March 3, 2015

Why Olders and Youngers Need Each Other

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[intro]From my vantage point, young people today need the wisdom and perspective of older people. They need to see the outcome of a life of faith. They need to see parents raising children in a God honoring way. They need to see marriages flourishing.[/intro]

Olders need young people around them. (I can’t believe I’m going to call myself an older, but compared to a college student I am.) I/we need young people to challenge us to continue to live by faith. We need young people to stir in up our hunger for God, to believe God in a fresh way to accomplish His purposes both in the greater Lansing area and to the ends of the earth. We need each other. In fact, part of what drew me to move to Michigan to work with Riverview was their passion to have all generations of people loving and serving each other in the church.

This concept is firmly grounded in the New Testament. Paul wrote to Titus, exhorting men and women of all ages to pursue godly character. What I love about Titus 2 is the way Paul instructs the older women to train the younger women. The older women are to teach the younger women what is good, and to train them to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind and submissive to their own husbands (Titus 2:4-5). The entire thrust of this exhortation is that because of who we are, and who we train each other to be, the watching world would be drawn to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Now I don’t want to sound like I’m oblivious to some of the obstacles that stand in the way of these kinds of relationships forming. As I’ve talked with olders, there’s a certain level of awkwardness that they experience as they are trying to build a friendship with youngers. And for youngers, that same awkwardness exists. But if we can live in the awkward long enough, I think some really cool things will happen.

We’re already seeing that within the MSU Venue. As the MSU Venue Director, I want olders in my venue to be involved with youngers. For one, we are Riverview. We’re one church that meets in three different locations. We want the full influence of Jesus’ church to influence the work of the gospel with college students. We have some young families and some awesome empty nesters who are investing in what we’re doing on Sundays on campus with our Sunday service and with student leaders, but we’d love to have more people involved. And I know we want this DNA infiltrating all of our venues.

At this point, there is a threshold that you have to step through as an older investing in a younger – but you have to step through that threshold in any of our Venues. That threshold is a belief: Do I have anything to offer these youngers? Would they want what I have to offer? I think the answer is yes, but you’ll never know until you try. And it may take a little perseverance. You might not click right away. Don’t give up! Invite someone out to coffee. Go after the relationship and see how God might use you in someone’s life! You never know what might happen.

I’d give you youngers the same challenge. Step into the awkwardness. Step through the threshold of your struggle with belief: will this older person accept me with all my issues? Will they understand what I’m going through? How can I be a help and encouragement who’s twenty or thirty or forty years older than me? Go for it! Try it. Many of the young women in the MSU Venue that have an older woman working with them have been so thankful for the opportunity.

Older and youngers have so much to offer each other. Relationships take time to establish, but what if you looked for an opportunity to cross generational lines and help someone who is older or younger grow in their faith? You never know what might happen. You could be God’s instrument to end the cycle of divorce for a younger. You could be God’s instrument to help an older see their older years as their greatest years of influence. This could be the best thing that’s ever happened to them — and you.

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