You are who, and I’m going to do what?
The Bible is great! I mean you read and there is always something new! For the first time I am appreciating that during the Intertestamental Period, which is basically the time between the last prophetic book and the time of Jesus and this time period was centuries long, there had not been a revelation or a pouring out of God’s Spirit. So, for centuries God’s Spirit is absent or hidden and only at the time of Messiah would the Spirit of God be made known to Israel and the world once again. See Joel 2:28.
Now get this Jacob, Mary, Elizabeth, Zechariah, and Joseph are the first people to encounter the Spirit of God for centuries. A whole nation awaits for the Messiah to come. A whole nation awaits the Spirit of God to be poured out. And a honkin’ teenager named Mary is whom God chooses to pour onto, and into, His Spirit. She had to be completely overwhelmed by the magnitude of it all. If she thought about it for any length of time the weight of a whole nation’s expectations were on her shoulders and by the way she’s pregnant out of wedlock.
WOW!
That is absolutely crazy! I mean if you were her how might you feel?
Keys to Reaching the Next Generation – Top Four
CFCC’s Brad Abare and Phil Cooke were interviewed for an hour by Conversant Life.
The best part of the interview can be summarized by their Top Four Keys to Reaching the Next Generation for Jesus Christ. It’s not an exhaustive list, and they were answering questions on the fly, but like most leaders in the church they were already thinking about these things and I felt like these four things were spot on.
Keys to Reaching the Next Generation
- Vision + Culture = You must have a vision and you need to create a culture of transformation within your church. (I don’t know of another church who has done this better than Quest)
- Monologue →Dialogue: We need to move from Monologue to Dialogue in how we interact with the congregation in all of our gatherings (YouVersion)
- Lions and Tigers and BEARS…Instead of passing on our faith, the torch, responsibilities we need to carry it (bear it) with them. Mentoring will be essential.
- T r a n s p a r e n c y – In the internet age there is no hiding what you own, buy, sell, or do so don’t try to hide. Leaders must be comfortable with sharing their personal struggles. (Just ask Tiger Woods)