People are now losing "The Game" in my blog comment space. Apparently I haven't provided enough substance for you all to ponder. Well, I've found myself lacking profound and meaningful things to discuss. Ever since the semester ended, I have been indulging myself in laziness and procrastination, and my thoughts have been shallow and conceited. Such is my life when I don't fill my mind with the truth of God's Word and good teachings. Praise God for His great power and mercy; He lifts me out of the dark places I wander into and sets my feet on the path to righteousness!
Recently, I have been thinking about how members in the church body interact outside of official church meetings. I think something that is lacking among many Christians I know (myself included) is frequent interaction with fellow Christians of diverse ages. When I imagine what a Christian gathering ought to look like, I imagine a few different families: toddlers, kids, teenagers, young adult folks, a couple sets of parents, the old gray and wise. I think this is SUPER important so that everybody has somebody older and wiser to teach them and watch out for them, and some younger folks to teach and watch out for. And this makes me wonder... What (in my life) is missing from this picture? The old folks! Where have they gone? Have they all been tucked away in some sort of retirement community? Are they all out partying? Do Christian elderly folks even EXIST?!? Or have I just missed them at our Christian gatherings? Seriously, the oldest people I know with familiarity are my parents!
...Nobody tell them I said that...
I am concerned because I don't see much accountability and teaching coming from old folks in the Christian community. What do you all think? What can young believers do about it?
In the Grace of our Lord,
Prince Cor
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2 comments:
They're out partying for sure, having a "denture" social, no doubt. ;)
But, seriously, I can relate to those thoughts. There is a large part of me that craves for a much older individual not just to exercise his or her age-wrought wisdom in the bigger matters of church, but also to personally pour into my life and point out blind spots that I have due to my own generation's shortcomings. I think that's huge. But honestly, I see your church as one that really does have a lot of "sages" [I believe that's an appropriate term]. We need them. For the defense of the precious gospel of Christ and the growth of the younger believers.
To answer one of your questions, I believe the first and best thing for us to do about the issue is to be honest about the need. Ask God for mentorship or accountability or even just that He would cause a revival from among the snowbirds in our town!!!
;)
Hope that helps some.
p.s. my blog is now at johntheroberts.blogspot.com fyi
Cory,
I think you are right on the money, mark, the pizza ... whatever. One of the first things I noticed about PRBC is that the sermon is delivered to the entire congregation. We sing together, pray together, and fellowship one with another. So many of what we call "mega-churches" are more like 12 different churches rather than a single body of believers. A church we both know functions very much in this way. After I left my former church, O how blessed I was to be part of a singular body of Christian people.
Something that Elder James said a few years ago stuck with me: "When I was a young and uber ambitious Christian, I wanted to hang around older Christians. After all, older Christians are the ones with experience and wisdom." I have found this to be true from personal experience. The men at the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church have immensely blessed my walk with our triune Lord.
Sometime this past year I wrote a blog entry about how I have learned to pray from the men at PRBC: http://rustypth.blogspot.com/2006/03/learning-to-pray.html
Saturday night, you, me, Mark and Jenna should spend a few minutes talking about this very subject (at the parte) =)
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