A Multi-Generational Church With a Next-Generation Orientation

Scripture anticipates that healthy churches will include more than a generation.

Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, ² older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity. (1 Timothy 5:1-2, ESV)

Scripture also commands us to lean intentionally and purposefully toward the generation. 

Deuteronomy 6

6 “Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the rules—that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, ² that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. ³ Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.

⁴ “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. ⁵ You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. ⁶ And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. ⁷ You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. ⁸ You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ⁹ You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6:1-9, ESV)

Responsibility for teaching and training the next generation is given primarily to and to .

Psalm 78

¹      Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;
          incline your ears to the words of my mouth!
²     I will open my mouth in a parable;
          I will utter dark sayings from of old,
³     things that we have heard and known,
          that our fathers have told us.
⁴     We will not hide them from their children,
          but tell to the coming generation
       the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might,
          and the wonders that he has done.
⁵     He established a testimony in Jacob
          and appointed a law in Israel,
       which he commanded our fathers
          to teach to their children,
⁶     that the next generation might know them,
          the children yet unborn,
       and arise and tell them to their children,
⁷         so that they should set their hope in God
       and not forget the works of God,
           but keep his commandments;
⁸     and that they should not be like their fathers,
          a stubborn and rebellious generation,
       a generation whose heart was not steadfast,
          whose spirit was not faithful to God. (Psalm 78:1-8, ESV)

As we reach toward the next generation, . . .

1. We should teach them God is and what he has .

2. We should teach them by our words and our how to God, how to God, and how to his commands

3. Our goal is for them to become fully-devoted of Jesus Christ.

• From October 1, 2021, through May 31, 2022, we have added 100 new members — are 39 and younger, while are 40 and older.

4. Our responsibility is to take wise and proactive steps to ensure that our all our ministries are and secure.

5. Here are some things to celebrate and to for in our Next Gen ministries:

• June 6-10
  Xtreme Week (Vacation Bible School)

• June 12-17
  Sessions Tour (student choir tour to Myrtle Beach, SC)

• June 19-25
  High School Mission Trip to Cape Canaveral, FL

• June 26-30
  Go Week (Middle School and High School local missions – service and outreach)

• July 16-19
  Kids’ Camp (grades 3-5)

• July 16-21
  Middle School Mission Trip to Clarkston, GA

• July 16-23
  High School Mission Trip to Salt Lake City

• August 7
  Kickoff Sunday for all Next Gen Ministries

What did our Lord Jesus say?

¹³ And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. ¹⁴ But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. ¹⁵ Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” ¹⁶ And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.  (Mark 10:13-16, ESV)