Will the younger generation support commended workers?
The question that motivated this article is whether assembly believers now in their twenties and thirties will continue to support commended workers as previous generations did. But we might also ask whether assemblies have been as diligent in training the saints to support commended workers as they have been in insisting that Scripture teaches workers to not solicit funds. Are the majority of young believers in North American assemblies giving regularly as individuals to the Lord’s servants? If not, who is?
We begin this article by drawing your attention to one of the many patterns in the book of Judges. It can be found by observing the verses that mention the behavior of new generations of Israelites born during times of peace. When Israel was oppressed by the enemy because of her sins, she cried to the Lord and received gracious deliverance through a judge. The land experienced peace for a number of decades. Then, after some time, the grandchildren or great grandchildren, having never come to grips with God or His judgments, abandoned Him for pagan pleasures. Some have called this group of Israelites “the third generation” because it was the third generation out of Egypt that was first described as one that did not know the Lord.
Are we in the third generation?
One could argue that this author’s generation—believers in their late 20’s and early 30’s—have something in common with the “third generation” found in Judges. Most of the great missionaries and evangelists of repute have gone on to Glory. Our parents and grandparents sat at their feet, but this generation never knew them personally. This generation has been called, in large part, to maintain assemblies they did not plant and hold fast to practices they never knew in the liberating way a convert from religious error would know them. Furthermore, like the constant lure of Canaanite ways, a hallmark of Western society today is the appearance of wave after wave of pleasurable distractions, hitherto unknown at such a level. Where once crowds filled conferences and open air meetings, today an assembly does well to even have a Sunday night gathering. Many of this generation are tempted to quote with Gideon, “…Oh my lord, if the Lord be with us…where be all His miracles which our fathers told us of…” (Jdg. 6:13).
What then does all this have to do with the support of commended workers by twenty- and thirty-year-olds in assembly fellowship? Simply this. A chief reason for the sad cycle in Judges was that somewhere between the passing of one generation and the arrival of the next, God’s Word was abandoned. In some cases, all knowledge of the Lord was lost. The finger of blame is quickly leveled at the younger generation. Right as this is, Scripture lays equal responsibility on the shoulders of the older generation. Like Paul’s injunction to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:2, there is a command to “commit these things” and not simply a need for “faithful brethren” to whom such things can be committed. The question is, what qualifies as honest and earnest “committing” and what falls short? Does Scripture give any hint as to how truth can be committed, not simply mentioned?
Deliberate, repetitive, meaningful
The plea of this article is that if assemblies wish to see certain scriptural practices carried on by successive generations, something deliberate, something meaningful, and something repetitive must be done to develop an ownership of those practices within the new generation. They must develop a commitment to, and not a mere knowledge of, them.
It is the author’s conviction that more than random reminders from the pulpit are required if we intend to motivate this generation of believers to cut time out of graduate degrees, jobs, and new families to devote it to this kind of care. More than a bulletin board with pictures of missionaries may be required to elicit young volunteers to engage in regular, prayerful care for, and communication with, commended workers.
Before proceeding further, I ask the reader to take out a Bible and turn to a few scriptures which demonstrate that ideas like “deliberate, meaningful, and repetitive” are clearly set forth by the Spirit when it comes to instructing younger believers. Meditate on the following passages with the words actually written out on a piece of paper: Exodus 12:26-28; 13:4-10; Deuteronomy 6:4-7; the stone piles of Joshua 4:1-9; 8:32-35; the father and son dialogues of Proverbs 1-7; the object lessons our Lord Jesus used to teach His disciples; and Paul’s interactions with Timothy (see Acts 16:1-3; Php. 2:22; 2 Tim. 2). In each passage, something meaningful, repetitive, or very deliberate was done to communicate spiritual truth to the next generation. Doubtless it is easier to make the occasional reminder from the pulpit (or frequent lamentation about decline), but who will employ the object lessons, the repetitions, or the understudy to ensure that truth is committed faithfully to a coming generation?
Serving without seeing
One difficulty that accompanies teaching believers to give is that giving tends to be done in secret. Most believers write checks and give gifts in a private manner. While this may be an application of Matthew 6:3, it also makes it hard for others to see and learn. Even though Christians may see money put into a box or bag on Sunday morning, it is often a mystery as to what is being given to. While this cannot always be the case, the believers in 1 Corinthians 16:1-6 probably knew where at least part of their giving was going. This brings us to the following issue, which is a natural aspect of human emotion.
Giving follows knowing
We are asking the saints to support believers who, in many cases, they do not know, rarely hear from, and rarely think of. Recall that the Philippians, Thessalonians, and Corinthians (who’s examples we are encouraged to follow) were sending support to the man (Paul) who had planted their assembly and led many of them to Christ. They knew him intimately. To many in our assemblies, a commended worker is a postcard picture on the wall, a name on a report, or a speaker seen once every few years. A major factor in addressing the lack of giving to commended workers may be in first helping the saints to meet, learn of, care about, pray for, and communicate with those workers. Sad to say, even workers commended from a particular assembly may remain practical strangers to the believers from that assembly. This should not be.
Therefore, as we think about deliberate, repeated, and meaningful steps which could be taken to encourage the support of commended workers, we ought to ask an additional question: What is being done to help the next generation connect with commended workers, love them, and understand their passion for the lost? From this perspective, a lack of giving simply reflects an assembly’s failure to focus on missions and commended workers.
Isn’t it exciting to imagine a new generation of saints regularly partnering in the gospel by supporting commended workers? Imagine tens of thousands of believers investing in their brethren as eagerly and regularly as the world invests in stocks and real estate! Oh the blessings that would spring up in our assemblies as a result. Oh the spiritual growth! Oh the harvest!
Here are a few web sites of mission organizations:
USA: www.cmmlusa.org
Canada: www.msc.on.ca
England: www.echoes.org.uk