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Writer's pictureDanny

COMIC: The Need for Personal Discipling



There are two reasons why I consider this important, the first is clear, a lot of us are in desperate need of guidance. And someone who knows you personally, who can spend time with you, whom you can actually communicate with on a personal level, will be a far better mentor than a public figure addressing thousands of people. The comic makes a case for this already.


Secondly, I'd like to address the idea of passing down godly duties from one generation to another. The model can be seen in 2 Timothy 2:2. Paul's heart for Timothy in this passage is that the things Paul taught will be passed down by Timothy to many others, and so on and so forth. The epistles to Timothy are essentially Paul's instruction to his young student, preparing him to take on a leadership role. We see 4 different generations in 1 Tim 2:2:


"The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also."


It starts with Paul, passed on to Timothy, passed on the the faithful men, and then passed on to others. If Paul were to go all gung ho by himself and do everything as a one-man army till the bitter end, that would not be very sustainable if you wanted Christianity to thrive and have stability. Young people must take the time to learn from older people who had godly responsibilities before them. Old people must be willing to teach younger people, allowing them to have church responsibilities. This way, there is so disconnect between generations, if the older is keen on discipling and passing down their experiences, the younger people will be keener to take over the baton.


A great misfortune is this: the older generation is so dead set on doing things exactly how they want it, they are afraid to let young people try, god forbid they make a mistake or something. The younger ones, thinking they got everything figured out, do not even want to associate with the older ones, because they think they are clueless fossils. Do you see how this is a danger to the church? The bridge must be built, and the generations must be connected to learn from one another. Young people should be allowed to make mistakes, but they should also graciously accept constructive criticism backed up by years of experience. This is how a church can thrive.


Of course, as a young person, I know how hard it can be to communicate with the older generation. Many are lovely and open-minded, but many see things fundamentally differently than we do, and they offer no grace to those who dare oppose. I'm not sure what to do about that other than show grace, respect, and patience.


Anyways, that's the end of my spiel, hope this is helpful.

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