Years ago, some friends visited a leader who had been instrumental in our first church plant in the early 1980s. He had endured tremendous relational pain, betrayal, and disappointment through both his local church and a network of churches. Recently, I spoke with someone who walked closely with him during those years and realized his suffering was even greater than we had originally understood.
When my friends asked what he planned to do next, his answer was incredibly prophetic about the plans and purposes of God. He didn’t let the dissappointments and failure of others keep him from the heart of God’s great design.
“The only thing I know to do for sure is to help build a church for my children’s children.”
That statement captures something at the very heart of God’s purpose. God’s kingdom has always been multigenerational. He has never intended His people to live as isolated individuals but as His family rooted in His covenant love, where every generation faithfully receives, stewards it, and passes on the things of God.
Sadly, our culture is moving in the opposite direction. We live in a time marked by unprecedented loneliness and growing family estrangement. Families either never form, or are destroyed by the pain of separation. Partners and parents separate from each other, become separated from children, grandparents from grandchildren, and generations increasingly live disconnected from one another. Rather than reconciliation, forgiveness, and the security of covenant family commitment, our culture often celebrates personal autonomy and simply walking away.
This should not surprise us. From the beginning in the Garden of Eden, the enemy has sought to divide what God united. Every generation develops its own music, fashions, language, and cultural symbols. None of these things are inherently evil. Yet throughout history the enemy has repeatedly used cultural expressions and his nature of pride to drive wedges between generations, encouraging young people to define themselves by rejecting the wisdom and values of those who came before them.
I once read a quote in Benny Phillips’ book Walking with the Wise attributed to rocker David Crosby expressing how some artist throughout the centuries have made it their goal to rip parents and teens apart.
“I figured that the only thing to do was steal their kids. I still think it’s the only thing to do. By saying that, I’m not talking about kidnapping; I’m just talking about changing people’s value systems, which removes them from their parents’ world very effectively” – David Crosby
When generations are separated, the transmission of faith, wisdom, identity, and spiritual inheritance is weakened.
God’s design is entirely different: multigenerational dependency.
When He revealed Himself to Moses at the burning bush, He defined Himself generationally, “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” (Exodus 3:6, 15). Throughout Scripture, God reveals Himself as the covenant-keeping God whose purposes flow from one generation to the next. His family was never intended to consist of isolated individuals pursuing their own spiritual journeys, but of generations joined together in His unfolding purpose.
This pattern echoes throughout Scripture. Israel was commanded to teach God’s ways diligently to their children (Deuteronomy 6:4-9). One generation was to declare God’s mighty works to another (Psalm 145:4). The psalmist warned against breaking this chain of inheritance (Psalm 78:1-8). Malachi ended the Old Testament by declaring that God’s work of restoration would effect the generations turning “the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers” (Malachi 4:5-6). God restores His people by restoring generations.
Perhaps nowhere is God’s multigenerational design revealed more remarkably than in Hebrews 11.
- Hebrews 11:39-12:2 And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, (40) because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect. (12:1) Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, (2) fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith..
After recounting the imperfect but amazing heroes of faith in Chapter 11, the writer says they “did not receive what was promised… so that apart from us they should not be made perfect.” Because of this those who have gone on before become “a great cloud of witnesses.” God’s work is so generationally interconnected that even Abraham, Moses, David, and the prophets await the completion of what God is accomplishing through succeeding generations, His family, the bride of Christ.
We truly need one another
The church is not simply a gathering or an organization of people who share the same beliefs. It is God’s multigenerational household/family. The older need the younger to continue the race, and the younger need the older to help the discover His path. None of us stands alone.
In a culture of fractured families and relationships, the church has an opportunity to both live and demonstrate God’s better way. We are called to model reconciliation instead of separation, covenant instead of convenience, and spiritual inheritance instead of generational fragmentation.
Like that faithful leader years ago, perhaps we should ask ourselves a different question. Instead of asking, “What can I build during my lifetime?” we should ask, “What am I leaving for my children’s children?”
Our greatest contribution to God’s kingdom may not be what we accomplish ourselves, but what we faithfully pass on.
As we join Jesus in building God’s house (Matthew 16:18, Hebrews 3:3-4), may we build in such a way that future generations inherit a church that more fully reflects His eternal design.
Practical Steps
If this is God’s design, how should we respond?
- First, recover a generational vision. Our prayers, decisions, and labor cannot be limited to what benefits us or even our own generation. Like the leader who resolved to “build a church for my children’s children,” we must think in terms of spiritual inheritance. We have received much from those who came before us. Our calling is to steward that inheritance faithfully and pass it on stronger than we received it.
- Second, intentionally build relationships across generations. Older believers are called to become spiritual fathers and mothers, not merely faithful attenders. Younger believers should seek the wisdom of those who have walked with Christ for many years. Healthy churches create opportunities for generations to worship, pray, serve, and share life together. God’s family is strongest when the generations truly know one another.
- Third, become ministers of reconciliation. In a culture where estrangement has become increasingly common, the church should both demonstrate and help others pursue forgiveness, restoring broken relationships, and refusing to let offense have the final word. While reconciliation is not always possible, it should always be our pursuit because it reflects the heart of our Father.
- Finally, redefine success. Our culture measures success by what we accumulate, accomplish, or build during our lifetime. Scripture measures success by faithfulness and inheritance. The question is not simply, “Was my life important/successful?” but, “What am I leaving for those who follow?” A church, family, or ministry that fails to prepare the next generation has misunderstood God’s purpose.
The God who revealed Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is still building His family the same way today. His purpose has never been fulfilled through isolated individuals but through fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, grandparents and grandchildren, spiritual parents and spiritual children, all joined together in one covenant family calling that spans multiple generations.
Perhaps our greatest contribution to God’s kingdom will not be what we accomplish during our own lifetime, but what we faithfully pass on. May we live, serve, and build so that our children’s children both inherit, then help build churches that more fully reflect God’s eternal design.