And There Arose Another Generation: Raising Disciplemakers to Go

It’s not uncommon for me to adopt a Bible reading plan each year, as I’m certain many of you do as well. I love to chronologically read through God’s redemptive story. As God purposed to display His glory through the people of Irael throughout the Old Testament, I’m always amazed at the passages that make one of the following observations:

The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua. (Judges 2:7)

And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord. (Judges 2:10)

In the biblical text, it happens so fast, often in the span of a single page, paragraph or even sentence. But these words represent a lifetime for people who were either discipled in the redemptive nature of our God or not. Certainly, Scripture informs us that as parents we are tasked with teaching our children to know this God who intends to spread His glory among the nations and redeem a people to worship Him. We see it explicitly stated in passages such as Deuteronomy 6:7, which says, These words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children; and also in Proverbs 22:6, which commands us, Train up a child in the way he should go.

Clearly, knowledge of God is a parental responsibility. However, our worship when we gather as a body — as the church — should be an extension of what happens in our homes. As the church, how do we create a culture that displays the same heart of God, for all peoples from every nation, tribe and tongue to know the one, true God and to worship Him? How do we mobilize the entire church so all peoples will hear of Him?

As a missions pastor for many years, I sought to answer this question: How do we create this culture in every generation? I realized it requires intentionality in each age group of our church, and that no one is too young to be discipled in this way. It’s really a two-part question, and that leads to consider two specific ideas:

1. Why do we need a culture that sends people out?
2. What does that look like in every area of our church?

Now I work with Global Serve International, an organization that comes alongside churches in our Missions 101 workshop (globalserveint.org/workshops) to discuss these very questions. Our desire is to see churches create this sort of culture in each generation and mobilize believers in their own neighborhoods and to the nations.

First, we need a sending culture because we see it throughout all of Scripture. God sent Himself to be present with His creation in the garden (Genesis 3:8). God sent Abram (Genesis 12:1-3) to experience the blessing of God and to become a blessing to all nations. God sent the prophets repeatedly to remind His people of who He is and how He intended to redeem them. He sent Himself again, as the Son, Jesus (Luke 2, John 3:16), to ransom His people from the penalty of their sin. Following His sacrifice for our sin, He sent His Spirit to us (Acts 2). And His Word is very clear that in the same way He mobilized Himself to us, we are to follow Him in mobilizing our own lives (John 20:21, Acts 13:1-3).

At our church, we say that we are “saved to be sent!” By that we mean that Jesus’ life, death, burial and resurrection were not simply for our forgiveness, but also to fulfill His promise to provide redemption for a people, from all peoples, who would worship and glorify God! The Great Commission is not just for “super saints.” It is supposed to be the natural progression in the life of every believer.

Second, how do we as a church instill this culture in every ministry of our church so that we raise up generations who know the Lord and obey His commission to mobilize? Specifically understanding that the whole church has a role in this, we began to preach regularly and consistently with God’s heart for the nations in mind while seeking to see the Gospel in all of Scripture. We challenge people to pray for nations weekly, to specifically ask God to raise up people for us to send, and then to ask directly if God is prompting us to be sent in new ways? We also specifically ask people to give sacrificially to support seeing people sent out from our church.

In anticipation of seeing the next generation, our children, mobilized for God’s glory, the following examples are a few ways that we have demonstrated or seen this type of culture across all ages.

College and High School Students

College students are often the target age for mobilization. Provide opportunities for your students to hear from missionaries in a personal way. Research opportunities for students to participate in cross-cultural service between semesters or during a gap year. Include dedicated times of prayer for the nations into small group Bible study.

High school students in our church began to use resources like the World Watch List and Prayercast videos in their midweek gatherings to learn about other cultures and countries and their worldviews. Instead of students going to camp each summer, perhaps you can alternate years between camp and offering students a chance to go on a trip that is directly connected with a cross-cultural church planter. Often these trips and experiences open the door to a curiosity of pursing missions as a career choice.

Elementary Students

In children’s ministry, we would often encourage our workers who were back for “home assignment” to come share some of their experiences with the kids. You can make collectible sets of “country cards” to teach children interesting facts about other people and nations. Recently, another church was challenging its children to observe the countries playing in the World Cup and then find out more about what those countries, in general, believe about God.

One church I visited decided to repaint all the hallways and classrooms in their preschool area to reflect a travel theme. They used images of airplanes, boats, trains and cars to normalize the idea that people go to new places. They also started sharing biblical stories about people like Paul, and even modern-day missionaries, written on a children’s level and read them to the preschoolers, even though they were pretty sure the kids wouldn’t quite catch it all!

Babies and Toddlers

Don’t think babies are exempt from our calling to raise up the next generation who knows the Lord! One church asked its nursery workers to sing weekly songs about God to the babies. Many churches do baby or family dedication services once or twice a year where parents and churches commit to training a child in the fear and admonition of the Lord. Our church added an additional commitment to this service where parents were asked the following question: “Considering your children are a bountiful blessing from the Lord, given to you for the purpose of blessing others, do you pledge that if the Lord calls your children to the mission field, even a difficult one, you will not stand in the way, but instead you will bless and encourage your children to follow God?” In other words, even for babies, it’s never too early to be committed to following God’s plan for His glory, and as churches and parents, it’s never too soon to begin this type of discipleship.

Like so many things we experience in life, intentionality is the key. We don’t drift toward Christlikeness. Jesus gave the Great Commission to His church, and I pray this encourages you to pursue God’s heart for all people in your local gathering.