Reflections From Sunday Evening

The question today was "is our mission primarily to those God has already entrusted to our care or to reach a new generation?" (I heard this articulated by Dr. David Kerr in a board of ministry interview.)
The answer is YES. It is a both/and proposition. Unless we factor in the word "primarily." This means we have to give priority to one or the other. So where did we come down on the question?
We certainly have a very significant mission to those God has already entrusted to our care. This means we are meant to be accountable to one another for our growth in love and grace. This means we are meant to do all we can to help people become disciples of Jesus Christ. We develop discipleship for those already entrusted to our care.
Furthermore we are responsible for binding up the broken-hearted; healing the sick; visiting the lonely; feeding the hungry; caring for those in need; encouraging the downcast and an inexhaustable host of other areas of ministry among those already entrusted to our care.
There is so much to consider that many churches gets totally invovled with those already entrusted to our care.
That is a major reason so many churches lose sight of the next part of the question and do not take reaching a new generation seriously enough to devote resources, time and energy to this important outreach.
Is our mission primarily to reach a new generation?
If you were in church today you know that this is where I ask us to put our primary attention. As we read God's story in the Scriptres we find each generation responsibile for reaching the next generation. Ours is no exception.
It is a tremendous call and responsibility entrusted to us. While we provide excellent ministry to those God has already entrusted to our care we are meant to make the reaching of a new generaion our primary mission.
It is a big question. It is a big challenge. I invite you to consider your response and how we will respond to the challenge of making disciples of a new generation.
It's been a good day. I hope you've had a good day too.
steve
(Oh, and to our devoted basketball fans still filled with anxiety - rock chalk!)