So how do we do this? How do we practically apprentice the generation underneath us?
How do I do it?
Each one of us bears responsibility for apprenticing the generation underneath us. None of us gets a pass. The first thing we need to know is what it looks like to apprentice someone.
For most of history the way people learned something is they apprenticed themselves to someone highly skilled in what they wanted to learn to do. They usually lived with this person. They observed their way of life, the way they organized their time, and the way they interacted with people. There was no detail that was too small to learn. This is why so many stories contain the archetype of a wise old man who imparts his knowledge to a younger student.
So in a culture like ours, that does not value apprenticing as a teaching model any more, how do we do this? How do we bring back the art of apprenticing?
Just a note, during this section I am going to use the terms apprenticing and mentoring. These are the same phrase to me, so do not get thrown off when I use them interchangeably.
1. Recruit:
You find someone younger than you that seems interested in learning what you know and you invite them to begin to do life along side you.
You can’t begin to invest in the younger generation if there’s no one younger than you that you are pouring yourself into. If you are a parent this is easy. Your first and primary responsibility is to help your kids know and love God and to teach them how to serve Him. No one else can do this like you can, so take your job seriously.
If you don’t have kids, there is this wonderful fact of life; kids are everywhere! They just seem to spring up everywhere, like weeds. In your church there are children’s ministries, youth ministries, college students, young adults; each of these groups need people who are willing to mentor them. In your community there are sports leagues, schools, universities, community theaters, new employees fresh out of college. If you can’t find someone younger than you to invest in it is because you don’t want to.
When I first became a Christian at the end of my senior year of high school I wanted to let junior high kids know that they didn’t have to make the same mistakes I had made. I set up an appointment with the pastor of the church that my family attended faithfully every Easter and Christmas. I went in and asked if I could be a camp counselor for the junior high kids. I was technically supposed to have finished my first year of college, but he could see that I was sincere so he pulled some strings and I got to go.
This was the first time I got to tell the younger generation about what Jesus had done in my life, and unlike my peers, many of them listened and responded! It was at this camp that God began to speak to me about my calling to pastor. Reaching out to the younger generation literally changed my life. You’ve got to find someone to mentor.
So open your eyes, look around, and find a few younger people you can invest in. Your kids (if you have them), of course, and a few others. You will need to be the initiator. You will need to be invitational, but I promise you, finding young people to mentor is not hard.
2. They Watch
Once you find someone to mentor, you bring them along with you and they watch what you do. Let’s take Josh Gott, our associate pastor at the Vineyard Chattanooga, as an example. Josh and I have been ministering together as a team since he was twenty and over the last decade he has literally been with me in every type of meeting and ministry situation. A couple of things have happened during that time. First, Josh has picked up the things that are most important to me for our church. He totally owns the vision. He owns it so well that he can call me on it when I begin to veer off track. The second is that he has learned my best practices and is aware of my worst. All this has come about through being with me. We talk, argue, study the bible together, and share input. Josh knows me well. Whoever you mentor needs time up front to simply watch what it is you do. But what does this look like on a practical level?
Let’s say the person you are mentoring is learning how to use a sound board. Then they need to stand by you as you’re doing sound. As you adjust the different knobs or are setting the whole system up, you explain to them what you are doing and why you are doing it. You give them some time to observe. Then after each time ask them what they learned. Make them explain it back to you. If there were things you wanted them to see that they didn’t talk about, then say, “remember when I did…I wanted you to learn…” Let them give feedback as well. When they watch you in an intentional way you are able to impart to them the basics of what you do.
Say you are a children’s ministry small group leader. Again, have the person you are mentoring sit in the group with you. In this case I’d have them sit across from you so they can watch the way you manage the group dynamics. They can watch how you manage rambunctious kids, how you draw out the children to talk, how you prepare before the kids get there, and how you pray with kids and teach kids to pray.
This part of the mentoring needs to take place long enough that the person is comfortable with the routine of small group time. They have seen you facilitate during some different situations and challenges so they have an awareness of how to deal with a variety of circumstances. After the kids have left, the two of you need to sit down together so that you can explain why you did what you did. Allow them to ask questions and give them your best answer. Sometimes instead of answering ask them how they would have dealt with it. You see this is how you mentor/ apprentice someone.
3. Together
This is the step where you become a team. I love this step because your work load in some senses becomes a little lighter. Each time you’re together give them a part of your job to do. Go for mastery here. Let them do this part of the job until they have it down pat. The first couple of times they are going to be coming to you and asking you a thousand different questions. You are going to be thinking to yourself. “This would be easier if I just did it myself,” and initially it might be. However, over time they will become proficient at the task you’ve given them to do. Once you feel like they’ve mastered that part of the job give them the next component to do, while still doing the initial job you’d given them. Remember to build in times to talk about how it’s going. Coach them; give them tips that will improve their skills. Eventually they will have become so proficient they can handle the entire thing. When you’ve worked yourself out of a job you’ve won!
4. You Watch
Once the person you’ve been mentoring has become proficient enough to do the job on their own, let them. During your debrief the week before you say, “I believe you can do this on your own.” Tell them next week they are going to be responsible for the whole thing. Let them know you are going to be there but only as a safety net and as a confidence booster. When next week comes around, back off. When people come to you to ask you questions refer them to your apprentice and let them handle the questions. Take notes so that you can give them feedback. Do not intervene unless they ask you to and then only if what they are overseeing is going to fail completely. If failing is not going to hurt anything or anyone, let them fail because we learn as much from our failures as we do our successes. Give them feedback and then let them do it again. Let them do it as you watch for as many times as it takes for them to be successful consistently. Once you’ve done this, you have successfully apprenticed someone and it’s time to find another person to mentor because now you have a peer. Remind your young apprentice that they are to apprentice someone as well.
5. Coach and Resource
Coaching is actually something that you are doing during this entire process. It is the art of giving critical feedback in a way that does not tear your apprentice down, but builds them up. Whenever we give critical feedback, we are honest but not hurtful. We don’t make them feel stupid, or use language that makes them feel inadequate. Instead we tell them these are the areas that need work. Here are some things you can do to improve, and here is what I saw you do right. Resourcing is simply helping them come in contact with the things that are going to make them more effective in doing their job. It might be a great book, an article, or a conference. It’s just getting things to them that are going to help them take it to the next level.
In conclusion let me say that it is everybody’s job to apprentice the next generation. If you are doing a job at the Vineyard Chattanooga, I should be able to walk up to you on any given Sunday and be introduced to your apprentice. I have a couple and they are there every week. There names are Josh Gott, Jon Meek, Zach Anderle, and Josh Anderle. A couple of them are able to do exactly what I do and more, another one of them is getting pretty darn close, and the youngest one is simply learning how to serve. They are there with me every week, and be of good cheer, if I was to drop dead they could take this thing and we wouldn’t miss a beat.
Who are you apprenticing? You haven’t done your job if you can’t answer that question. I’m not saying that as a condemnation, I’m saying that as an affirmation. You can do this. You have something to impart! Part of what it means to be part of the people who are the Vineyard Chattanooga is to apprentice the generation underneath you.
Let’s set a goal, by the end of the summer, I want each of you who are involved in leadership (from being a member of the set-up crew – to staff) to have someone you are apprenticing to do what it is you do. I want to be able to walk up to you on a Sunday Morning or in one of our growth groups, or on our outreach projects and say introduce me to who you are apprenticing and you can say, “This is so an so” and I can ask them, “What are you learning?” and they can give me a good answer.
Can you imagine what our church would be like if each of us took the value of apprenticing the next generation seriously? We would be a disciple-making farm! Can you imagine what your families would be like if each of you took seriously the idea of apprenticing your kids! Wow!
I think it would be like the Kingdom of Heaven come to earth!
Friday, June 4, 2010
Value 1: Apprenticing the Next Generation II
The Nature of the Curse
I’m going to be giving a few specific examples of which there are literally hundreds to choose from. As you read these you might discover that you might fall into one of these groups. I’m not calling these out to heap condemnation or guilt upon you for the choices you’ve made or have had forced upon you. Remember there is no condemnation for those of us who are Christ Jesus. It’s the enemy who would want you to wallow in guilt. He would want you to be paralyzed thinking there is nothing that can be done. The Lord however would call you to think about how you can begin to partner with Him in setting things to right. Believe it or not, God even wants to set to right the areas of our life in which our own personal sin has reaped destruction. God doesn’t want the brokenness to remain; he wants healing, forgiveness, reconciliation, and growth. With that spirit let’s read the two examples I’ve provided.
Think of the epidemic of divorce our culture has experienced over the last generation. So many adults have abdicated their responsibility to protect and nurture their children because they have emotionally detached from the spouse of their youth (I’m not talking about areas of physical abuse, or addiction here). Let’s face it, relationships are hard, and a healthy loving marriage is hard work. To make a marriage work requires great sacrifice by both spouses time and time again. Sometimes people make unwise decisions and marry a jerk. O.K., but does that give us the right to inflict the emotional damage on our children that divorce brings? Adults get over a divorce, the children never do. They always have to live with it, and if the children are young (by that I mean not out of the home and responsible for themselves) a divorce will breed deep seeded issues of abandonment, insecurity, loss of innocence, confusion, anger with God, I could go on and on. Here’s a hard question, “Do you love your kids more than you love yourself?” Do you love them enough to make your marriage work during the hard times, during the times when you don’t feel “in love”? When we don’t, we bring forth a generation of latch-key kids shuffled from home to home confused and disconnected. I promise you, that brings a curse on the land.
Statistically speaking, 33% of all marriages end in divorce. I know many of you who are reading this have gone through divorce. Here are a few things you can do if you’re divorce involved children to help them not feel so disconnected and lost thus lessening the effects of the curse.
First own up to the problem. When my parents got divorced I was very young. One of them had an affair and did not want me to know this. The other parent was very bitter because of the infidelity and did not have much contact with me because it meant they had to have contact with their former spouse. I grew up thinking this parent did not care about me; that wasn’t the case. They simply didn’t know how to process through the anger appropriately. Both of them were embarrassed by what happened and did not know how to talk about it. Now granted, when I was six was not the time for this discussion, but in little ways when I was feeling abandoned or confused about my place in this world, helping me understand in age appropriate manners that it wasn’t about me, it was about them and that there were very understandable if not always justifiable reasons as to why circumstances were what they were. By the time I was a teenager full disclosure needed to happen. It would have helped my emotional growth immensely and eliminated a lot of confusion.
Second maintain a friendship. Unless your spouse was physically abusive to you and you and your children are in physical danger by being near them, you don’t get to hold a grudge. Who loses when your kids are shipped to one house and the next living out of a suitcase? Who loses when you don’t want to be around your ex so you don’t go to a birthday party or to a school event? Who loses when you don’t maintain geographical proximity to one another? Who loses when you make your kids a messenger between the two of you? Who loses when you insinuate that your ex doesn’t really have the appropriate types of character qualities? The children lose. I can’t tell you how stressful it is for a kid to have to deal with those types of issues when they are a child. So forgive. Get over it. Let it go. For the sake of your children you need to become friends with your ex so you can talk and share with one another. Your children need this from you, and frankly it’s your responsibility as their parent.
Depending on Institutions to Raise Our Children brings a curse on the land. Nobody can instill your values, develop character, or impart a genuine love and sense of service towards God like you can. Public/Private school and church programs are not to be substitutes for instilling your values or parenting your kids. These institutions can assist you in developing your kids. One hundred years of Sunday school can never accomplish what a parent that genuinely lives his or her faith, and takes the time to instill those lessons in the life of their children can. Your children will learn far more about God and His character as they see you in small group praying with your friends, they will grow more as you genuinely help them wrestle through their questions about God because you yourself have wrestled through the scriptures and can give them an answer born of experience. Your kids will learn far more about developing a heart for people and a being a servant as you take them with you to serve the poor or help at church.
The same is true for education. You cannot let the school system parent your kids; it was not designed for that. Yet many of us become consumed with our careers and think that the eight or more hours our kids spend at school is time that we can coast. If we are not involved with our schools, volunteering and being a presence there, then guess who parents your kids during that time? It’s not the teachers, it’s their peers. If you don’t take the bull by the horns on this one, the primary influence in the lives of your kids will become their peer group. Peers parenting their peers are the blind leading the blind. Children don’t have the wisdom to give truly good counsel all the time; they simply don’t have the life experience. Think how hard it is for you to navigate this world as an adult. Our children don’t have to try to navigate life without us. We have the ability to help our kids find their way through this tricky world if we take our role seriously. When we relinquish this role to institutions the results are gangs, rampant promiscuity, gross materialism and consumerism, no moral compass, the list could go on and on. Let’s suffice it to say the land experiences a curse.
And lest we think these problems are simply relegated to those with kids let’s think again. This is actually what we are experiencing in Hamilton County, today. According to PSK12.com , a website that helps parents decide what school district they want to live in based on comparative standardized test scores, Hamilton County is cumulatively the lowest ranked school system in the state. It scores at the bottom of the pack in elementary education and in middle school education, and we are ninth from the bottom out of 150+ high school systems in the state. According to a study done by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee as reported in the Chattanooga Times Free Press our county has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the country. We have several zip codes within Hamilton County with higher Infant mortality rates than are in third world countries. Also weekly we hear reported problems with gangs and gang violence disturbing the scenic city. Where do these problems come from? It’s a parental problem, it’s a political problem, it’s an educational problem, it’s a societal problem but you can boil it down to one common denominator. There are groups of adults, parents, politicians, and school council members who are all choosing to put their own wants and desires above what’s best for the emerging generation. This attitude is brining a curse on our land. This curse raises our individual property taxes, it results in the vandalism of our city, It creates a lack of safety on our city streets and in our public parks, it effects businesses hiring decisions.
Each of us knows kids who are in less than great home situations. We can take these kids under our wings and become mentors to them.
When my children were little we lived in a suburban neighborhood in Houston Texas. In the evenings Kellie and I would take a walk through the neighborhood with our children. A few doors down were some neighbors who sat in their driveway, drinking beer, smoking cigarettes, and listening to heavy metal. I remember thinking, “There is the scourge of the neighborhood.”
One day shortly after Christmas I was on my roof taking down my Christmas lights while my oldest son was riding his new bicycle up and down the street. I noticed the kid of my rough neighbors hiding behind a truck with one of his friends. When my son rode past them they jumped out and attacked him. A fist fight ensued. I yelled at them to stop but the fight didn’t break-up until I was able to get off my roof and get near them. Once the boys saw me coming they bolted across the street into their home.
I asked my son what had happened and he said they just ran out and started hitting him. That didn’t sound right, people just don’t jump out of nowhere and try to beat you up unprovoked. I wanted to get to the bottom of it so we walked over to my neighbor’s house and knocked on the door. The wife who was in her mid-thirties answered. She was dressed like the teenagers in my youth group at the time. She had a corona beer sleeveless t-shirt on and skin-tight jeans with holes in them. A fad at the time was to write on your jeans with a pen; she was fad current. I related to her what had happened between my son and her son and his friend. She went and got the two boys and asked them what had happened. They said, without a clue to the inappropriateness of this comment that they just wanted to see what it was like to beat someone up.
I was horrified. I explained to the kids that we never should do anything like that, and then walked away with my son. I was in shock. In my mind I was hurling all sorts of curses and judgments their way. Then God began to speak to me. He said, “How many times have you walked by those people’s house when they were outside?” I said almost every night. He said, “How many times have you tried to talk to them or build a friendship with them?” I said that hadn’t, not once. He asked me whose fault it was that my kids had been beaten up? Was it the people who were trapped by darkness or was it the one who knew the truth but failed to reach out.
You see I had a responsibility to that family and to that kid to reach out to them with the love of Jesus. I realized then, that those children and their families were my responsibility, and if I didn’t love people and befriend them, I was as much responsible for the curse through my inaction as they were through their action.
We all have a responsibility to the next generation.
So I repented. Repent is a biblical word that simply means to change course, to do a 180. After that experience I went home to my wife Kellie and I told her what happened. We sat down our kids and we told them that they were to consistently invite that little kid over to play. We began to build a friendship with him, to earn the right to be heard and to speak into his life. We began to invest in him. I wish I could give you the rest of the story, we moved about 6 months later so I don’t know his life turned out, but I know for 6 months there was a family that loved him and was teaching him right from wrong.
These are just a couple of examples out of literally hundreds, but the biblical truth is this, if we as adults don’t take an active interest in teaching and modeling for the generation underneath us how to live, and love, and invest ourselves in their lives we will reap a curse upon our land.
The Nature of the Blessing
Now enough with the negativity, because in this passage of scripture is also found a blessing and a promise.
If we turn the scripture around and state it in the positive we get something like this: If the parents will turn their hearts to their children and the children will turn their hearts to their parents I will bless the land. Now that is encouraging. If we will focus on helping our kids become all that they were created to be and if our children will honor our instruction, God will bless the land.
If we think of the overall context of the passage from Malachi we begin to realize that not only will the land be blessed but this action, unlike any other, prepares our hearts for the arrival of the Kingdom of God. There is a reason that this is the last thought that God wanted us left with at the conclusion of the Old Testament. There is something central about the generations loving each other and wanting the best for each other that brings the Kingdom to earth in a unique way. I think in some ways it’s the practical application of the golden rule, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” and the Great Commandment of loving God with all that we are and loving our neighbor as we love ourselves because in a very real sense it is laying down our lives for others.
I think we learn this when we begin to allow God’s dreams for the next generation to be the motivating factor in our lives. When we realize God would like us to leave the a world a better place than we found it, a little more like the coming Kingdom he is bringing, it motivates our actions. When we also understand that leaving the world a better place than we found it means that the generation underneath us has to understand and take that mission to the next level, it focuses us on how and with whom we seek to accomplish that mission. I can’t leave the world a better place if the generation coming up after me does not desire to do the same. When you have multiple generations seeking to leave the world a better place than they found it, then the land is blessed indeed!
There are people who are reading this blog right now who have experienced the truth of this. I will spare the names to save the embarrassment, but I think of a particular Christian counselor in Houston Texas. I fist met him when he was in junior high, and he was an angry young man. His father was an alcoholic and he hated people, but there were several key adults who saw something special in this young man and began to love him to life with the love of Christ. It didn’t take long for his heart to be softened to the love of God. Today instead of hating people he loves people, and is investing his life in helping people find peace in Christ just like he has. What would have been a curse was turned into a blessing because the hearts of the fathers were turned towards the children.
I think of a young lady whose parents went through a rough divorce. She wanted to give up on God, but a group of adults in her church surrounded her and loved on her. It took her a little time to work through her anger but by the time she was in college the love she had experienced gripped her heart in a powerful way. She went on to start a camp that teaches junior high kids how to serve the elderly and indigent. She is leaving the world better than she found it! What could have resulted in a curse has been turned into a major blessing through some adult small group leaders who loved this girl in the name of Jesus and as a result the land is being blessed.
So how do we do this? How do we practically apprentice the generation underneath us?
I’m going to be giving a few specific examples of which there are literally hundreds to choose from. As you read these you might discover that you might fall into one of these groups. I’m not calling these out to heap condemnation or guilt upon you for the choices you’ve made or have had forced upon you. Remember there is no condemnation for those of us who are Christ Jesus. It’s the enemy who would want you to wallow in guilt. He would want you to be paralyzed thinking there is nothing that can be done. The Lord however would call you to think about how you can begin to partner with Him in setting things to right. Believe it or not, God even wants to set to right the areas of our life in which our own personal sin has reaped destruction. God doesn’t want the brokenness to remain; he wants healing, forgiveness, reconciliation, and growth. With that spirit let’s read the two examples I’ve provided.
Think of the epidemic of divorce our culture has experienced over the last generation. So many adults have abdicated their responsibility to protect and nurture their children because they have emotionally detached from the spouse of their youth (I’m not talking about areas of physical abuse, or addiction here). Let’s face it, relationships are hard, and a healthy loving marriage is hard work. To make a marriage work requires great sacrifice by both spouses time and time again. Sometimes people make unwise decisions and marry a jerk. O.K., but does that give us the right to inflict the emotional damage on our children that divorce brings? Adults get over a divorce, the children never do. They always have to live with it, and if the children are young (by that I mean not out of the home and responsible for themselves) a divorce will breed deep seeded issues of abandonment, insecurity, loss of innocence, confusion, anger with God, I could go on and on. Here’s a hard question, “Do you love your kids more than you love yourself?” Do you love them enough to make your marriage work during the hard times, during the times when you don’t feel “in love”? When we don’t, we bring forth a generation of latch-key kids shuffled from home to home confused and disconnected. I promise you, that brings a curse on the land.
Statistically speaking, 33% of all marriages end in divorce. I know many of you who are reading this have gone through divorce. Here are a few things you can do if you’re divorce involved children to help them not feel so disconnected and lost thus lessening the effects of the curse.
First own up to the problem. When my parents got divorced I was very young. One of them had an affair and did not want me to know this. The other parent was very bitter because of the infidelity and did not have much contact with me because it meant they had to have contact with their former spouse. I grew up thinking this parent did not care about me; that wasn’t the case. They simply didn’t know how to process through the anger appropriately. Both of them were embarrassed by what happened and did not know how to talk about it. Now granted, when I was six was not the time for this discussion, but in little ways when I was feeling abandoned or confused about my place in this world, helping me understand in age appropriate manners that it wasn’t about me, it was about them and that there were very understandable if not always justifiable reasons as to why circumstances were what they were. By the time I was a teenager full disclosure needed to happen. It would have helped my emotional growth immensely and eliminated a lot of confusion.
Second maintain a friendship. Unless your spouse was physically abusive to you and you and your children are in physical danger by being near them, you don’t get to hold a grudge. Who loses when your kids are shipped to one house and the next living out of a suitcase? Who loses when you don’t want to be around your ex so you don’t go to a birthday party or to a school event? Who loses when you don’t maintain geographical proximity to one another? Who loses when you make your kids a messenger between the two of you? Who loses when you insinuate that your ex doesn’t really have the appropriate types of character qualities? The children lose. I can’t tell you how stressful it is for a kid to have to deal with those types of issues when they are a child. So forgive. Get over it. Let it go. For the sake of your children you need to become friends with your ex so you can talk and share with one another. Your children need this from you, and frankly it’s your responsibility as their parent.
Depending on Institutions to Raise Our Children brings a curse on the land. Nobody can instill your values, develop character, or impart a genuine love and sense of service towards God like you can. Public/Private school and church programs are not to be substitutes for instilling your values or parenting your kids. These institutions can assist you in developing your kids. One hundred years of Sunday school can never accomplish what a parent that genuinely lives his or her faith, and takes the time to instill those lessons in the life of their children can. Your children will learn far more about God and His character as they see you in small group praying with your friends, they will grow more as you genuinely help them wrestle through their questions about God because you yourself have wrestled through the scriptures and can give them an answer born of experience. Your kids will learn far more about developing a heart for people and a being a servant as you take them with you to serve the poor or help at church.
The same is true for education. You cannot let the school system parent your kids; it was not designed for that. Yet many of us become consumed with our careers and think that the eight or more hours our kids spend at school is time that we can coast. If we are not involved with our schools, volunteering and being a presence there, then guess who parents your kids during that time? It’s not the teachers, it’s their peers. If you don’t take the bull by the horns on this one, the primary influence in the lives of your kids will become their peer group. Peers parenting their peers are the blind leading the blind. Children don’t have the wisdom to give truly good counsel all the time; they simply don’t have the life experience. Think how hard it is for you to navigate this world as an adult. Our children don’t have to try to navigate life without us. We have the ability to help our kids find their way through this tricky world if we take our role seriously. When we relinquish this role to institutions the results are gangs, rampant promiscuity, gross materialism and consumerism, no moral compass, the list could go on and on. Let’s suffice it to say the land experiences a curse.
And lest we think these problems are simply relegated to those with kids let’s think again. This is actually what we are experiencing in Hamilton County, today. According to PSK12.com , a website that helps parents decide what school district they want to live in based on comparative standardized test scores, Hamilton County is cumulatively the lowest ranked school system in the state. It scores at the bottom of the pack in elementary education and in middle school education, and we are ninth from the bottom out of 150+ high school systems in the state. According to a study done by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee as reported in the Chattanooga Times Free Press our county has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the country. We have several zip codes within Hamilton County with higher Infant mortality rates than are in third world countries. Also weekly we hear reported problems with gangs and gang violence disturbing the scenic city. Where do these problems come from? It’s a parental problem, it’s a political problem, it’s an educational problem, it’s a societal problem but you can boil it down to one common denominator. There are groups of adults, parents, politicians, and school council members who are all choosing to put their own wants and desires above what’s best for the emerging generation. This attitude is brining a curse on our land. This curse raises our individual property taxes, it results in the vandalism of our city, It creates a lack of safety on our city streets and in our public parks, it effects businesses hiring decisions.
Each of us knows kids who are in less than great home situations. We can take these kids under our wings and become mentors to them.
When my children were little we lived in a suburban neighborhood in Houston Texas. In the evenings Kellie and I would take a walk through the neighborhood with our children. A few doors down were some neighbors who sat in their driveway, drinking beer, smoking cigarettes, and listening to heavy metal. I remember thinking, “There is the scourge of the neighborhood.”
One day shortly after Christmas I was on my roof taking down my Christmas lights while my oldest son was riding his new bicycle up and down the street. I noticed the kid of my rough neighbors hiding behind a truck with one of his friends. When my son rode past them they jumped out and attacked him. A fist fight ensued. I yelled at them to stop but the fight didn’t break-up until I was able to get off my roof and get near them. Once the boys saw me coming they bolted across the street into their home.
I asked my son what had happened and he said they just ran out and started hitting him. That didn’t sound right, people just don’t jump out of nowhere and try to beat you up unprovoked. I wanted to get to the bottom of it so we walked over to my neighbor’s house and knocked on the door. The wife who was in her mid-thirties answered. She was dressed like the teenagers in my youth group at the time. She had a corona beer sleeveless t-shirt on and skin-tight jeans with holes in them. A fad at the time was to write on your jeans with a pen; she was fad current. I related to her what had happened between my son and her son and his friend. She went and got the two boys and asked them what had happened. They said, without a clue to the inappropriateness of this comment that they just wanted to see what it was like to beat someone up.
I was horrified. I explained to the kids that we never should do anything like that, and then walked away with my son. I was in shock. In my mind I was hurling all sorts of curses and judgments their way. Then God began to speak to me. He said, “How many times have you walked by those people’s house when they were outside?” I said almost every night. He said, “How many times have you tried to talk to them or build a friendship with them?” I said that hadn’t, not once. He asked me whose fault it was that my kids had been beaten up? Was it the people who were trapped by darkness or was it the one who knew the truth but failed to reach out.
You see I had a responsibility to that family and to that kid to reach out to them with the love of Jesus. I realized then, that those children and their families were my responsibility, and if I didn’t love people and befriend them, I was as much responsible for the curse through my inaction as they were through their action.
We all have a responsibility to the next generation.
So I repented. Repent is a biblical word that simply means to change course, to do a 180. After that experience I went home to my wife Kellie and I told her what happened. We sat down our kids and we told them that they were to consistently invite that little kid over to play. We began to build a friendship with him, to earn the right to be heard and to speak into his life. We began to invest in him. I wish I could give you the rest of the story, we moved about 6 months later so I don’t know his life turned out, but I know for 6 months there was a family that loved him and was teaching him right from wrong.
These are just a couple of examples out of literally hundreds, but the biblical truth is this, if we as adults don’t take an active interest in teaching and modeling for the generation underneath us how to live, and love, and invest ourselves in their lives we will reap a curse upon our land.
The Nature of the Blessing
Now enough with the negativity, because in this passage of scripture is also found a blessing and a promise.
If we turn the scripture around and state it in the positive we get something like this: If the parents will turn their hearts to their children and the children will turn their hearts to their parents I will bless the land. Now that is encouraging. If we will focus on helping our kids become all that they were created to be and if our children will honor our instruction, God will bless the land.
If we think of the overall context of the passage from Malachi we begin to realize that not only will the land be blessed but this action, unlike any other, prepares our hearts for the arrival of the Kingdom of God. There is a reason that this is the last thought that God wanted us left with at the conclusion of the Old Testament. There is something central about the generations loving each other and wanting the best for each other that brings the Kingdom to earth in a unique way. I think in some ways it’s the practical application of the golden rule, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” and the Great Commandment of loving God with all that we are and loving our neighbor as we love ourselves because in a very real sense it is laying down our lives for others.
I think we learn this when we begin to allow God’s dreams for the next generation to be the motivating factor in our lives. When we realize God would like us to leave the a world a better place than we found it, a little more like the coming Kingdom he is bringing, it motivates our actions. When we also understand that leaving the world a better place than we found it means that the generation underneath us has to understand and take that mission to the next level, it focuses us on how and with whom we seek to accomplish that mission. I can’t leave the world a better place if the generation coming up after me does not desire to do the same. When you have multiple generations seeking to leave the world a better place than they found it, then the land is blessed indeed!
There are people who are reading this blog right now who have experienced the truth of this. I will spare the names to save the embarrassment, but I think of a particular Christian counselor in Houston Texas. I fist met him when he was in junior high, and he was an angry young man. His father was an alcoholic and he hated people, but there were several key adults who saw something special in this young man and began to love him to life with the love of Christ. It didn’t take long for his heart to be softened to the love of God. Today instead of hating people he loves people, and is investing his life in helping people find peace in Christ just like he has. What would have been a curse was turned into a blessing because the hearts of the fathers were turned towards the children.
I think of a young lady whose parents went through a rough divorce. She wanted to give up on God, but a group of adults in her church surrounded her and loved on her. It took her a little time to work through her anger but by the time she was in college the love she had experienced gripped her heart in a powerful way. She went on to start a camp that teaches junior high kids how to serve the elderly and indigent. She is leaving the world better than she found it! What could have resulted in a curse has been turned into a major blessing through some adult small group leaders who loved this girl in the name of Jesus and as a result the land is being blessed.
So how do we do this? How do we practically apprentice the generation underneath us?
Apprenticing the Next Generation
Value 1: Apprenticing the Next Generation
I had a really cool moment the other day. I was watching my 17 year old son and some of his best friends lead worship at a Christian high school. Their band HighPoint had been mentored by a young man who had come to our church when he was eighteen. He was a fantastic keyboard player and also had a wonderful mind for finance. He later came on my staff as our business manager but still took the time to teach my son and his friends how to lead a praise and worship team. He taught them how to manage practice sessions, how to run a sound board, how to make a song theirs instead of a reproduction of a studio track, and how to put together a worship set. That morning he and I sat smiling as we watched our kids lead several hundred students in worship. They were great, not only were they musically great but they were sensitive to the Spirit. They listened for God, and ushered those kids into a time where Spirit came and ministered in a very powerful way. These were things that they had learned as they were apprenticed by the generations that had come before them. We were all blessed by this.
As I sat there and watched this I had the satisfaction of knowing another generation had really gotten the heart of the Kingdom. That these young men would take what they had learned from me and the men and women I had mentored and pass it on to the generation underneath them. When I think about that I want to get up and do back flips, because that’s what it’s all about and you know the Bible seems to back me up on that.
In the book of Acts we read about the birth of the church on Pentecost Sunday. The church is the community of the “age to come”, the time when Jesus returns and sets all things to right, as it exists in the midst of this present age. The church plays by a different set of rules than the world does (or at least it should). The church is ruled by the values and characteristics of what the world will be like when everything is set to right. In the church love, mercy, compassion, forgiveness, selflessness, gentleness, and kindness are the daily DNA of life because that is what life will be like in the “age to come”.
On the day the Church was established, the Spirit of God came and empowered each person who had placed his or her faith in Jesus. All heaven literally broke lose at that time. Manifestations of the life of the “age to come” began to break into this present age through God’s empowering presence at work in the followers of Jesus. The gift of tongues went forth reversing the curse of the confounded languages at Babel. The followers of Jesus began to proclaim Jesus as the true Lord of all, their fear of retribution overcome by the courage the Spirit brings. To explain all this Peter says to the crowd that had gathered:
AC 2:14 Peter Addresses the Crowd
…"Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. 15 Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning. 16 No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
AC 2:17 'In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.
AC 2:18 Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
and they shall prophesy.
God’s Kingdom was forcefully breaking into the world. What Jesus had set into motion through his death and resurrection was continuing through His people who were empowered by His Spirit. This is what had been promised by the prophets of the Old Testament, a reversal of the way things were, an end to the status quo. This Spirit-empowered people were bearing witness to the world of the complete reversal that Jesus would bring in all of it’s fullness in the “age to come.” Peter, quoting the Prophet Joel, says that one of the major signs of the in breaking of the Kingdom is young and old engaging in Spirit-empowered ministry side by side.
Listen to the language; sons and daughters, young and old, men and women! When the Kingdom comes young and old, male and female will be serving God side by side! Therefore, one of the signs of the “age to come” breaking forward into the present is young people being empowered by their spiritual mothers and fathers to engage in Spirit-led ministry.
This is a reoccurring theme with the Old Testament Prophets. Listen to the last sentence of the Hebrew Scriptures found in the book of Malachi.
MAL 3:16 The Reward of the Faithful
Then those who revered the LORD spoke with one another. The LORD took note and listened, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who revered the LORD and thought on his name. 17 They shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, my special possession on the day when I act, and I will spare them as parents spare their children who serve them. 18 Then once more you shall see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.
MAL 4:1 The Great Day of the LORD
See, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. 2 But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. 3 And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the LORD of hosts.
MAL 4:4 Remember the teaching of my servant Moses, the statutes and ordinances that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel.
MAL 4:5 Lo, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes. 6 He will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents, so that I will not come and strike the land with a curse.
Just like the rest of the Old Testament prophets Malachi is looking forward to the Day of the Lord, the day when God will decisively act in setting the world to right. Malachi says part of what prepares our hearts for this event, part of what makes us ready to experience God’s Kingdom in all its fullness, is the hearts of the parents being turned towards their children and the hearts of the children being turned towards their parents. This is an incredible picture, a picture of seasoned adults not being focused on achieving for themselves but their desire is for their children to be all they can be. It’s the children not looking at the older generation with suspicion and rebellion but acknowledging the gift that is being given to them by their mentors. Out of that knowledge is born a love and respect for those who are sacrificially focusing on them.
God says this has to happen so that the land is not struck with a curse. Think about that for a second, when the older generation refuses to invest in the younger generation the land is cursed. I can think of many reasons why the land would be cursed when the older generation refuses to invest in the younger generation because of the things I’ve seen in my quarter century of experience in ministry.
I had a really cool moment the other day. I was watching my 17 year old son and some of his best friends lead worship at a Christian high school. Their band HighPoint had been mentored by a young man who had come to our church when he was eighteen. He was a fantastic keyboard player and also had a wonderful mind for finance. He later came on my staff as our business manager but still took the time to teach my son and his friends how to lead a praise and worship team. He taught them how to manage practice sessions, how to run a sound board, how to make a song theirs instead of a reproduction of a studio track, and how to put together a worship set. That morning he and I sat smiling as we watched our kids lead several hundred students in worship. They were great, not only were they musically great but they were sensitive to the Spirit. They listened for God, and ushered those kids into a time where Spirit came and ministered in a very powerful way. These were things that they had learned as they were apprenticed by the generations that had come before them. We were all blessed by this.
As I sat there and watched this I had the satisfaction of knowing another generation had really gotten the heart of the Kingdom. That these young men would take what they had learned from me and the men and women I had mentored and pass it on to the generation underneath them. When I think about that I want to get up and do back flips, because that’s what it’s all about and you know the Bible seems to back me up on that.
In the book of Acts we read about the birth of the church on Pentecost Sunday. The church is the community of the “age to come”, the time when Jesus returns and sets all things to right, as it exists in the midst of this present age. The church plays by a different set of rules than the world does (or at least it should). The church is ruled by the values and characteristics of what the world will be like when everything is set to right. In the church love, mercy, compassion, forgiveness, selflessness, gentleness, and kindness are the daily DNA of life because that is what life will be like in the “age to come”.
On the day the Church was established, the Spirit of God came and empowered each person who had placed his or her faith in Jesus. All heaven literally broke lose at that time. Manifestations of the life of the “age to come” began to break into this present age through God’s empowering presence at work in the followers of Jesus. The gift of tongues went forth reversing the curse of the confounded languages at Babel. The followers of Jesus began to proclaim Jesus as the true Lord of all, their fear of retribution overcome by the courage the Spirit brings. To explain all this Peter says to the crowd that had gathered:
AC 2:14 Peter Addresses the Crowd
…"Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. 15 Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning. 16 No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
AC 2:17 'In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.
AC 2:18 Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
and they shall prophesy.
God’s Kingdom was forcefully breaking into the world. What Jesus had set into motion through his death and resurrection was continuing through His people who were empowered by His Spirit. This is what had been promised by the prophets of the Old Testament, a reversal of the way things were, an end to the status quo. This Spirit-empowered people were bearing witness to the world of the complete reversal that Jesus would bring in all of it’s fullness in the “age to come.” Peter, quoting the Prophet Joel, says that one of the major signs of the in breaking of the Kingdom is young and old engaging in Spirit-empowered ministry side by side.
Listen to the language; sons and daughters, young and old, men and women! When the Kingdom comes young and old, male and female will be serving God side by side! Therefore, one of the signs of the “age to come” breaking forward into the present is young people being empowered by their spiritual mothers and fathers to engage in Spirit-led ministry.
This is a reoccurring theme with the Old Testament Prophets. Listen to the last sentence of the Hebrew Scriptures found in the book of Malachi.
MAL 3:16 The Reward of the Faithful
Then those who revered the LORD spoke with one another. The LORD took note and listened, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who revered the LORD and thought on his name. 17 They shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, my special possession on the day when I act, and I will spare them as parents spare their children who serve them. 18 Then once more you shall see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.
MAL 4:1 The Great Day of the LORD
See, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. 2 But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. 3 And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the LORD of hosts.
MAL 4:4 Remember the teaching of my servant Moses, the statutes and ordinances that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel.
MAL 4:5 Lo, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes. 6 He will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents, so that I will not come and strike the land with a curse.
Just like the rest of the Old Testament prophets Malachi is looking forward to the Day of the Lord, the day when God will decisively act in setting the world to right. Malachi says part of what prepares our hearts for this event, part of what makes us ready to experience God’s Kingdom in all its fullness, is the hearts of the parents being turned towards their children and the hearts of the children being turned towards their parents. This is an incredible picture, a picture of seasoned adults not being focused on achieving for themselves but their desire is for their children to be all they can be. It’s the children not looking at the older generation with suspicion and rebellion but acknowledging the gift that is being given to them by their mentors. Out of that knowledge is born a love and respect for those who are sacrificially focusing on them.
God says this has to happen so that the land is not struck with a curse. Think about that for a second, when the older generation refuses to invest in the younger generation the land is cursed. I can think of many reasons why the land would be cursed when the older generation refuses to invest in the younger generation because of the things I’ve seen in my quarter century of experience in ministry.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Leaving Things Better Than We Found Them
Owning our Mission and Values
How to take responsibility for living out our mission and values in your area of ministry
Over the last few weeks we’ve been reflecting on our first ten years of existence as a church. One of the things we highlighted is the mission and values our church has discovered over that time frame. Our mission and values are not something we’ve read about in the latest trendy book on how to develop a mega-cool mega-church but they are the core convictions we have developed as we have ministered together in the good times and bad. Through the blood, sweat, and tears of the last decade this mission and these values are the areas that have become non-negotiable with us. Each conviction has been earned as we have developed them on the field of ministry and these convictions are what make us the Chattanooga Vineyard.
As we look at the mission and values that make us unique as a church I want you to ask the question, “How am I incorporating these convictions in my own personal life and area of ministry?” I want you to brainstorm creative ways you can help these take root at the most basic levels in your area of responsibility so that they become part of our culture. The only way these core convictions can remain central is when each one of us takes responsibility for making sure they are lived out in our areas of personal responsibility.
Over the next few weeks I’m going to take one of these convictions and explain it in depth and challenge us to look at ways each of us can implement them in our areas of ministry and in our personal lives. I invite you to give me or the person leading your ministry area feedback and share your ideas as how each conviction can be better lived out in your area of ministry.
Our Mission: To Leave Things Better than We Found Them
At the end of the book of Revelation we read one of the most beautiful passages of scripture. It’s a passage that tells us how this amazing story communicated through the Bible ends. The story itself is about a good and loving God who creates a beautiful world that is broken by the deception of an enemy and the sin of humanity. This God who loves the world and the people he made is not content to leave it in its broken state so He sets in motion a plan to redeem His broken world and set it back to right. This plan is worked out through a man named Abraham whose family becomes a mighty nation called Israel and finds it’s fulfillment in Israel’s true King, Jesus of Nazareth.
In Jesus, humanity as it was truly intended to be is realized and through his perfect obedience to this loving God of whom he is the exact representation, the decisive battle in restoring the world that was broken is won. It is won through Jesus death on the cross and his defeat of death through his resurrection. Jesus commissions his followers to go and proclaim to the world through word and action that He has defeated Hell, death, and the grave, that He is the world’s true ruler, and He will return to complete what His resurrection has begun.
The passage in Revelation describes the moment when Jesus return occurs and what it means for humanity and all of creation.
How to take responsibility for living out our mission and values in your area of ministry
Over the last few weeks we’ve been reflecting on our first ten years of existence as a church. One of the things we highlighted is the mission and values our church has discovered over that time frame. Our mission and values are not something we’ve read about in the latest trendy book on how to develop a mega-cool mega-church but they are the core convictions we have developed as we have ministered together in the good times and bad. Through the blood, sweat, and tears of the last decade this mission and these values are the areas that have become non-negotiable with us. Each conviction has been earned as we have developed them on the field of ministry and these convictions are what make us the Chattanooga Vineyard.
As we look at the mission and values that make us unique as a church I want you to ask the question, “How am I incorporating these convictions in my own personal life and area of ministry?” I want you to brainstorm creative ways you can help these take root at the most basic levels in your area of responsibility so that they become part of our culture. The only way these core convictions can remain central is when each one of us takes responsibility for making sure they are lived out in our areas of personal responsibility.
Over the next few weeks I’m going to take one of these convictions and explain it in depth and challenge us to look at ways each of us can implement them in our areas of ministry and in our personal lives. I invite you to give me or the person leading your ministry area feedback and share your ideas as how each conviction can be better lived out in your area of ministry.
Our Mission: To Leave Things Better than We Found Them
At the end of the book of Revelation we read one of the most beautiful passages of scripture. It’s a passage that tells us how this amazing story communicated through the Bible ends. The story itself is about a good and loving God who creates a beautiful world that is broken by the deception of an enemy and the sin of humanity. This God who loves the world and the people he made is not content to leave it in its broken state so He sets in motion a plan to redeem His broken world and set it back to right. This plan is worked out through a man named Abraham whose family becomes a mighty nation called Israel and finds it’s fulfillment in Israel’s true King, Jesus of Nazareth.
In Jesus, humanity as it was truly intended to be is realized and through his perfect obedience to this loving God of whom he is the exact representation, the decisive battle in restoring the world that was broken is won. It is won through Jesus death on the cross and his defeat of death through his resurrection. Jesus commissions his followers to go and proclaim to the world through word and action that He has defeated Hell, death, and the grave, that He is the world’s true ruler, and He will return to complete what His resurrection has begun.
The passage in Revelation describes the moment when Jesus return occurs and what it means for humanity and all of creation.
REV 21:1 The New Heaven and the New Earth
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
"See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them as their God;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them;
REV 21:4 he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away."
REV 21:5 And the one who was seated on the throne said, "See, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true." 6 Then he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. 7 Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children.
When this moment occurs things are not only put to right but they are made new. Dictionary.com defines new as being “different or better” and this is the idea that is being conveyed in this passage from Revelation. In the Bible we find no explanation of where evil comes from it just is. It’s present in the Garden through the character of the serpent. Even in Eden evil was, but when all things are set to right evil is destroyed. The new heaven and new earth that Jesus is bringing will be completely free from the touch of evil! What is in store for us is better than Eden!
As the church, those who have given our allegiance to King Jesus, we are to bear witness to God’s future. Through our words and actions we are to constantly be pointing to the fact that in Jesus God is making all things new. In simple terms the way we bear witness to the future God is bringing is that we leave things better than we found them.
This is our mission as followers of Jesus. This is why the Church (universal) exists. This is why the Chattanooga Vineyard exists. As a follower of Jesus this is your personal mission; You are to bear witness to the fact that Jesus has conquered death, hell, and the grave, by becoming living embodiments of the future he is brining. You do this by leaving things better than you found them!
So let’s look at how this mission is expressed on a personal level and on a ministry level.
Application
Let’s think of the application of our mission on the levels of influence we have in our lives.
Personal: We all have areas in our life where we need to experience the newness that Jesus brings; areas that need to be set to right, areas we want Jesus, through his Spirit, to leave us better than He’s found us. This process begins with Prayer.
a. Ask God where he wants to leave your life better than He found it during this season.
b. Reveal – Allow the Spirit to bring light to the lies you have believed that are keeping you from living the abundant type of life that God’s coming Kingdom represents in this area.
c. In Faith begin to order your life based on God’s truth instead of the enemies lies.
d. Through Grace rely on God’s strength instead of your own to develop the new life patterns you need to walk in God’s truth. This means instead of white knuckling it when you feel the temptation to revert back into your old comfortable habits that you lean into God asking Him in His mercy to give you the strength you need to follow through on your new way of life.
Family: God wants out families to be places where we experience the love and security of his coming Kingdom. The above process really applies to this area as well, because we are simply asking God where he wants to work and then partnering with Him in those efforts. However I would also suggest thinking through what traditions and activities can you engage in together that will help your family experience the type of life Jesus Kingdom brings. These are some things that have been important in my own family’s life, that have helped us experience that newness of the Kingdom.
a. Love Your Spouse! God exists in a loving community of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This love literally fills all creation. There is no better model of the Kingdom we can give to our families and to the world around us than a husband and wife who are whole heartedly in love with each other submitting to one another out of love and respect. This reflects the Kingdom to the world in a radical way and helps leave things better than we found them, because people notice and will ask what your secret is.
b. Encourage One Another: This is one of Paul’s admonitions to the early church and I think it’s a powerful sign of God’s coming Kingdom at work in our families. There are so many negative and discouraging voices that come to us daily. We shouldn’t be one of those voices to the ones we love. Instead we should lean into Christ and allow our words to build up and to bless them. Letting God speak what he sees in them through us.
c. Eat at least one meal a day together as a family. The family meal for us is an opportunity to enjoy good food and each others company. Now that my children are older several of us have touched base as we prepared the meal together. We spend a little time with God in prayer acknowledging Him being the center of our lives. Then everyone gets to talk about what’s happened in their lives, lots of laughing and reminiscing over the past, and opportunities to help each other see life through a Kingdom perspective. This brings the newness and life of the Kingdom to your home daily. It leaves the day better than it was before!
d. Turn off the TV and read to your children when they are young. Great books have the ability to spark our children’s imaginations and reinforce our values. I read the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy to my children when they were in elementary school and it sparked their desire for adventure and to be courageous. We read To Kill a Mockingbird because I wanted them to see the strength of character in a man like Atticus Finch. On long trips we listened to the entire Harry Potter series together and discussed the themes and the powerful Christian allegory present especially in the last book. We talked about how we wanted to be humble, and a good friend, and courageous like Harry. God loves books. He’s given us 66 of them to read in the Bible. Great stories reinforce many of the qualities we find in the Bible and give kids a picture of how to engage in the Kingdom battle of good over evil. When we allow our kids to be exposed to great books that inspire them we are leaving them better than we found them with each page that is read.
e. Minister Together. I’ve seen this time and time again. Families that participate in ministry together help their kids own the values of their faith and church. When we first planted the Vineyard my kids were very little, but they helped carry in supplies for the church, they set-up chairs, they handed out freezy pops at outreaches, and cleaned our house as we practiced hospitality. They worshiped with us in small group and as they grew older they began to take key leadership roles in the church itself. Living for Jesus and leaving things better than we found them is something we do 24/7 and they know it and appreciate it, and live it.
f. Be the Main Influence in the Life of Your Kids. We choose to home school our children. I’m not saying that is the right choice for everyone, but it has helped us to be the main influence in the lives of our kids. Our kid’s morals and values have been shaped by us, not by their peers and not by strangers. We have gotten to mold their character. If we had given them away for eight hours a day we would have had to work twice as hard to be that influence; you just have to realize that and be willing to make it happen if you go another route. If the Kingdom of God is the thing your heart burns for, and you are the primary influence in the lives of your children, well guess what? Your kid’s heart will burn to see God’s Kingdom as well. In the Bible, God instructs the parents of Israel to raise and instruct their kids in such a way that they would love God. This is part of what the Kingdom looks like (being our kid’s primary influence not home schooling). We leave things better than we found them in our families when we take the primary responsibility for raising and teaching our kids (whether they are public, private, or home educated).
Ministry: In your area of ministry within the church ask “How can I leave this ministry better than I found it?” May I be so bold as to suggest two ways:
a. Go All In. Don’t approach the area of ministry you are serving in as a duty but as a calling; an opportunity display your love for God and people. Each area that we run in our church is critical to our mission of leaving things better than we found them. Let’s take the set-up crew for instance, your service is giving people the opportunity to be able to connect in worship to our loving God. Your helping us be an incarnational presence in the Tyner schools; we know what’s happening and what their needs are because we are present on the campus. You are allowing us to double dip in terms of mission money because the $14,000 we spend on being able to meet at Tyner High is poured directly back into the school to be used at the principals discretion. Though the set-up crew is totally behind the scenes they are playing a mission critical function. I could do that with every area of ministry in our church. There is not one ministry that is not important, so go all in, invest, approach it as something that is bringing the Kingdom in a powerful way. What you are doing is helping us leave things better than we found them so go all in!
b. Bring a Friend. Because what you are investing in is so important don’t do it by yourself. Find a friend who is not currently serving and invite them to come along and do what you are doing. This is a great way to invite new people into our church. Let’s take the set-up crew illustration for instance. Tell your friend at work about how your church is really investing in some at risk schools in the Tyner area. Say just by meeting at these schools we are able to give them $14,000 a year. How would you like to help us help the school system like that? Well it takes a bunch of folks to get the church set-up each week and I’m part of the set-up crew. Why don’t we meet for coffee and then go and set-up together. It’s a pretty easy way for us to do something significant for our community. Then bring them along and teach them to do what you do and then keep inviting them back. This can be done in every area of ministry. When you do this you are leaving your ministry team better than you found it.
Beyond: Imagine what could happen if you began to apply this way of thinking to every area of your life. If you intentionally started asking the question am I leaving things better than I found them at your work place or in your neighborhood, with the activities you and your family are involved in, thinking city wide, nationally, even globally what kind of difference could God make through you?
This is our calling. The mission of the church is to leave things better than we found them. Last weekend at the outdoor classroom dedication at Tyner Middle School Principal Wendy Young came up to Josh and related what her teachers were beginning to say. As the teachers arrived and saw the Outdoor Classroom that we had partnered with them in building and financing, as we gave them 342 brand new books to go in their English class rooms, as our people were manning face painting booths, and we had brought our moonwalk out for kids, as some of our teenagers were playing football with some of the kids at the school, and as our band provided live music, the teachers looked around and said, “This really is a new Tyner.” Do you see it! They are recognizing that things are being made new. That their school is being transformed it is becoming better than it was before.
This is what it is all about because sooner are later they will also recognize that this newness comes when heaven touches earth. That it is a result of the one who has overcome death, hell, and the grave. The one who is redeeming His broken world; Jesus our Lord, to Him be all the glory forever, Amen.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)