I find it interesting the way that I come to write about certain topics. Sometimes, I write about something that I have been learning. At other times, I write about something I might be seeing or observing either in the Christian culture as a whole or in our church culture. The topic that I am going to spend the next few blog entries on focuses on a topic I have been mulling over for quite some time. No particular incident led to me thinking about it, but rather, as I spent time thinking about life and ministry, I have thought more and more about the idea–particularly, how one’s stage of life impacts his/her ministry.

The fact of the matter is that our stage of life greatly impacts how we look at life, decisions we make, and how we approach ministry. Each stage of life brings with it unique challenges and opportunities for the Gospel, as well as temptations that impact our spiritual life. This reality is what I want to explore in this blog in the next few entries.

In Titus 2:2-8, Paul addresses different people in the church who are in different stages of life: older men & women and younger men & women. It is a passage that I usually see referenced in defense of intergenerational ministry and also in arguments against age specific ministry. Of course, Paul was not necessarily concerned with our programming of the church when he penned this. He was writing to each age group, focusing on how they were to handle themselves within the body of Christ. Each person, no matter his/her age has something to contribute to the body Christ. Each generation in the church is valuable. Also, each person because of his/her age may also have specific things to watch out for. When Paul penned Titus 2, he was writing as a pastor to a congregation, instructing how their distinctive stage of life warranted certain areas to be on guard and other areas that they could uniquely contribute to the body of Christ.

For the next few blog posts, I am going to follow Paul’s lead. I plan on writing a letter to different age groups within our body. In these posts, I hope to offer encouragement and exhortation based on your stage of life. What I will share comes from my twenty years of ministry experience, as well as what others have told me. I do not think I am an authority by any means. I hope that what will be said will be helpful - regardless of your stage of life. 

I’ll start next week with highschoolers.

 

Your servant in the Lord,