What a great Sunday we had at the church! The young people that stood before us and received their baptisms and/or confirmations represent some of the finest this age group has to offer. They are current and future leaders in their schools, they are active participants in our ministries here at the church, and most importantly, they desire to have some big God questions answered for their lives. They have high expectations for the church and I was privilege to spent time with them.
Let me share with you a little about these future leaders of our world and church. As you probably already know, those confirmed on Sunday attend the Marlow schools. Their hobbies remain very typical for twelve and thirteen year olds. They like to play sports—basketball, football, golf, track, soccer—as well as collecting frogs (can you guess which one wrote that?), building model trains, dancing, cooking, showing pigs, playing a guitar or drums, and of course watching TV and talking on the phone. Very ordinary wouldn’t you say?
Because of their age, this group of confirmands falls into the Generation Z category as social scientist try to classify ages, traits, mindsets, and social patterns of people. So what does that mean? Simply, Generation Z is the most socially connected group because of rapid advancements in media technologies such as cell phones, the internet, and instant messaging. They are even being referred to as “digital natives” since they are no longer tethered to a home computer or TV, instead they carry with them a variety of instant access to peers, news, information, and even entertainment through their MP3 players, phones, and video games devices.
What does all this mean for the church? I content that we have our work cut out for us. We can no longer expect a generation to walk in our footsteps because they have few options. No, the world is open to them – all the good and positive aspects of it along with the all the insidious schemes of agnostic and atheistic minds to further corrupt the hearts of people. We have to become even more intentional in displaying our faith and demonstrate the difference our own relationship with Jesus Christ means in our daily lives. We have become creative in our message and practical in our articulation of faith. Life happens on a myriad of levels instead of just a few.
The world will use every proverbial bell and whistle to distract these young people from the truth in God’s Word. The Lord knows they already have so many competing voices around them that they don’t need any more. That is why I think it is so important that we the church (you and me) not simply recite a few words pledging our support for them, but we put the words into practice. Specifically, “we renew our covenant faithfully to participate in the ministries of the church by our prayers, our presence, our gifts, our service, and also our witness, that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.”
We have to show them that a personal faith and specific practice of faith means something more than an hour here or there. They way these young people will make their faith become real and vital for their lives is for faith to become real and vital in our lives. Someone telling them what to do doesn’t inspire this young generation, they get inspired by others showing what to do and how to do it. The best way to welcome these young Christians to the faith is by walking beside them each and every day so the get a glimpse of what Kingdom living is all about.
I will see you at the great expectation place on Sunday,
Travis
