Opening
Whether or not the people in your groups are parents, take time as a group to consider the people of the next generation who are in your life. Write their names down. What are they worth? Why do they matter to God? Prayerfully consider where you should shift how you are investing in them.
Overview
God entrusts the elder generations to develop the emerging generations to worship and obey Him. Being part of the elder generation does not mean you are a parent; it means you have life experience and influence in the lives of those younger than you. This framework goes against what culture often tells us; culture considers parents to be friends, parents to be incompetent, and parents to be dangerous when they teach faith.
Instead, God’s blessings pervades church communities when each generations honors, forgives, and improves upon their elders. The elders’ chief work is raise passionate Jesus followers for the family, the church, and the nations. It is the job of the older generations to show and tell the younger generations how to live as Jesus lived.
Discussion Questions
- Did your elder generation raise you up to follow Jesus?
- In what ways are you modeling and passing along the faith we share?
Practice
Deuteronomy 6 4 “Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. 5 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. 6 And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. 7 Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. 8 Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. 9 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Prayerfully read the Scripture passage out loud. What does it look like to commit yourself wholeheartedly to following Jesus? List particulars and specifics; don’t be vague.
Who are the children and young people you are investing in? Where and how do you repeat the way of Jesus over and over to them?
Share ideas for how we can reshape our own lives to continually consider what it means to follow Jesus and then to do that out loud and in front of the younger generation. It takes a full commitment from the elders to pass along the faith.
Practice for the week
Take that list of names that you assembled in the opening exercises and share them with the group. Commit to praying for those in the next generation every day this week, even if it’s a name or two each day.
Closing
Pray over the names that your group listed and then pray for a deep, abiding faith for the people in your group. May we become a people who deepen and multiply as disciples of Jesus.
