Another Generation

And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being an hundred and ten years old. And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnathheres, in the mount of Ephraim, on the north side of the hill Gaash. And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim: (Judges 2: 8 – 11)

My heart was drawn to this passage as I was reading the book of Judges. Then I remembered that this was not the first time a similar statement has occurred in the Bible, nor is it the last. Remember the beginning of Exodus?

It starts with a generation that had no idea or recollection of Joseph or his exploits in their land. No wonder they thought of a clever way to deal with the threat that was Israel!

In Judges we see the death of Joshua, then the deaths of all the elders that outlived Joshua. These were the ones who had some experience with God in the 40 years wilderness experience and the dividing of the land to the twelve tribes, and then a few wars to displace the Canaanites.

Then they settled down. No wars. No challenges. No other conquests.

In a short while, they forget the faith their fathers represented. But worse still is that they start adapting to the faiths of those people they found in the lands they occupied, especially because they did not completely thrust them out as per God’s command.

Why does this happen? What can we use to explain this that repeats all so often?

Europe was the bastion of Christianity not so long ago. They sent missionaries almost to the whole world. How come that churches are being turned to clubs and bars, even empty museums because they have closed for lack of parishioners? Do you know that Turkey was at one time the capital of Christianity? Was the Middle East not the fount of our faith during the Bible times?

What happened?

In my book, ‘The Road to Sodom’, I have tackled one cause, comfort.

But today I want us to look at another cause which is related to comfort, ease.

The Christian faith is a religion of war, war with the world, war with sin, war with the devil, war with our own desires. It is therefore most vibrant when we are battling them. Our faith grows through our victories and our spirituality and its muscle is strengthened through that exertion.

Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. (Matthew 10: 34 – 39)

Remove the enemies and challenges and you will have a flabby spiritual body. You will suffer from spiritual obesity as you will be feeding without exercising.

What happens when you get all that you prayed for? What will happen when all your battles were won before you even approached the battle ground? What is left when you always find ready meals without even knowing the farms they were harvested from?

This is what happens to the generations after all these victors. They only read about the wars their fathers fought and the territories their fathers gained. And this to the point that they wonder whether they are fairy tales as what they see of their fathers are flabby, overweight characters who do not appear at all capable of even strolling fast. The only spiritual battles they see are when they are sweating through possessing this or the other for themselves or their flock.

Worse still is that these former giant slayers have also stopped fighting any battles for themselves as all their major prayers have been answered. They stopped struggling through ministry so long ago that they wonder why people should struggle through ministry.

They don’t pray for rent as they own a house. They don’t pray for transportation as they can now change wheels at will. They can’t pray for fees as even before their children finished college they were more than adequately provided for. They stopped praying for their needs so long ago that they may not know how praying through the night for one’s needs feels like.

They have also adjusted downward spiritually even as they moved upward socially and economically. Again I talk about things I have seen.

I know people who like me had trashed TV for its negative influence buying the most expensive cable subscription when they ‘arrived’. Pastors who advocated for decent dress now allow their children to dress like harlots. Ministers who shared the little support they received will not feed a starving person (unless for PR purposes) when money stops being their problem. People who were known for their concern and intercession can now only be accessed by the rich.

What spiritual heritage will they pass on to their children, leave alone generations?

This is the genesis of that other generation. That is the spring from which they drink.

They therefore found all their battles won, all they needed accessed, all their enemies vanquished.

It is for this reason that they must look for something else to occupy their time, to expend their energies. And God has nothing for the idle mind. The normal for God is unwavering pursuit. He is all my focus or He is nowhere near what He requires of us.

Not so with the other side. They have enough to occupy all our time and energy, all the time. And we do not even need to seek for it. It is tantalizingly appealing to all our senses since the fall.

That is how comes the following generation very easily tends towards the pursuits of lower spiritual leanings, many times of our neighbors as they are not ashamed of sharing what they believe and practice.

That is how come some preachers’ kids will have nothing to do with the God their parents served, some going all the way to a complete rejection of God and His values. That is why some godly businessmen produce godless rascals who waste all the money their parents sought on their knees on vanities.

Is there a solution? I know someone is asking.

Of course there is. Deuteronomy 6 gives God’s solution.

And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates. And it shall be, when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not, And houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full; Then beware lest thou forget the LORD, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name. Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you; (Deuteronomy 6: 5 – 14)

Yet that can be treated as an academic exercise if not taken seriously enough.

We must pursue God for Him, and nothing else. We must love His word because we love Him. We must read His word to know Him and worship Him aright.

We will stop reading the Bible to get points to preach our sermons but simply to get to hear what He is telling us. We will pray not to fulfill a duty but to commune with our King. We will minister not so that we are good examples but because it is the overflow of our hearts.

Yet I will mention two things that will make it possible for us to secure our future generations, as well as us, from what the Bible is pointing out.

The first is to disciple them. By this I mean reproduce ourselves spiritually in them. And we will do this by investing heavily in helping them know and respond to God in their context by availing ourselves to their questions, curiosities, uncertainties. We will love them to grow in the ways of God. We will help them identify God and His will in their lives, yet not as prophets, but as coaches.

Why is discipleship key for this?

Discipleship can also be a very selfish way for us to keep our fire burning. I can never help someone to grow if I am not growing as they will simply outgrow me. This is the reason the greatest barriers and opposition to introducing discipleship in churches are pastors. And this because growing disciples will start calling those pastors to a higher spiritual and scriptural standard. They will not keep quiet when you misquote scripture or present a prayerfulness that does not exist.

And they are not challenging you. They have started growing and want you to help them in the same.

It is very hard to rust if you are helping people to grow through discipleship. You can never have a dusty Bible when you are discipling. It is difficult to be prayerless when you are discipling.

The other thing is closely related, sometimes being the product of discipleship. This is mentoring.

I call mentoring preparing someone to take your job so that they will do it even better than you are doing. At the root is a desire to have someone outshine you. That is why you prepare him better than you were prepared and expose him better than you were exposed.

Why is that mentality important? It is impossible to mentor someone when you are threatened they will take your job. By the way it is not much different with discipleship. The only difference is that discipleship is interested in helping someone to grow to know God though it ends with the same thing. Mentoring deals with helping someone become the best minister they can be. This is the reason John 3: 30 must be at the fore of any mentoring relationship.

I have seen some comical mentoring by men of God. A sixty something pastor or bishop picks a twenty something person to mentor. That is not mentoring. It is a grandfather walking around with his grandson.

You mentor someone who can take your job immediately, someone who can replace you NOW.

Jonathan mentored David. Elijah mentored Elisha. Jesus mentored His disciples. Aquila mentored Apollos.

Our next generation is dependent on our security, or lack of it, in God to continue in the things of God. Our surrender to God will ensure that we will prepare them to continue serving God after our demise.

Will you stand to be counted?

Is my next generation secure in God through my choices?

Pastor

It is very normal to hear a person introducing themselves thus,

‘My name is Pastor A’.

I do not know whether these introducers really know what they are saying as that introduction is as Biblically spurious as it is grammatically confusing. It is akin to saying my name is typist J or businessman K.

Pastor is a function. In other words pastor is what you do. Pastor is not an achievement, a position you occupy or a title you hold. And this explains why there are times I present myself when pastors are called and others I do not. I do not want to walk in the confusion people have made of a plain truth of the Bible.

I will take us to the plain description of pastor in very simple terms, the terms of a shepherd since I was one in my early years.

A pastor takes care of a flock. A pastor takes the punishment of the flock. A pastor takes the sicknesses of the flock. A pastor suffers hunger so that the flock is fed.

Let me give one incident that occurred when I was probably five or six as it is still very clear in my mind.

There were times I herded with my grandfather. He had some arrangement with a school where we would take the animals to graze after school since children do not play everywhere on the school grounds.

On this day our cow’s calf had gone with my grandfather’s herd and I didn’t think it was a big deal.

The next morning the cow realized that her calf was missing. I do not think I had even taken breakfast when the cow bolted. I may have been woken up. And as the shepherd I was the one who was called by my mother.

Incidentally, the previous day or so my heel had been pierced by these thorns that contain enough poison that would almost make someone immobile from pain and swelling (I suspect that if it was today I could have been taken to hospital). I was pierced because at that time our feet were either allergic to shoes or our parents’ pockets were allergic to shoe shops.

As a result, I could only step on my toes due to the pain on that heel.

This was how I bolted after the cow since we had no idea what was happening. And I was racing after a cow in full flight. People said that they were wondering how I could hop on one leg so fast as it appeared as if the wounded leg was not touching the ground.

Two kilometers through all terrain to the school where the cow last was with the calf we ran. Then it went round the school through the areas where it remembered feeding.

At this time either the children were in assembly or the drama was so compelling that they threw discipline through the window because they started cheering the Olympian they saw in me, a hopping one.

She realized that her offspring was not there or the cheering confused her because she left the school and started racing back with me in hot pursuit.

Fortunately we met with my grandfather’s herd before more damage could be done and it was reunited with her calf and calmed down.

I do not even think I took breakfast that day as I simply went to collect the other animals, relieved that the cow had recovered from the panic attack.

That is a pastor according to God’s word; one who ensures that his flock is fine irrespective of whatever is happening to him.

The Bible is even more demanding. Remember the favorite Psalm?

We know that pastors are Christ’s undershepherds. True? This means that they are as close to Christ’s model as possible, meaning that Psalm 23 can and should apply to them.

Do this experiment to gauge your pastor, starting with your favorite one. And this experiment is backed by scripture.

The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master. (Luke 6:40)

Replace The Lord with your pastor’s name (very temporarily) to be able to gauge his closeness to Christ’s image.

X (your pastor) is my Christ’s ordained shepherd, I have everything I need. Continue all the way to verse six. Then tell me whether you have a pastor or not, according to the scriptures.

But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children: So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us. For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail: for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God. Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe: (1Thesalonians 2:7 – 10)

Is that your pastor?

Moses was a pastor in the broadest sense. Look at how far he went in meeting the obligations for his pastorate. Remember that he offered his destiny (blot my name from Your book) to plead for forgiveness for Israel? Do you also remember him refusing for God to start afresh with him after trashing the rebellious nation?

Remember Paul wishing he was accursed so that Jews could get saved?

That is what a pastor is supposed to be like.

And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved. (2Corinthians 12:15)

The pastor epitomizes sacrifice, giving, labor, love.

Yet look at the majority of those who call themselves so today. They are the closest to the leeches that cry give, give. It is the flock instead of the shepherd that sacrifices, worse still not for the necessities but the comforts of the shepherd.

For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. (Mark 10:45)

How close to that is your pastor? And ministering is not just preaching. Preaching is a very small element of ministry. Take it from a minister. Remove preaching and tell me what is left of your pastor’s ministry.

I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. (John 10:11)

Does your pastor epitomize sacrifice? Who between you the flock and the pastor sacrifices for the other?

Another element of pastoring that trashes most modern pastors is sin.

Peter was executing his pastoral mandate when he ‘killed’ Ananias and his wife. Paul was doing the same when he delivered the sinner to Satan and exposed Demas and many other opponents. John was a pastor when he exposed Diotrephes. Moses was a pastor when he commanded that sinners be killed and Joshua was pastoring when he condemned Achan and his whole lineage.

In other words, a pastor is concerned for the spiritual wellbeing of his flock. A pastor only concerned with the offerings and what they can do (even church projects) and where they come from does not qualify as one when gauged against scripture. In fact, if he were to know how he is looked at he would break down completely in shame.

As a shepherd, my stomach was of very little consequence when I was with my flock. We never went for lunch because that would have meant that the flock would not have fed enough. Mark you I was a small child then as I stopped herding when I went to school.

The greatest joy for a shepherd is a flock that is well fed at the end of the day. We would survive on wild fruits and berries, even on empty stomachs when there was nothing we could gather. We would sometimes kill a bird and roast it with the tins we carried fire in due to the cold at our place.

Ever wondered why pastoralists can lose most of their herds when a drought hits instead of selling them? They are pastors and not traders. They have an attachment to their herds and flocks and would not wish to lose any of them. I one time was with a pastoralist who was so bitter when he saw a bull being yoked to a plough. How dare one punish a bull like that? He wondered.

To a pastor, a flock is a friend, family if you go deeper.

The only reason a pastor would change flocks is when the owner of the flock transfers him. Greener pastures do not apply to a pastor. A better package can never be reason to desert a flock. Disagreement with denomination bosses can never justify deserting a flock. That is unless one is a hired pastor like Christ said.

David put his life and posterity on the line instead of looking at his people being judged.

How does your pastor fare when you take him through the scriptural test? Does he starve to ensure that those without food in his flock are feeding? Does he downgrade or downsize himself to help people in his congregation who are in dire straits?

I write most of my posts to ministers as that is what God has called me to. But this time I feel the urgency to write directly to the flock (call it congregation) to help them sort out the kind of people they call pastors.

And I write it because I know the antichrist will get to the church mainly through the pastors in his employ, something I can say is so rampant even today. I therefore do not want you to follow your pastor to hell all the time sure that you are on your way to heaven.

Another thing you realize with pastoring is presence. Like Jesus did the primary reason He called His disciples was to be with Him. Yet He could have opened a school and taught by correspondence or any other way as He is the creator of everything. If He could transport Philip instantly from the desert to Azotus after he completed his mission, surely He could have done a similar thing with instruction and information!

But a pastor can never operate from a distance.

It is the height of folly to talk about a TV or radio pastor because that is an impossibility when we look at a shepherd, Christ being our example.

Anyway, let me not hit so hard as I suspect only a few are even open to such a challenge,

But I won’t close without saying that the same applies to other ministers. You can never lead people to worship God by remote control, unless it is witchcraft. Leading, even the word itself means that someone is following the leader to a destination. How can they follow you through internet or TV?

For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. (Matthew 24:24, 25)