A burning question for believers

About fifteen of us sat together for almost three hours as we wrestled with the question: how do we make a radical difference in the spiritual growth of the next generation? The group included children’s workers, youth leaders and pastors, and senior pastors from various churches. We all agreed that we need to invest in the young people God entrusts to our churches. Everyone felt that mentoring and discipleship was the key. There was also a clear, rather desperate, consensus that the youth and children’s leaders and pastors cannot accomplish this by themselves. So the stumper question of the day ended up being: How do we help others in the church see the need, commit their time and experience, and help them know how to go about it? How do we involve others in the discipleship process?


We did not leave with a clear-cut solution. We left with more questions than answers. But we left convinced that somehow we need to find the answer.


What do you think? Please post your comments—the difference this discussion makes could be radical!

God sees

Recently I’ve spent a lot of time in the book of Ruth. One thing that strikes me is how obvious it is that God saw and rewarded her daily choices to do the right thing—often the hard thing. She went far beyond in her commitment to her mother-in-law, not only vowing to stick with her until death, but following through by providing for her with the hard work of gleaning. Although Boaz first noticed her because of the commitment she had made (2:11), her faithfulness caused him to observe that everyone knew that she was a woman of noble character (3:10-11). Her daily choices paid off.

We all know that God sees our sins and failures, but are we really convinced that He also sees and rewards our hard daily choices to obey Him? How can we communicate this concept to the girls we disciple? We can encourage them that God sees them and rewards faithfulness. And we must always remember that our girls see us and notice the integrity of our daily choices.