Model Well for the Next Generation
Watch or listen to this blog: Heart of our leaders: Elizabeth Chen
Hi, this is Elizabeth from Tainan, Taiwan - I greet you!
I wanted to take a few moments to share with you what I felt the Lord reveal to me during our last Shine camp. It was held this summer. It’s a camp for junior high all the way through college that we have been holding over the last 15 years. Shine has a vision to raise up young people who love Jesus wholeheartedly and who walk in holiness and who will participate in the end times prayer, worship, and mission movement.
As I was there this time, I was observing and really marveling at what God has done – raising up leaders. I was looking at my children, who all have played key roles in Shine over the years. And not just my children but the spiritual children who have been close to us and close to our family. I observed that they are more mature than we were at that age, they are better leaders, they are better parents to their children than we were. I was just so grateful to the Lord for what he has done, because as I look back over the years, the mistakes that I made and things I did as an immature leader, and yet in spite of that God used me. Praise the Lord, I’m changing year by year.
The Lord is raising up a generation that is stronger than I was. This is what we want to see, the next generation to be going even further than what we did, and then even another generation going further. And I was thinking about this and I felt like the Lord wanted to speak a few words to me about discipleship, what I’ve learned and what he wants me to continue to do, even though I’m 64. Definitely one thing he was saying was, “Don’t stop! Keep going!” This generation and the next to come, they need parents and they need grandparents. There is a role for me to keep playing.
And then, it’s so important to this generation what we model to them, more than maybe what we say to them. So, as I look back, I can see that this is important, that I model a consistent lifestyle to them. And then, time spent with them is what is very important. So, we can speak, but it’s building relationships with my children, building relationships with my disciples, spending time with them, giving myself to them.
Finally, “Don’t quit,” right! “Keep going!” There’s been times when I know in myself I have pulled back, and yet the Lord is saying, “Keep on. Keep pressing on!” This is a life calling, to raise up the next generation is something on the Lord’s heart for these days. So I just encourage you, let’s keep on together, partnering with the Lord and what he’s doing in the nations in this hour. God bless you all!
About the author: Elizabeth Chen and her husband, Matt, founded and are currently pastoring Living Water Church in Tainan, Taiwan. Their main ministries other than pastoring include SHINE, a nationwide youth movement calling young people to live in sexual purity, and ANHOP (All Nations House of Prayer), where worship and prayer happens daily, as well as intercession for the church and the harvest until the day of His return!
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