Wholehearted Effort
The Importance of a Wholehearted Effort to Disciple the Next Generation
The Scriptures clearly teach that parents carry the responsibility of discipling their children, & that the church is not meant to take that primary responsibility away from parents. The church – composed of but not limited to adults, leaders, SS teachers, Children’s Ministries, and Student Ministries – serves as a support and supplement to reinforce what parents are teaching their children.
Think about the inability for Sundays and Wednesday to sufficiently nurture spiritual growth by themselves. Think about how much time kids and teenagers spend at school, at home, at their extracurricular activities, and exposed to media outlets if they are. Yet, the church at most takes 3 hours of their entire week. How in the world can the church compete with everything else?
The most important reality for us to acknowledge is that passivity is not an option. I have heard it said, “It is not a matter of whether or not the next generation is being discipled, but who is doing the discipling?” Is it us or the world? Is it us or is it their classmates and teammates? Is it us or whoever they watch on social media and youtube?
When we don’t make a full-fledged effort together, the world is not passively waiting for a moment, but is constantly pushing wherever there are gaps. In Daniel 1, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon invades Jerusalem and seizes control of the central city of Judah. What is the first group of people that Nebuchadnezzar targets first?
He says, “bring some of the Israelites from the royal family and from the nobility – young men without any physical defect, good-looking, suitable for instruction in all wisdom, knowledgeable, perceptive, and capable of serving in the king’s palace.” (Daniel 1:3–4)
Nebuchadnezzar orders Ashpenaz to bring the best and greatest of teenagers, the next generation. Those who have the greatest potential to be of an impact in their generation and Nebuchadnezzar harnesses for his own purposes. Where Judah’s sins had made them passive, Nebuchadnezzar, as worldly a king as one could get, seizes the opportunity and what does he do?
He was to teach them the Chaldean language and literature. The king assigned them daily provisions from the royal food and from the wine that he drank. They were to be trained for three years, and at the end of that time they were to attend the king. (Daniel 1:4–5)
Furthermore, he gives them Babylonian names! He takes God’s young people from Judah and looks to disciple them to become Babylonians. Families, brothers and sisters, let us not let the Babylons of our generation take our young people out from under us. Let us continue to make a wholehearted effort to disciple the next generation together!
