GENERATIONS!

Last week I was in Chicago. Moody Bible Institute had its Spiritual Enrichment Week and I was the designated chapel speaker for this event. What fun!

The preaching itself was fun, of course! I enjoy preaching anyway and to do something you enjoy with an appreciative crowd is makes it even more enjoyable.

But the energy of these kids was contagious and innervating. Add to that a delightful staff, friendly faculty, and a gracious President, you have a mix that is a powerful influence for Jesus Christ in the world.

Moody is a huge enterprise of education, radio, and publishing arms. The education part is the Bible Institute for undergrads with 20 odd programs catering to about 1500 students, and the Theological Seminary for several hundred grad students.

I was impressed with the students. Besides the fact that they hoot and cheer enthusiastically in chapel (we need to do that at Dallas Seminary!), they also sing wonderfully. And having a music department means that the student-led music, with a different band each day, is of high caliber. What joy!

And, then, as guest speaker, during my free times, the school signed up students who wanted to chat with me, giving each a half-hour slot. What a delight. Lots of questions. Lots of probing. Lots of zeal. (Not surprisingly, celibacy and singleness was the area that had many of the students curious.) Inspiring!

Then the casual conversations over lunch (and over the din in the Student Dining Room). Breakfast with President Nyquist. Coffee with a DTS alum and a former student, now a youth pastor in the area, who was visiting with a few of the youth in his church interested in Moody. Delightful!

A visit to a dorm floor at the request of an RA, led to a one-hour chat with a “round table” of students. More questions. More probing. More demonstration of zeal. And then these guys laid hands and prayed for me! Powerful!

I was thrilled with their fervor for Christ and their passion for ministry. It was wonderful to see that their parents and churches and mentors were successfully passing on the faith to the next generation.

I could see why Paul wrote to his ward Timothy:

For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you,

which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois

and your mother Eunice,

and I am sure that it is in you as well.

2 Timothy 1:5

Somebody had done a good job in the previous generation.

You, however, continue in

the things you have learned

and become convinced of,

knowing from whom you have learned them,

and that from childhood you have known

the sacred writings which are able

to give you the wisdom

that leads to salvation through faith

which is in Christ Jesus.

2 Timothy 3:14–15

Youngsters taught well. Youths pointed to the Scriptures. Godliness modeled to the next generation. What a blessing!

It is a tremendous feeling to know you are part of a passing generation that is responsible to hand on the baton to the succeeding new batch of youths. It is joy inexpressible to realize that that baton-passing is happening successfully. Praise God! May they, in their own time, pass it on further.

You therefore, my son, be strong

in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

The things which you have heard from me

in the presence of many witnesses,

entrust these to faithful men

who will be able to teach others also.

2 Timothy 2:1–2

Nope, we are not the last generation. There is hope in the next. Much hope, thank God!