The Power of Thinking Generationally

God chose Abraham to become the father of His chosen people, and the one through whose lineage the Savior would one day come.

So why didn’t God pick a Pacific Islander? An Indian? A European? An African?

God gives only one reason for choosing Abraham, saying in Genesis 18:19, “I have singled him out so that he will direct his sons and their families to keep the way of the LORD…” (NLT).

God selected Abraham because He knew Abraham would think and act generationally—that he would take the things he had learned from God and pass them on to his children and grandchildren.

If you were to ask me where I believe the Church has fallen short today, one of the first things I’d mention is our failure to raise up and work with the next generations.

I travel a lot for ministry, and I see many churches struggling to think and act generationally. Leaders are hesitant to empower their younger people, fearing they’ll be out of a job if they do. That’s why churches tend to get old with their pastor. Rather than building on the shoulders of what’s been done, the church tends to go downhill.

I’ve been doing ministry for a long time, and I’m not getting any younger. But I realize every day that I have more to impart now than I’ve ever had before. I have to make room for the younger people in my life—to reach, raise up, and release the coming generations for God’s Kingdom.

Psalm 78:4-7 says this of God’s past words and deeds:

We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and His strength and His wonderful works that He has done. For He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children; that the generation to come might know them, the children who would be born, that they may arise and declare them to their children, that they may set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God.

This was not a suggestion. God commanded His people to take what they had learned and transmit it to the coming generations.

We too must learn to think and act generationally if we are ever to see the purposes of God fulfilled. His design is for the generations to be connected, serving together and using their various strengths to impact the world for Christ. 

Are you enjoying this reading plan? I encourage you to go deeper by checking out my book "From Generation to Generation."