I'm praying for my grands...

This is a post I've been piecing together. Yesterday I actually put the pieces together but was just sitting on it. So strange that last night at our lifegroup our sharing was wrapped around these very things.  Changes that make us uncomfortable, that bring out the best and worst in us. Hearing from others that feel much like the things I had written, makes me go ahead and post this this morning. You may agree. You may disagree. But it's worth the conversation I believe. Therefore here goes...Times change. Sometimes more quickly than we want or like. Some are good. Some are bad. Sometimes, it just is what it is. Churches change. Church is different now than when I was a kid and it's very different from when my parents were kids. Again some good... I actually love today's church. I loved it when I was a kid. I believe I'll love it in the future from what little I can grasp of the direction it's headed. I can tell you the change I love a lot. It seems like the younger generation now is much less interested n sitting around talking and more interested in doing. They seem to really "get it" when it comes to church.  Now I'm a HUGE believer in bible study and classes that teach us. I lead women's ministry and bible studies are a huge part of that. But I've told my bible study classes and discipleship classes that I've led through the years that if all we do is fill our heads with information and what we know doesn't filter down into what we do, it's all pointless. The point of knowing scripture is to live it and share it. Some of us have sat in enough classes and under enough teaching to have earned a dozen PHDs but it's not being lived out. We have sat through countless sermons and discipleship classes on how to share our faith but we've never done it. We've suffered anxiety and perhaps cried over lost friends, family members or associates, but we've never opened our mouth to talk to them about Jesus. At some point our being discipled needs to turn into discipling others. We know what to do we just don't do it. My generation seems much more content with sitting and soaking, loving on programs and traditions, being entertained, than the one I see coming up. I've worked with high school and college age students for years now teaching and discipling them and I see a fresh passion to turn what they know into action. Most of us need to stay out of their way and let em at it.  I heard someone say that when Bobby Bowden was asked if kids had changed a lot since he first started coaching and he said no, the parents have. We want the school to teach them but we don't support the teacher when our angel messes up. We want the government to protect them until society needs to be protected from them. And we want the church to entertain them and program them to death and disciple them because we don't want to do that ourselves. That change in parenting has come quickly unfortunately!

So all that to say this...this is what I pray for my sweet grand girl Brooklynn and all my grands to come...

I pray that they receive Jesus while they're young and live every day for Him.

I pray that they would desire godly wisdom over intellect and knowledge. 

I pray that the things of God would be their passion and desire and they would pursue Christ rather than worldly affections. 

I pray that they would study God's Word more than their school work. 

I pray that as they participate in sports,the arts or whatever that it would only be a platform to share JESUS and not to glorify themselves.

I pray that they would be discipled by parents willing to spend time with them and teach them right rather than relying on church workers and ministers to disciple them. 

I pray they have parents who want to be with them and hang with them instead of wanting to find a place for them to go and hang with others. 

I pray that they will learn about missions because they experience mom and dad telling the waitress and the barista and the dry cleaning man about their need for Jesus as they go to those places rather than a class at church. 

I want them to have on the field training next to a mom and dad and witness first hand how to be the church, again, rather than sitting in a room hearing about it. I don't want sitting and soaking to be their idea of what church is. Therefore I hope they spend less time at church and more time being the church. 

I'm so encouraged as I see the young ones rising up to take their place in the church to lead. I'm extremely encouraged as I sit and listen to them talk about how buildings and property don't matter to them in terms of church. People matter. The church is people not programs and buildings. They don't want to sit in an office with nice furniture. They'd rather be in the local coffee shop interacting with people. They are all about relationships. Like one said last night, "you can meet a stranger and share salvation with them and get a convert but you won't get a disciple that way. You make disciples through building relationships with people and walking alongside them, investing in them". 

Change may be painful. It may push us out of our comfort zone a bit. But Jesus won't stay in the comfort zone and He hasn't called us to stay there. The Christian life isn't about being comfortable. It's about being uncomfortable. It's about allowing our plans to be interrupted for the sake of others. Most of us have been comfortable way too long. It's time to change.