This picture says a lot. Don, Mike and Scott VanDerZee: three men of faith, sincere servants, loving husbands and disciples for Jesus Christ – father, son and whole son. They are a picture of God’s faithfulness, generation after generation. They are a picture of faithfulness to be emulated.
As a family they have a responsibility to continue this story. Discipleship is not just genetic but kinetic. Kinetic energy is motion that turns into velocity. Don, Mike and Scott have kinetic faith motion.
Now transfer this family picture into the family of God. God’s heart for His family is multigenerational discipleship. Nowhere in the Bible does it speak of mono age focused discipleship. Before you raise objections, I am not against Faith Kids, Sunday school, middle school, high school, house churches, young adults or senior’s affinity groups. In 2 Timothy 1:5 the Bible depicts all ages singing Psalms on the way to worship. Paul blessed the discipleship of Timothy’s grandmother Lois and mother Eunice. He counseled Timothy not to let anyone look down on him because he was young. Jesus encouraged the children to come to him and Proverbs speaks of listening to the wisdom of the aged.
My prayer and hope is for us to seek, to be a multigenerational discipleship community, where we all participate together in worship and small groups. I dream of retired Christian couples going on the Young Adult’s Retreat. Multigenerational discipleship must be intentional. The Bible says you don’t have because you don’t ask. Certainly we celebrate biological generational faith like the VanDerZees, but also understand if you don’t have that picture biologically, you can have it spiritually. There is much discipleship power biologically and spiritually.
We are better together!
P.S. Pastor Brian Dennert wrote a review of Intergenerational Christian Formation, a book on multigenerational discipleship. Click on this link to read:
http://themelios.thegospelcoalition.org/review/intergenerational-christian-formation-bringing-the-whole-church-together-in
