Forging A New Path!

"........we need to consider new ways of initiating the spiritually younger generations into their next phases and support their growth in stature in Christ. In the absence of Christian initiations, many Christians take role models from the world and imitate them. And so whole generations are initiated by MT’. sports, and sometimes even by cults or satanic groups who know very well the power of initiation.

How does a young girl of thirteen grow up into a mature mother in Christ if she is never initiated into motherhood? How many of us complain of how many girls are embracing pop-star role models, becoming initiated into this value system in concerts and clubs and ending up as more sad copies of dancing Barbie dolls? Similarly, many boys never meet a truly dedicated and dangerous Christian man but are familiar only with predictable, boring names on church membership roles. Once they run into a drug dealer, a freak, or a recruiter for any organization that smells of adventure, off they go, swept off their feet by the promise of more meaningful and adventurous lives and a chance to change the world. Many of God’s best and most influential men and women in history come from rough, rather than overprotected, backgrounds: fishermen, prostitutes, zealots, orphans, drug dealers, mafia members, political extremists, and even former jihadists and near-terrorists. Few come from reputable Bible schools or predictable middle-class churches where no one has given them a cause to die for, challenged them to the core, or forced them to embrace the challenge and find something to live for.

Consider the way that Israeli soldiers are routinely brought through the initiation process. They are led to visit Masada or Holocaust memorial sites like Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. Faced with the terrors of the Holocaust and the past wars, they are told: “You soldiers are the last line of defense between such an enemy that is still out there and the safety of our land and your family. What will be your resolve?” Often enough, with tears in their eyes, something clicks in the young men and women, and they understand that if they don’t give their lives for this, their country will be lost. And it transforms them from dreamy teenagers, waiting to watch one more movie, into soldiers who take responsibility. It wakes them up, challenges them, and initiates them as disciples for their cause, those who are no longer waiting for others to take initiative while they enjoy the good life, but who are instead willing to leave their former lives and enter into a new kind of existence.

(The House Church Book. Wolfgang Simson. Barna, 2009, pg 149-151)