It’s Your Job

Having been a youth pastor for around 18 years before becoming a senior pastor I am constantly concerned about, and thinking about reaching young people with the message of Christ. The truth is that if we don’t reach each generation the message is left behind, and the Gospel won’t have the impact that it should. That may seem to be a pessimistic point of view, but it is a point of view that is backed up by the Bible itself. The Book of Judges doesn’t paint a pretty picture. It is a book that shows a nation gone wrong in Israel. They abandoned the Lord and His Word. They had the Law sitting in front of them. They had the words and commands of Joshua to guide them, and somehow they still fail miserably. The question to ask here is, how did they manage to fail so spectacularly?

The reason for this failure is found in Judges chapter 2. Judges 2:10 says, “After that generation died, another generation grew up who did not acknowledge the Lord or remember the mighty things He had done for Israel.” Why did they not acknowledge the Lord and what He had done? As I ponder this thought I continually come back to the idea of one generation passing on faith in God to the next generation. Scripture doesn’t really give us a clear answer about how the generation that crossed the Jordan River and started the conquest of the Promised Land went about teaching their children about God. Whatever they did it’s obvious they failed. I can’t stress enough the importance of parents effectively teaching their children about their faith. We get specific guidance about this from the Bible. Deuteronomy 11:18-19 says, “So commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these words of mine. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. 19 Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.” Did the Israelites do this? I’m not sure, but there had to be a reason that this generation failed to continue to follow God after the amazing things that He had done from Egypt, to the wilderness, and then to the Promised Land.

This passage in Judges made me think about Christian families in Western countries. Are we passing on our faith on to the next generation? I remember being a little boy and my Paw Paw making me read the Christmas story out loud to the whole family as soon as I could read. I had to use the King James Version no less. It was a daunting task for a seven year old to get all those old English words right in front of 20 people. I learned to pray from him as well. I would listen to him pray with my Maw Maw at night when I would visit them. I stayed with them often. I loved the time I spent with them. I would be on my knees next to the bed while he sat on the bed holding my Maw Maw’s hand praying to close the day. My mother made church attendance and reading the Bible an important part of my life. She would read the Bible with me when I was little, and then ask me what I read when I got older. Church attendance was one of the most important things in my life. I didn’t always want to get up and go to Sunday School, but it was part of what my family did, and as I got older it became something I did because I wanted to go. It became a part of who I was. When I was a little boy my mom got me my own box of offering envelopes from the church. Every week I put money in one. It wasn’t much money. It was often just a dollar, but that’s a lot of money for a six year old. Praying, reading the Bible, church attendance, and even giving were things that I was taught about, and had modeled for me by those closest to me. I think that was foundational for me, and it was the right way to go about it.

We as a society have changed the way we parent over the last 100 years. Children’s lives were much more centered around what the family was doing in previous generations. Today I feel the family is much more scattered. Everyone is pulled in a thousand different directions. Modern American families tend to outsource many things for our kids. We outsource education. We outsource sports training, and I believe many families are outsourcing spiritual development as well. This sounds harsh, and it’s not intended to make anyone feel bad, but it is important to tackle things head on even when they may be uncomfortable. The church is not the main place the spiritual development of a child should happen.

The church should be a place that augments what is already happening at home. It is a partner that comes in and backs a parent up. It is a place that should be a resource to help you as a parent when you have a question in this area. A good church will have teachers and leaders in a children’s ministry that simply say mom and dad are right. It’s another voice that is reinforcing what they are learning at home by word and by deed from their parent. You can’t outsource this part of your children’s lives. You may not be able to teach them a curveball, but you can teach them what it means to love their neighbor as themselves. You may not be able to teach them ballet, but you can teach them about the cross. You may not have all the answers to all of life’s questions, but your kids need to hear about faith in God from you as a parent. Let Deuteronomy 11:18-19 be your guide as a parent. Take charge of your children’s spiritual development. Be the Godly leader your children need.