One Generation Away

 August 30, 2023

“One generation shall praise your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts.” —Psalm 145:4

It’s been said that the Church is only one generation away from extinction. This psalm gives the only remedy for such a terrible fate, and yet few Christians have ever shared their faith with even a single other person. Churches sometimes die because the community around them has disappeared. In my corner of the country, I have witnessed more than one once-thriving congregation that simply withered away as people moved away and what was once a vibrant small community simply vanished. 

However, far more churches have died not because the community disappeared, but because the members of the congregation just assumed the pastor or someone else would take care of the Christian education. Their own commitment to the faith was hit-and-miss and there was no instruction of their children in the home. If children grow up seeing that their parents aren’t serious about Christ, that other activities and interests trump worship; if they see their parents saying one thing on Sundays and living by an entirely different ethos Monday through Saturday; if they never see their parents studying the Scriptures, praying, going out of their way to serve others, the parents’ profession wears pretty thin.

My parents weren’t the best at leading us in prayer and Bible reading. They tried, but those times together were often awkward. There was no question however, about their faithfulness in worship and the integrity by which they lived their lives. I remember times when they made deliberate and difficult decisions that “put their money where their mouths were,” so to speak. 

We don’t have to be perfect, but it is imperative that the faith we profess we also transmit to our children in both word and deed. If we fail here, the judgment of Judges 2 may be our fate:

“When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which He had done for Israel. Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals…And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel. So He delivered them into the hands of plunderers who despoiled them; and He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies.”

—Judges 2:10-11, 14 

I have often failed and am far from perfect in this regard, but it is my earnest desire to be able to someday stand before the Lord and say, 

“Here am I, and the children whom God has given Me.”

—Hebrews 2:13