We have some great youger people in our corps. Some of our teenagers are a real example of well thought out faith, but sincere faith of the heart too. They also speak with a reality about the fight they are in, accepting fully that the devil tries to trip them up and that they know they can turn to prayer. They seem to take God at His word and they refresh me…I can get cynical.
We all know in the corps that there are perhaps some of us who don’t think out our faith that well…we are not always good at letting God into every area. We are not always very good at accepting the reality of the fight we are in with ourselves, the way the world works and the devil. We can dress correctly, but perhaps we shouldn’t be so daring as to put our uniform on our backs sometimes.
And the strange thing is that we can look at our teenagers unapprovingly for not only their youthfulness and the fact that they can’t always be bothered to fit into our moulds, and even more unapprovingly because they are not wearing the right clothes. I’d rather have 100 people who have strong strong convictions about faith and are active in the corps than have a 100 people who look right, but they have not settled it in thier own lives that they are not just playing at toy soldiers.
We need to think seriously in these days about what we falsely call “standards.” If by standards we mean “compliance” then we are barking up the wrong tree…however, if by standards we mean a commitment to prayer, bible study, active involvement in corps ministry, a desire to meet and worship God, a willingess to talk to their friends about Jesus, then I would 100% support we uphold “standards.” But really, it is our young people who will give us the better example.
We need to allow our young people to rise and lead us forward. They know their generation, they know the shape of things to come and more importantly, they are seeking God now in these years more than some of us knew how to do when we were that age. Never before has there been a generation who have grasped that they need to re-package the life changing gospel in stuff that their peers will be able to connect with in a real way. More power to them.
grace
Andrew C
Andrew M Clark 