The Third Generation: Another Option

I had a thought on the third generation curse today. We always look down on the third generation as lazy or unmotivated or downright evil. But I have another option for them.

Could it be that the third generation, without the experience of their parents, find their way following another path? They aren't drinking and carousing and chasing skirts. They are busy studying and preparing for their trip through university and onto the career path. Selling out for Jesus was their parents path of discipleship. Becoming a Christian professional is their chosen path. They want to be a Christian doctor or lawyer or teacher or business leader. They want to bring Jesus into their professional world. Sure there will be small compromises, but they will survive. They will even attend church regularly. They will not join in street preaching, but they will pay their tithes.

The third generation will never be their parents. They do not see the point. Their world view is so different than ours. Can we help them, can we minister to them, or will we write them off and focus on a world that died in the 1970's?

The Real Test

Some pastors wear their hearts on their sleeves. What they feel is obvious to all around them. Other pastors keep their personal feelings under wraps. No one is quite sure what they feel or what motivates them. Pastor Mitchell kept his personal ideas to himself. We knew his politics at election time, but not in an odious way. I wonder how pastor Mitchell would have handled the current political landscape and the man currently serving in Washington DC.

My thought is, if you can control your feelings and emotions, then good for you. If you can't then maybe you ought not to let your personal feelings drive your inspiration in preaching. If you are reading or watching or listening to media that inflames your ideology, maybe you ought to stop,  especially when you have to preach. 

The real test of a local church is can we make followers of Jesus Christ, or are we trying to make political activists? Can we minister to people who vote different than we do? Can we minister to people who hold opposing ideologies?

I had a friend in Prescott who was a moderate Democrat in a church full of conservative Republicans. I would ask him how that made him feel. He told me it goes in one ear and out the other. Pastors could learn a lesson and let radical politics go in one ear and out the other. Or not let it go in one ear at all maybe?

Pray for your pastor.

Where Is Everybody?

 The Fermi paradox basically says, given the vast number of stars and the age of the universe, where is everybody? How can we have never been able to contact any technologically advanced civilizations? One thing this implies might be a failure of evolution to explain the origin of the universe.

We live on what they call the Rare Earth model. Earth is so unique in several important ways. We are in a universe that, towards Earth, has proven to be stable. We have a sun that has been stable. We have a stable climate that supports life. It almost like Earth is perfect for living things.

Where is everybody? They are all right here. We live in a perfect world with perfect circumstance surrounded by the glory of God in the universe. 

To be an atheist is to be dishonest. An atheist has a moral problem, not a scientific one. They seem to be the blind leading the blind.

Are You Listening?

 "For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." Jer. 29:11

This verse came to me this morning as I was meditating on life and my future in God. I am grateful that God still speaks and that His word still ministers to us when we are listening.

It really is a living hope that the Lord has given us.

Are you listening? You may hear His still, small voice speaking peace to your heart today.

The Third Generation Curse

 Why does the third generation sell the farm? This phenomenon is well documented and well researched. It is sometimes called the third generation curse. This happens whether you are talking about the family farm or a family business or even a local church.

To sum it up it goes like this. The founders build it, the second generation maintains what the founders built, and the third generation squanders it all away. 

I have an idea that I have been thinking about concerning churches. The founding pastor built it, the next generation tries to maintain the pattern, and the following generation lacks the drive and the vision of the founder so they let it all fade away.

Another problem has to do with evolving market conditions. What worked then might not work now. But the founders set the pattern so that we are unwilling to change anything or to overhaul anything. There is a growing lack of innovation. And fresh ideas of how to do what we do are rarely discussed.

Sometimes the generation is people, but sometimes the generation is just the passing of time. We have not been around long enough to see a widespread passing of the torch to a new generation. But the world today is vastly different from the world when your church was first planted.

One more thing. Sometimes the second generation is so dogmatic on following the pattern that they set unattainable standards for everyone else. They make the demands so tough to follow that some will give up and fade away. They are so focused on one thing that they fail to see anything else.

We traffic in ancient truths. It is our job to find out what God is doing today and to do that. We need to make ancient truth relevant to the modern world.

What Triggers Revival?

 Back in the early days in Prescott I recall that pastor Mitchell rarely preached a sermon on witnessing or evangelism. He didn't need to very often. One sign of genuine revival is an eagerness to witness. Everything is so fresh and new and exciting. Personal evangelism was not a common topic of sermons in the early days of revival.

We in our Fellowship seem to have a new crop of leaders who are focused like a laser beam on witnessing and evangelism. They see evangelism in every Bible text. They preach evangelism in every sermon. It seems to be always on their minds. Not that they spend their days on the street witnessing. But since evangelism is no longer an outworking of real revival, they think that by forcing the issue they can spark revival again.

I suspect that pastor Mitchell probably preached on evangelism more in regional conferences than he did at home. So you that only knew him from your conferences did not know that well rounded ministry that flowed through him. At the end of his life pastor Mitchell did not focus on evangelism or witnessing.

It seems to be only those who were saved in revival and who now are leaders and who think that the very early days are the norm for the whole spectrum of the life of faith. They have become the hammer who thinks everything is a nail. They only know one way to live and they ignore the fact that we cannot live like that forever.

So we support the vision and we pray for workers and we give to outreach even though we can no longer participate in any of that.

One more thought. Revival is a Divine work of God. It may be triggered by prayer. But it is never triggered by evangelism. Never.

Study To Show Yourself Approved

To study to show yourself approved in the Bible there are some things that every person needs to know. Whether you are a preacher or a layman, There are well worn tools that men have used for hundreds of years to study the Bible. 

First, study the Bible. Let the Bible speak for itself. Do not try to make the Bible be something that it is not.  If God is talking about marriage, then study marriage. If God is talking about money, then study money. The Bible is a book of words. Learn the definition of words. Try to find the truth that is not always obvious. But above all, read and then study the Bible.

Second, study your subject. With Google at your fingertips there is no excuse to get your basic facts wrong. If you are a preacher I can guarantee that someone in your audience is fact checking your statements on their phone. If you are interested in flora and fauna, then know more about plants and animals than a kindergartener. If you are interested in a subject, put in the time to learn about that subject. I have learned more since I got out of school just by studying subject first proposed by Bible study.

Finally, hear from God. Study with an eye on the one to whom we must give an account. Rightly divide the Word by study. Bible study does not require you to be a PHD in theology. God makes it available to anyone who will put in the work to know what the Bible says.

"Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." 2Tim.2:15