Ends and Beginnings

I haven't posted in about a 5 or 6 days now and the reason is that much has happened in between then and now. Our church has lost 2 faithful and priceless men in exactly a weeks time. Both left the tent of their earthly bodies and went to be with Christ. They're waiting even now for the resurrection. Both happened suddenly and surprisingly although neither was totally unexpected. As I left the hospital about 3 am Monday morning I had the thought in my head that a church is just a generation away from extinction (or something like that). As we lose those pillars of our local church we lose a wealth of experience, wisdom, and faithfulness. But if we open our eyes we'll find that we've not lost it, but now have an opportunity to use it. The way to honor the memory of the faithful ones who've gone before us is to move forward ourselves. To reach out and exert our energy in reproducing a younger generation of disciples to carry the work forward. It's always been this way. When one moves on, another can step in and carry the torch.

I examined myself and our church to see if we were doing everything we could to make disciples in the generations below those great older members. The question, "Are we multi-generationally friendly" if that makes sense, is an important and difficult question. How do we move on without forgetting what happened before us? How do we honor those still among us while evolving our methods to reach the next generations? That's an age old question that I'd love to know the answer to.

All I know is that in one week we saw 2 ends and 3 beginnings. While we mourn the loss of the 2 dear men whom everyone loved, we had an opportunity to see the spiritual journey of 3 young believers get a kick start on Sunday night as they passed through the waters of baptism. It was a joy to see them follow Christ in obedience to His command. Now the real work begins. The work of taking new converts to Jesus and showing them how their spiritual conversion looks in their everyday life. That's really discipleship. Showing and teaching people to look more like the master each day in all the thousands of regular things we do.

I will miss these 2 men that went on before me. I knew both only about 9 months, but they left a mark. Will the generation that follows have the chance to leave a similar mark? To care about the work of the ministry going on at Little Mountain enough to sacrifice to take part in it? I despair sometimes because I know I can't make that happen. Yet at the same time, God faithfully lets me know it was never my joy to "make" anything happen. He'll be faithful to take care of that. I'm responsible to faithfully do what I can do. Pray for our church. Pray that God would raise up a mighty army of faithful men and women to transform and change not only ourselves but our community and world.