The Baby & The Bathwater – Build a Strong Church - Friday
Today’s Verse
Philippians 1:3-6
I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (NLT)
Serving middle schoolers and high schoolers is a sanctifying and humbling experience. What do I mean? Well, if you go into it with a plan and expectation on how you’re going to have all the right answers and perspectives you’ll be proven wrong. Students have a wild way of pivoting from massive theological and apologetic questions and discussions to completely off-the-wall hypotheticals. Here are two topics I’ve covered on the same night to help illustrate this:
What do you think about “once saved always saved” and what’s the deal with people talking about unforgivable sins?
When your baby is born (happening Tuesday - Pray for us!) do we become uncles?
Today’s verse is something I have talked about when writing before, but I think is even more poignant with Paul’s writing to Philippi. Paul is writing to a young church that is facing cultural pressure to compromise and indulge in worldly behavior. Paul doesn’t pander to the struggles of the church there, or apologize for their circumstances. Rather, Paul goes on the offense in some ways, as he does to a lot of the early churches, and reinforces the importance of the church. He also reinforces the presence of the Lord in their lives. The early churches were in a specific place, for a specific purpose. The same can be said for the next generation.
The next generation, or generations, aren’t an accident. Just like the Philippian, Colossae, and other churches, these generations are here for an important reason. One of the things I’ve seen come to the surface over the past 10 years of volunteering with kids is the apology provided for the time in which they were born. In today’s verse from Philippians, Paul says he thanks God when he remembers the church there. I’ve seen how impactful it can be to acknowledge the plan, provision, and purpose for a student’s life, compared to piling onto their insecurities by expressing essentially regret for what they’re living through.
There are tons of ways to serve the next generation at Southland. This week, we've talked about mentoring, Children’s Ministry, and Student Ministry. No matter where you're at, there's a place for you to get involved. Start a conversation with us today and be part of strengthening the church through the next generation.
REFLECTION
How can you encourage and support the students in your church or community this week? We’d be grateful to have a conversation about serving with students at Southland - start that here!
