Home Children's Ministry Leaders Articles for Children's Ministry Leaders First Came COVID-19 … And Then Came the Greatest Generation of Disciples

First Came COVID-19 … And Then Came the Greatest Generation of Disciples

The Millennial cohort, those born between 1980 and 1999, came to age during 9/11, the “War on Terror, ” a punishing recession, skyrocketing student debt and the rise of the digital age. The result? They are closer to their parents than other generations due to the period of intense unity in the aftermath of 9/11. Community life was everything.

Now back to the question. Realizing the potential impact of COVID-19 on a whole generation, how will they respond? And then this extremely important follow-up question: How will the church walk them through this trauma to help them become the Greatest Generation of Disciples?

The Greatest Generation of Disciples? Yes, that could be the ultimate positive outcome for this generation or any generation.

What would that entail? Many things, but let’s start here.

We should be aware of their need for spiritual authenticity.

Today, effective, personal messaging is being done from cell phone to cell phone, showing the way people actually live. The day of “wowing” kids to Jesus needs to be replaced by help that offers a real relationship with a God who loves them. They need to see us lamenting, asking God for miracles and loving on a frightened world. They need to see us following Jesus through anything. We need to go beyond entertainment to disciple this generation to love and follow the Jesus who gives eternal life. To believe that Jesus is everything. To love him completely. To follow him totally. To love him for the rest of their lives. When surrounded by the potential of death, this generation needs to know there is more than “now,” more than smoke machines and shows. There is Jesus and he is enough.

For the greatest generation of disciples, I’ll end with this from Sam Luce’s blog, “What Do You Do When Sundays Are Taken Away?

“We see how serious a pandemic can be. If we do not start talking about discipleship, holiness, and gospel centrality in kids and youth ministry the church in North America will become a sterile form of religion that is driven to and fro by every wave culture sends our way. We have to realize that Sunday alone is not enough to disciple kids because we now know Sunday can be take away. If we want to raise kids that are resilient we have got to start measuring more than attendance and discipling with more than take-home papers alone.”

We can do better than coping. Let’s make resilient disciples. We can build the Greatest Generation of Disciples starting now.

* Note: Research professor of sociology Glen Holl Elder, Jr., a prominent figure in the development of life course theory, wrote Children of the Great Depression (1974), “the first longitudinal study of a Great Depression cohort.” Elder followed 167 individuals born in California between 1920 and 1921 and “traced the impact of Depression and wartime experiences from the early years to middle age. Most of these ‘children of the Great Depression’ fared unusually well in their adult years. They came out of the hardships of the Great Depression “with an ability to know how to survive and make do and solve problems.

This article about the greatest generation originally appeared here.