Raising the next generation is not just a parenting issue. It is a Church issue. This past Sunday, Pastor Chip closed out the Counter Culture series with a message called Biblical Parenting and used passages from Psalm 127 and Deuteronomy 6 that called every believer, not just parents, into the work of raising up the next generation of Jesus followers.
Two Options, Two Generations
Pastor Chip opened by laying out two possible outcomes from Scripture.
The first comes from Judges 2:10. All that generation was gathered to their fathers, and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work He had done for Israel. One generation knew God. The next one did not. That gap happened in a single handoff.
The second comes from Psalm 78. We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God.
Two options. Two very different futures.
He then shared statistics that made the stakes clear. Ninety-two percent of people who give their life to Jesus do so before the age of eighteen. Only eight percent come to faith after eighteen. Seventy percent of teenagers who grow up in church leave after high school and never faithfully return.
That is why the kids ministry and youth ministry take the Gospel so seriously. But Pastor Chip was clear that it is not the church’s job alone. It is a partnership between parents and the Church, and every believer has a role in it.
The Next Generation Is Created in God’s Image
Psalm 127:3 says behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.
The Hebrew word for heritage is nachalah. It described a piece of property assigned by God to a specific family that was never meant to leave that family. It was passed from generation to generation as a sacred trust.
That is what God calls children. Parents have been designated by God with the honor of receiving the specific children He assigned to their home. Your first job is to follow Jesus. Your second job is to raise them to follow Jesus with their lives.
Pastor Chip also spoke directly to the kids and teenagers in the room. Genesis 1:26-27 says God created humanity in His image, male and female. You exist because God purposefully and intentionally created you. He loved you enough to create you and to call you into a love relationship with Him.
Psalm 127:1 says unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Parents can work their entire lives at being good parents and still fall short. But when the focus shifts to becoming like Jesus, that is where victory shows up. God is the one who builds the home. He simply chooses to use us to do it.
Pastor Chip pushed back on a familiar saying. People say it takes a village to raise a child. But the village today is crazy, and a crazy village raises a village idiot. What it actually takes is godly parents and a church serious about the Word of God.
The Next Generation Is Created to Be Disciples
Psalm 127:4 says like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth.
Pastor Chip unpacked the arrow imagery in a way that reframed the whole idea of discipleship. An arrow started as a limb torn from a tree. Crooked. Flimsy. Dull. That describes all of us at birth. Crooked in sin, bending to the pressures of life, dull and in need of wisdom.
So what did the warrior do? He shaved off the bark. He rubbed the limb with oil. He held it over fire so the oil would harden and straighten it. He placed it in straightening stones. Then he added a tip on one end for impact and fletching on the other for direction and flight.
What was useless became a weapon in the hand of a warrior. That is what discipleship does in the life of a child.
The Hebrew word for warrior in that verse is gibbor. It is the same word used for David’s mighty men. Special forces. What does a special forces soldier know? Their mission. Their enemy. Their king. Their strategy. All of that comes from the Word of God.
Pastor Chip then gave three words that shape how discipleship happens in a home.
Devotion. Deuteronomy 6:5 says love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and might, and these words shall be on your heart. Before you can cultivate devotion in a child, it has to be real in you. It cannot happen only behind a closed bedroom door. Your kids need to see you in the Word and on your knees. Devotion is more caught than taught. The number one way to teach a child to love Jesus is to teach them how much Jesus loves them.
Disciple. Deuteronomy 6:7 says teach them diligently. The word pictures sharpening a knife. You do not run a blade across a stone once and call it sharp. You do it over and over and over again. Talk about God when you sit in your house. When you walk along the way, which today means the commute. When you lie down and when you rise. Those bookends of the day are two of the most important windows to get the Word of God into a child.
Pastor Chip was honest about what family devotions actually look like in his house with a four-month-old, a two-year-old, a three-year-old, and a seven-year-old. It is a train wreck. Kids jumping, tackling each other, screaming. Are they absorbing much? Probably not. But what is being built is discipline, and that discipline will matter later.
Discipline. Ephesians 6:1-4 says children obey your parents in the Lord, honor your father and mother, and fathers do not provoke your children to anger. Pastor Chip pointed out that kids make great mirrors. The way they talk, their tone, their attitudes, and their emotions are often learned from us. Angry kids frequently come from angry parents. You can still teach, disciple, and correct, but Scripture calls us to speak the truth in love.
The Next Generation Is Created to Live on Gospel Mission
Psalm 127:5 says blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them. He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.
In the ancient world, the gate of the city was where everything happened. Financial dealings. Legal matters. Government decisions. Social issues. The elders sat at the gate and shaped the city.
The verse is saying that one day your children will be adults at that gate. Warriors fire arrows. One day we send our children into the city, the state, the nation, and the world.
Pastor Chip closed by addressing a lie he hears constantly. People say they do not want to bring children into a world this crazy. He offered a different way to see it. What if the enemy has made the world crazy specifically to convince Christians not to have children, not to disciple children, and not to send them out to change it? What if the number one way to make a difference in this world is to raise up a generation of Jesus followers and send them into it?
He ended by pointing to the most important relationship in all of Scripture. A Father and a Son. God the Father sent His Son Jesus into the world. At twelve years old Jesus was in the temple saying He must be about His Father’s business. At His baptism the Father said this is My Son in whom I am well pleased. At the cross Jesus cried out My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me.
The Father sent the Son so that we could be saved, so that we could have life, and so that we could raise our children for that same Son.
Live It Out
This week, start by asking God what part He is calling you to play in raising up the next generation. Parents, pick one rhythm you can begin immediately. Read Scripture at bedtime. Pray together at breakfast. Talk about God in the car on the way to school. Do not wait until you feel qualified, because you never will.
Grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends, you have influence too. Pray by name for the children God has placed in your life. Send a text. Show up at the game. Ask a spiritual question and actually listen to the answer.
If you are not sure where you fit, go observe in the kids ministry or the youth ministry one time and ask the Lord whether this is where He is calling you to serve. For all of us, keep inviting families in your neighborhood and your community into a church that takes the souls of the next generation seriously.
There’s a Seat for You
Whether you are a parent in the thick of it, a grandparent praying from a distance, or someone who simply wants to invest in the generation coming behind you, you belong here. We are a church that believes raising up the next generation of Jesus followers is worth all of us working together.
Plan Your Visit and come see what God is doing here. Or take your next step and Get Connected with our church family. We would love to walk alongside you.