What They Don't Know...

Last night, after our youth group met, I noticed one of our kids sending home another student with one of the well worn Bibles our children's minister keeps handy. Why would this 16 year old kid in western Nebraska be needing an overused Bible? Because he didn't have one. Last night we were talking about what the church is supposed to be and how we can only really find out who we are by paying attention to Who made us. How we find ourselves when we find Him in His Scriptures...

Img: Ron Loveday at CreationSwap

But this kid had no Bible until last night, and he's hungry to know more because the whole idea is new to him.

Let that sink in for a minute.

He has 16 years of life surrounded by steeples and church-goers, but without an understanding of who God even is... or maybe even that God is. This is the second time recently that I've been confronted with the stark reality that my generation is largely failing when it comes to teaching the next generation. We can no longer continue to think (or maybe it's just pretending) that everybody already knows who Jesus is and that every upstanding American has already chosen to follow Him. How can they believe if they haven't even heard? And how can they hear unless someone is sent to tell them? (Check out a bit of Romans 10 for more on that.)

Still think we're living in a Christian nation?

Wake up.

The mission field is right outside your front door. Your community is full of people who have no clue who Jesus really is. Go make disciples.