Multi-Generational Believers

[Amazing Grace]

In a recent consistory meeting, I brought up the point that our church does not have many 'MG" families of believers. This is the main reason why I led the charge to close 4 of the New York churches. I would like to address this with the congregation, but need prayer and discernment how to approach it. The 'blue hairs' would assuredly get ticked off if I asked them why none of their children worship the Lord. Is there a way to broach this subject without hurting the blue hairs that have come for 50+ years?

 

[PuritanCovenanter]

By multi-generational I would also assume that that doesn't necessarily have to be relational. Are you just addressing a fact that the Churches you are wondering about are just a bunch of older comfortable Christians with very little presence of younger participants in worship?

The reason I ask is because younger families tend to move to other areas where their parents and grandparents don't live.

 

[Amazing Grace]

By multi-generational I would also assume that that doesn't necessarily have to be relational. Are you just addressing a fact that the Churches you are wondering about are just a bunch of older comfortable Christians with very little presence of younger participants in worship?

The reason I ask is because younger families tend to move to other areas where their parents and grandparents don't live.

Martin: I am using MG to mean families. We have, and the Churches I am part of reorganizing in New York do not have MG families attending, and they do live in the area. Believers children are either not believers or do not participate in worship. The 85 yr old blue hairs go, but their children and grandchildren do not. I am wondering if this is common everywhere.

 

[Contra_Mundum]

Robert,
What purpose will the discussion serve? Are you seeking consolidation between more than one congregation, the more effectively to mininster to a broader range of ages? Something else?

Observing a "symptom" and bringing it up for general discussion may not be the best way to minister to the folks who are still in the church.

I guess, what I'm saying is--it seems to this outsider, a lot like bringing up the palsy to the crippled. Yes, sometimes if it seems as though the afflicted lives like he's oblivious to his condition. And if you can bring it to his attention, then perhaps he could be motivated to address it. But what if the cure is beyond his own capacity? And dwelling on the issue only brings depression?

My guess is that some of the elderly wish they could go back and rewrite the past, and others haven't ever thought much of it (their religious habit was formed outwardly very young, and they have kept it, but never worried much about similar habits for their children).

For those in the former category, perhaps you can encourage them to start now (never too late) to pray for their children and grandchildren. Pray, confessing their previous laxity, and wrestling with God for the souls of their loved ones. Start the spiritual exercise machine. It may be too late to train for the Boston Marathon, but our spirits do not have the same limitations as our bodies. We can die in ROBUST spiritual condition, entering eternity at the height (not the depth) of our spiritual strength.

In other words, be of deepest concern for the well-being of your present congregation. And pray that God would build inside them concern for their own spiritual growth, as well as that of the ones around them. If they grow in grace, it will have effects on those around them.

And if it is "too late" (in the secret providence of God) for any observable impact on those too far off, remember what our prayer is ultimately for. It isn't for the objects of our prayer. It isn't for the spoken-ends.

It is for the pray-er. If he never receives what he "wanted" from God, he will receive what he "needs" from God, which is to draw near, and strengthen his own communion with God. The reason those children drifted away had something (humanly speaking) to do with the former ambivalence they observed in their parents toward divine things. The present "trial" of seeing their children adrift might be the occasion God intended to call the elderly into a truer relation to him.

Our happiness and complacency in the Lord should not rest upon any specific answers to our prayers, but in the Lord himself. Or else HE is not our object! We simply want to USE him to get the true object of our devotion.

God is calling the "blue-hairs," and he has been calling to them for a long, long time. They have been coming to the place where his Voice has been sounding most clearly in their lives (church). But perhaps they have not been listening well.

We don't know if he's calling to their children or not. In any case, they are not even coming to the place where they can hear that Voice clearly. But if the elderly will perk up their ears, and if they will seek their own spiritual interest, they will be moved to seek it for the others also.

 

[Amazing Grace]

Robert,
What purpose will the discussion serve? Are you seeking consolidation between more than one congregation, the more effectively to mininster to a broader range of ages? Something else?

Observing a "symptom" and bringing it up for general discussion may not be the best way to minister to the folks who are still in the church.

I guess, what I'm saying is--it seems to this outsider, a lot like bringing up the palsy to the crippled. Yes, sometimes if it seems as though the afflicted lives like he's oblivious to his condition. And if you can bring it to his attention, then perhaps he could be motivated to address it. But what if the cure is beyond his own capacity? And dwelling on the issue only brings depression?

My guess is that some of the elderly wish they could go back and rewrite the past, and others haven't ever thought much of it (their religious habit was formed outwardly very young, and they have kept it, but never worried much about similar habits for their children).

For those in the former category, perhaps you can encourage them to start now (never too late) to pray for their children and grandchildren. Pray, confessing their previous laxity, and wrestling with God for the souls of their loved ones. Start the spiritual exercise machine. It may be too late to train for the Boston Marathon, but our spirits do not have the same limitations as our bodies. We can die in ROBUST spiritual condition, entering eternity at the height (not the depth) of our spiritual strength.

In other words, be of deepest concern for the well-being of your present congregation. And pray that God would build inside them concern for their own spiritual growth, as well as that of the ones around them. If they grow in grace, it will have effects on those around them.

And if it is "too late" (in the secret providence of God) for any observable impact on those too far off, remember what our prayer is ultimately for. It isn't for the objects of our prayer. It isn't for the spoken-ends.

It is for the pray-er. If he never receives what he "wanted" from God, he will receive what he "needs" from God, which is to draw near, and strengthen his own communion with God. The reason those children drifted away had something (humanly speaking) to do with the former ambivalence they observed in their parents toward divine things. The present "trial" of seeing their children adrift might be the occasion God intended to call the elderly into a truer relation to him.

Our happiness and complacency in the Lord should not rest upon any specific answers to our prayers, but in the Lord himself. Or else HE is not our object! We simply want to USE him to get the true object of our devotion.

God is calling the "blue-hairs," and he has been calling to them for a long, long time. They have been coming to the place where his Voice has been sounding most clearly in their lives (church). But perhaps they have not been listening well.

We don't know if he's calling to their children or not. In any case, they are not even coming to the place where they can hear that Voice clearly. But if the elderly will perk up their ears, and if they will seek their own spiritual interest, they will be moved to seek it for the others also.

Bruce: I give a hearty Amen to all you said. My point in doing this is to look within our body and see if we are doing everything possible to have MG families worship together. Have we failed in this endeavor? We have so many faithful older generation people whose children and grandchildren are not believers. This bothers me, yet I know it is not in any mans power to control. Yet, is this something that can be addressed? And again, is this common? Do you pastor many MG families?

 

[Scottish Lass]

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