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Making Way For The Younger Generation
by Stephanie Parker
Chagas
If people hadn’t been patient with me, given me teaching,
encouragement and opportunity to develop my spiritual life to
this day, I doubt I would be here writing these words, and if
this is a reality for you, you most probably wouldn’t be
reading them either!
We all need someone to walk alongside us on our spiritual
journey, encouraging, teaching, and holding us accountable.
Who has been the person, or the people, who have influenced
and supported you, taken time to hear what you have to say and
pressed you on?
We know that the Bible has powerful examples of God-inspired
actions that show how people helped each other develop. Jesus
and His disciples, Barnabas and Paul, Paul and Timothy, Naomi
and Ruth, Elijah and Elisha, Moses and Joshua, Deborah and
Barak, Elizabeth and Mary (the mother of Jesus), and many
others.
These relationships demonstrate a sense
of continuity, development and transformation through modelled
leadership, integral lifestyle and commitment to the one
another.
Just as we have received, how are we influencing and mentoring
the younger generation, teaching them to be passionate about
Jesus, to love and serve their neighbour and delight in the
everlasting pleasures of life? If they do not see and hear,
how will they know?
A longing
We live in the digital age. The content is out there and we
search for it. Society pushes us on to having whatever comes
our way and not being left behind. So we have to do a lot of
internet research to know what the trend is!
However, it can be so frustrating and tiresome to always have
to have everything new, the latest electronic product and
survive on momentaneous pleasures. It’s draining, and people
easily become tired of “things”, always looking for a new
message.
Therefore, one of the pros related to the weariness of a
post-modern world is that the gospel of Jesus becomes a balm
to the chaotic, instant, shallow changes of life.
People start to realize that what the media offers, a crazy
work lifestyle and transitory relationships, just aren’t
enough to fill the gaps our souls long for. A space is opened
for something deep, for the roots to grow and firm themselves.
Many young people have experienced or are experiencing this
and are longing for a change. Fed up of being part of the
crowd and wanting to stand up for what they truly believe in,
they engage with the rewards received in the kingdom-building
business.
Their souls are waking up “to the realisation of the fact that
they belong to God, and that He has sent them into the world
not to look after their own little petty, personal interests
but to devote themselves to the promotion of His, and that, in
doing this, they will find happiness, usefulness, and glory”.
(Catherine Booth, Practical Religion, p.28)*
Catherine Booth wrote these words at the end of the 19th
century to direct parents in the upbringing of their children,
but this is an ever constant responsibility of the Church
towards its younger generation to stay alive and renewed.
Walk beside
In 1st and 2nd Timothy we see how Paul
was confident about encouraging his younger assistant to rise
above the issue of being young.
“Do not neglect your gift, which was given to you through
prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you. Be
diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so
that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and
doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you
will save both yourself and your hearers” (1 Timothy 4:14-16).
Again in the same book (p.27-28) Catherine Booth is very clear
in the direction that should be given to the way the “sons and
daughters” are to be instructed if they are to be the Lord’s:
Regarding sons –
“if you want your children to be the Lord’s when they grow up,
if you want your boy to withstand the unknown temptations of
the future, if you want him to come out a man of righteous
principle, integrity and honour, superior to all the
doubleness, chicanery and devilry of the world, you must train
him to look upon all the world’s prizes as dross compared with
the joy of a pure conscience and a life of usefulness to his
fellow-men”.
Regarding daughters –
“If you want your daughter to be a true woman, willing to
sacrifice and to suffer in the interests of humanity and
truth, you must inspire her now with contempt for the baubles
for which so many women barter their lives and their souls.
You must teach her that she is an independent, responsible
being, whom God will call to as severe a reckoning for the use
or abuse of her talents as that of her brother man”.
Maybe there is someone that automatically comes to mind who
you do already walk beside. If not, ask the Spirit to place a
spiritual child on your heart and then intentionally commit to
being responsible for their spiritual development.
-
Establish a relationship.
Building on shared experiences and weaknesses constructs a
sense of trust and mutual respect. For this to happen,
time needs to be invested, whether it be long or short,
the quality is the most important aspect.
-
Make time and discover their passions.
Do we take time to actually hear the desires, dreams,
frustrations and fears that dwell in the hearts and minds
of children and youth? Make time for them, whether it be
over coffee or spending some extra time after the Sunday
meeting to talk to them and listen. Young people want to
be loved, they want to feel that they fit in, that they
belong, are heard and respected.
-
Build up their faith.
Encourage them through recommended reading, share your
personal experience, give them spiritual disciplines to
practice, maybe start a small study group. There’s no need
to come up with something new! Today the internet gives so
many options on interesting and creative resources for
spiritual life development and youth.
-
Give responsibilities.
Whether it be assisting in a Sunday School class, helping
to prepare food parcels, leading a devotional time and so
much more. There is nothing more rewarding than overcoming
a challenge. Help them to achieve something that might
have seemed difficult and then watch them strive to go
further in the faith and develop their gifts!
*
The 1891 edition of Practical Religion is available in
different formats at:
http://www.archive.org/details/papersonpractica00boot
The
time has come
May it be of encouragement that today, thousands of young
Salvationists around the world unite in saying that they want
something fresh, they want the Scriptures to come alive, to be
transformed by the Spirit, to be like Christ, to cause an
impact, to help, to serve, to live a life full of purpose and
substance that will last for all eternity and to be helped on
the journey.
Before Elijah was taken up to the heavens he asked Elisha
“Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?”.
Elisha replied “Let me inherit a double portion of your
spirit,” (2 Kings 2:9). Elisha witnessed the kind of man
Elijah had been and what he went through and desired so much
more than his leader had had.
May it be so today that young people are equipped enough to
know what they have to do because they would have had such
Godly examples, are fed by the Word, recognize God’s voice
through prayer and intimate relationship with him and are sent
out by the power of the Spirit to endeavour and accomplish
greater things.
“But
as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become
convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it,
and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which
are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in
Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for
teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
so that the servant of God[a] may be thoroughly equipped for
every good work” - 2 Timothy 3:14-17
Stephanie Parker Chagas
Centre for Spiritual Life Development
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