral ministry, grandkids and. . .

I had TWO cardinals at the feeder yesterday. TWO!

(To be clear, I have always geeked out over cardinals.)

Is it time for me to start looking for the sunset, towards which I will ostensibly soon ride off?  Hell no!

(The preceding use of the biblical word, “hell” [geenna] which recently appeared in a song lyric by Brandon Lake and Jelly Roll, was inserted advisedly for reasons of theological emphasis and shock value, which sometimes go together, but not always. Reader discretion advised.)

(And don’t start using it on your morning show.)

The sunset is coming. We all want to end our careers as heroes, believing we’ve stormed the gates and won the privilege to tell stories. Hold up a minute, soldier. There is still a job for old DJs. In fact, there are a few. And if you are tired or privileged, or you think you have “earned” enough battle scars to sit back and let the young folks fight the fight, that your “wisdom” entitles you now to sit on your hands and collect a nice paycheck, you might not yet have attained said wisdom.

This industry needs age and experience, because this industry needs youth, innovation, creativity, and a refresh of our mission. Christian media exist in order to spread the gospel. Full stop. That’s our kingdom purpose regardless of our corporate or personal mission statements. People—young and old, white and colorful—need the gospel. We are an aging industry, but we still have work to do and battles to fight, and we must help equip a younger generation to further the mission despite changing conditions.

For my part, I have a growing passion for and belief in Gen Z. Two of my five kids are Gen Z. I have the privilege of working with Gen Z on our staff. They are some of the most creative, resourceful workers we’ve ever had. At church, where I am an associate pastor, Gen Z “kids” want to hang out with me for mentorship and free coffee. I have the means to provide both, because I’m not young anymore.

They have questions that make me uncomfortable. I have answers. All the answers. Because I am a Boomer, and we have answers. Sometimes, I will carefully deploy an answer to strategically expose the anti-foundationalism that might underpin a relativistic assumption. Regardless of your generation, it’s hard to build a house on shifting sand. Mostly, though, I listen.

I listen because Gen Z have a lot to teach me. They grew up with the veneer of polite Christianity peeled away, the mold and rottenness that framed much of the American church exposed. Tribalism. Cronyism. Toxic Loyalty. God-and-Country Nationalism. It’s all there, and they can’t abide our willful blindness. We need to listen, so we can become more skillful at repairing the foundations that post-Christian society and reactionary progressivism in the church have eroded. This isn’t an us-them paradigm. It’s strictly us.

To be who the Lord wants us to be right now, in this moment, to adapt to changing conditions and be useful, I believe we need NOT to sit back, but to show up.

Show up humble. Show up hungry. Show up willing to fight for the gospel and the next generation.

(Show up to what, though? I’m not sure! The entire industry has changed and is rapidly changing. If I have ten more years, will I still be talking into a microphone, frequency-modulated to antennae or digitized to fit on your car dash alongside Google Maps? Will formats blend, morph, change? Will AI take my job? More immediately, will CCM “radio” be reduced to two or three national media brands, which is already happening?)

What I must realize as a Christian leader and public personality is that there are many questions I have no good answer for. So, I’m asking the Lord daily, “Teach me how to show up in this moment and make a difference.” You don’t need all the answers to show up and make a difference, to fulfill the calling and fight for the mission you started with in this industry.

I think—and I could be wrong—that the industry and our jobs as experienced media professionals need not fatten us up anymore. Hogs get slaughtered. If we are going to survive this moment and thrive in the next, we need to get lean. (Maybe not “lean and mean,” though, which is a stock phrase every Boomer and Gen X-er supplied in her or his own brain when they read the words, “get lean.”)

Maybe you feel you’ve done all you can. Maybe you are tired, feeling the miles you’ve put in. Maybe though, on the B-side, you are questioning how your role can change in the next decade or so, and how willing you will be to open your hands to the next generation, trusting them and sharing wisdom for the sake of the mission, so the gospel can reach even more than we did in our day, so people far and wide, young and old, black and brown, outside and in will hear God’s voice calling them to become part of Christ’s church. If so, then keep fighting, old guys*– Boomers, X-ers and maturing Millennials! Keep showing up and sharing the mission.

And the gates of hell won’t prevail against it.

(*The phrase, “old guys” isn’t sexist. It is proper to acknowledge aging in males only, despite changing conventions. It would be an act of bold stupidity to write, “old girls and guys.”)

Bill Martin is morning co-host on “Morning Cruise” at The JOY FM in Tampa. Contact Bill at bill.martin@thejoyfm.com