Orange, Day 1

T.S. Elliot said, "Think not forever of yourselves, O Chiefs, nor of your own generation.  Think of continuing generations of our families,think of our grandchildren and of those yet unborn, whose faces are coming from beneath the ground."

Every generation has two critical responsibilities:

1.  To leverage the efforts and ideas of the generation that came before it

2.  To fuel the innovations and faith of the generation that is coming behind it.

Psalm 78: 4-7 says:

We will not hide them from their descendants;

we will tell the next generation

the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord,

his power, and the wonders he has done.

He decreed statutes for Jacob

and established the law in Israel,

which he commanded our ancestors

to teach their children,

so the next generation would know them,

even the children yet to be born,

and they in turn would tell their children.

Then they would put their trust in God

and would not forget his deeds

but would keep his commands.

We are called to carry on and pass on a passionate faith.  The fuel to press on comes from our calling to be a link in the faith chain that not only maintains our closeness to God but expands to those who don't know Him; in this generation and those yet to come.  That means we must get out of our comfort zone and into the messiness that happens when we spread the Gospel.

We must design a strategy that combines family with the faith community to demonstrate the message of God's story, in order to influence the next generation.  That's exactly what we are in the process of doing at LSCC.

We already have a mission.  Now we need a strategy.  I ask you, parents, grandparents, children's ministry volunteers, to pray that God would give us a sense of urgency and clarity on what our strategy is.

More to come....