It made me sad this morning while holding and rocking my son and singing that my children are the only young children in Church. Young families aren’t attending anymore. The heart of the body of a Christ has lost sight of the urgency of the gospel. 

We sat and sang in clothes we wear every day. Coming as ourselves. 

As I gently work on my boys hearts showing them that following God isn’t about rules, perfectionism, and shame I want them to see the honest beauty God has for them. 

The approach should have always been gentle. When it became a place of guilt, comparison and perfectionism, that’s when I believe the shift of the next generation stopped coming.

When the lifestyle of the generation who worshipped God on Sunday’s, but their actual lifestyle didn’t line up. That is when the next generation stopped coming. 

The Church has become lukewarm and have taken lightly of our Savior. If people are claiming a belief and become inconsistent with their lifestyle then that belief is less appealing for outsiders to seek and hold onto. Again, why the next generation have stopped coming.

The Church has become lukewarm and have taken lightly of our Savior.

James 2:26 “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without eats is dead.”

When the Bible teaches the opposite. It teaches love, iron sharpen iron, encouragement, accountability, and salvation. It teaches us being imitators of the one who calls on the children himself. 

Philippians 2:1-11

Ephesians 5:1 “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love just as Christ loved us and give himself for us as a fragment offering and sacrifice to God.”

Luke 18:16 (Matthew 19:13-14, Mark 10:14)

“But Jesus called the children to him. 

‘Let the children come to me and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.’”

I plead with my generation to do better. To rise up and not let our hearts and our children’s hearts be cheated with the abundant life Christ offers us when we walk with him. 

When we actually follow, imitate christ and invite God to have meaningful joy in our lives. The church will grow and the pews will once again be full.