How have we contributed to the atheism of our children?
About a year ago, I was with my son at baseball practice one night. He came up to me about mid-practice and told me his arm was hurting. I didn’t think much about it. In my mind, he just needed to toughen up and work through it.
As it turned out, something was wrong. The next weekend as he was going through warm ups before the game, he couldn’t throw a baseball 10 feet! His elbow hurt too much. The advice was, take some time off. Stop throwing. It’s probably overuse. Rest and let it heal. And that’s what we did.
Then, this spring, we started back up again. The only problem was the pain was still there. Not as bad, but it was still there.
So we went to the Orthopedic doctor. He took X-rays. The good news was that everything was fine. His recommendation was that Will start doing Physical Therapy. He gave me a write up to give to the physical therapist.
What Will had to do to be able to play baseball again was to start doing 10 different exercises that would strengthen small muscles in his arms and shoulders primarily. By strengthening those muscles, it would take the load and tension off his elbow.
I’ll be honest, I was skeptical at first. But we kept going to physical therapy. My son did the exercises every day at home. And you know what, it’s working! He’s not a 100% yet, but he’s close!
Here’s what I’ve learned through watching my son go through physical therapy: Slow is Fast.
Doing the right things over and over again can lead to health and strength. Slow is Fast.
Slow is Fast
I want us to think about that because we are slowly losing our kids.
Now, I’m not a believer that Christianity is on some kind of rapid decline and that we’re on the brink of all Christian faith in America disappearing. I don’t believe that.
In fact, what some of the most recent research suggests is that while Christianity is in decline in America, what’s really happening is that cultural Christianity is in decline.
In other words, the faith of committed Christians in America is as strong or stronger that ever before. What’s happening is that those who were only marginally committed in the first place have stopped coming to church.
That said, the trend continues that 1/2 of our kids who grow up in the church will stop attending church when they go to college. So we are slowly losing our kids. And slow is fast.
Many of our churches are getting older, getting grayer. And while churches may have a lot of children and even a good sized youth group, the college age group and the young professional age group is absent. Slow is fast, and we’re slowly losing our kids.
That’s true of church in America, but let’s talk for a moment about the tribe I belong to, the churches of Christ.
Church in decline?
I know not everyone reading this grew up in church or in a church of Christ. But a lot of you did and the name on the sign is the reason you came to the church you belong to in the first place. I understand that. I love that and I love you. That’s my story too.
But let me talk specifically to you just for a moment. Recent research regarding the churches of Christ suggests that 9 churches of Christ in America close their doors every month. We have lost 930 members a month for the past 18 years. According to this research, in less that 30 years the churches of Christ will decline by more than 50%.
Slow is fast.
Generally speaking, we’re not reaching our kids. We’re not reaching our neighbors. Our churches aren’t growing. We’ve lost our passion for reaching people outside our four walls because, for many of our churches, we’ve focused more on who we want to keep than who we want to reach.
Slow is fast.
And one day, my fear is that we’re going to wake up and realize there’s not a generation to pass our faith on to because we were never willing to do what we needed to do to help them have faith in Jesus.
But my intention is not to make you afraid. I don’t want to use fear as a motivator. I would rather use love.
Someone once said that the first job of any leader is to define reality. This is our reality. We are slowly losing our kids. We are not reaching our neighbors. Our churches aren’t growing, they’re shrinking. And, they’re getting older.
But I don’t want us to operate out of fear, I would rather us operate out of love.
A Legacy of Love
The good news is that slow is fast. And when we decide to go all in with God, to be a part of His mission, when we decide to love the next generation, to love our neighbors, to love the lost the way Jesus loves the lost, then we can leave a legacy of faith.
Paul, the author of a letter to the Philippians, says this…
“Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stay true to the Lord.”
He says it this way in another translation…
…stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved. – ESV
or how about this…
… Don’t waiver. Stay on track, steady in God. – MSG
Then he says… “I love you and long to see you, dear friends, for you are my joy and the crown I receive for my work.” Philippians 4.1
Can you hear what he’s saying? Do you see it?
Therefore, after saying all that I’ve said up to this point, after all this teaching and instruction, it all comes down to this… STAY TRUE to the Lord. STAND FIRM in the Lord. Don’t let go. Don’t give up. Don’t ever forget. Stay true. Stand firm.
You may not always have all the answers. You may not have it all figured out. By the way, I don’t either. But don’t ever give up on God. He has not given up on you. So…
…stay true to the Lord.
Stay true. Stand firm. Come what may. Remember this: This God, your God, is unlike any other God. He loves you with a love you will never comprehend. Not fully. He is on your side. He is with you, for you and in you. Stay true. Stand firm. Hold on to the ONE who is holding on to you.
I love you and long to see you, dear friends, for you are my joy and the crown I receive for my work.
In other words, YOU ARE MY LEGACY!
The question isn’t, “What is your legacy?” The question is, “WHO” is your legacy?
God is on Mission
Here’s what I believe. I think this is the same thing Paul believed. God is on mission to reach as many as possible with the good news of the love of Jesus and I don’t know about you, but I want to be a part of a movement that is making a difference in this world for Christ.
The question is, are we willing to do what we need to do in order to reach the next generation, to reach our neighbors, to reach the lost, or would we rather just show up each week and go home relatively unchanged and uninterested in making a difference in this world for Christ?
What would happen if we truly loved people the way Jesus loves people?
The good news is that SLOW IS FAST.
Parents, Grandparents, if you are willing to allow your kids to see you live out your faith in everyday, ordinary ways… it leads to them living out their faith in everyday, ordinary ways.
Some of us need to make radical changes in our lives, but many of us just need to start living out our faith in everyday, ordinary ways in FRONT of our kids.
What is the faith of the next generation worth?
I’ve said this before, generally speaking, you get what you are spiritually.
Here’s what I’m interested to know…
What would your life be like, who would you be, if you spent a small amount of time every day sitting with Jesus over a long period of time?
Who would your kids be, who would they become, if they saw you sitting with Jesus for a small amount of time everyday over a long period of time? If they saw you living out your faith in everyday, ordinary ways over time?
The good news is, SLOW IS FAST.
If we want to be the kind of church that the next generation wants to come to, the kind of church that is reaching high school students, college students, young professionals, then slow changes in our churches can lead to long term growth.
I’m not talking about changing anything we believe. The MESSAGE never changes, but our methods have to change. In the middle of a rapidly changing world, we cannot sit still and expect to grow. The mission of Jesus calls us to move, to be on mission, to make a difference in this world for Christ.
It all begins with us asking and answering this question: What is the faith of the next generation worth?
My prayer is that our answer to that question is, EVERYTHING.
Our Mission
This is what I believe we want to be about as a church when all is said and done…
We want to see people come to an unchanging faith in Jesus in the midst of a changing world.
The reality is the world around us is changing at a rate that is impossible for us to keep up with. The cultural context within which we live and our churches exist is drastically different than it was just five years ago.
The future is uncertain. We can’t do what we once did and expect the same results. In this new, post-Christian world, how do we pass on faith to our kids?
While our methods have to change in order to reach people for Christ and raise a generation with faith in Christ, our goal remains the same.
This is our mission, to see people come to an unchanging faith in Jesus in the midst of a changing world.
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