We are on our way home from Florida!! I’ll be sure to update you all next week on our trip to Florida, but today I want to share the final lesson in my study on 1 Peter.
I’m joining a group of bloggers blogging through 1 Peter: Finding Encouragement in Troubling Times {An Inductive Bible Study} by Sue Edwards over the next nine weeks. This blog tour has been sponsored by Kregel Publishing, and I was provided a free copy of the Bible study book in exchange for my participation in the blog tour.
See all my posts in this series: 1 Peter.
1 Peter 5.1-14: Strengthen Your Sacred Kin
“Ministry between generations bolsters the courage and confidence of believers under fire.”
I think the current state of the church in America is sad. Churches are splitting over generational differences – kind of worship music, style of preaching, style of dress, etc.
These are not foundational truth issues that ought to be causing divisions!
Instead, these issues are creating a culture of churches that cater to a specific demographic of individuals. We are losing this multi-generational ministry that Peter exhorts in this section of the book.
I have found one of the easiest ways to determine the health of a church is to look at the ages of the individuals who are not only in attendance but involved in the ministries of the church. When generations of believers are missing in a local church body, the church is not functioning as it ought and is not healthy.
When we began to look for a church to attend and minster alongside five years ago, we looked for a church that not only had people in our season of life {young married w/ a baby} but had a wide variety of other seasons as well.
We found a church that actually had more older people than young couples {at the time we were pretty much it} but that was actively seeking to grow.
The older generation of believers was active in fellowship with the younger generations.
It was what a family is supposed to look – including a church family.
How does your church reflect a family? Do you seek out the older {or younger, depending on your season of life} generation in order to minister across the generational gap?
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Check out where I’m linked up…
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