Earlier this week Chris and I were talking to a friend who was hesitant to help out with the youth group because of his age. At a ripe, old fifty-six years, he believed (and may still) that he had lost relevance with teenagers. A lengthy discussion ensued, and I am pretty sure that Chris and I wore out our welcome, but I have been thinking about the subject all weekend.
My desire is for this to become a short series of my thoughts on some of the things we could do to help us better fulfill Jesus' Great Commission.
1. Self-assessment of personal value
The problem is not that we become irrelevant with age, but that we become much more valuable in different ways that are not always appreciated by those who could benefit most from our wisdom and experience.
Over the past few years, my attention has been directed to our obligation as Christians to make disciples, as commanded in The Great Commission. The concept is less than revolutionary, in that it is clearly delineated in a book that has been around for...a while. However, disciple making has become exceptional in today's church, while it was foundational in the first century church. (This will most certainly be a recurring theme in future blogs, but I don't want to digress too much now.) With that being said, I would like to turn your attention back to our friend, who we will call Fred (mostly because that is his name).
I believe that Fred is right in that most teenagers would not sign up to spend time with a fifty-six-year-old man. So how do we get these young'uns to value Fred, a strong Christian man with a wealth of knowledge and experience? I believe that prayer is the first requisite in any disciple making endeavor, but I think that at least one other important component is for Fred to have a solid understanding and appreciation of his own value.
Jesus made no qualms about what it would take to learn from Him. He simply told the men he was prepared to teach to drop everything and follow Him. Since none of us is perfect like Jesus, this approach is not going to work today. The point is that Jesus clearly knew that he had a WHOLE LOT to offer these men. His understanding of his own value came across in such a way that twelve men had no problem leaving behind everything they knew to follow Him.
Obviously, none of us is going to affect others in such a way, but the prescription is clear: We must know what we are worth if we want others to value what we may have to teach them. God has given each of us unique life experiences, good and bad, that perfectly equip us in the way He desires us to be equipped to "go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything [He has] commanded you." (Matthew 28:20-21)
My desire is for this to become a short series of my thoughts on some of the things we could do to help us better fulfill Jesus' Great Commission.
1. Self-assessment of personal value
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