Remembering the Past, But Looking To The Future

Something from 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 caught my attention this week. As Jesus anticipated His crucifixion, He told the disciples to “Do this in remembrance of me” twice. In doing so, Jesus made it doubly clear that His followers were to remember this day and this observance.

But, Paul made it clear that we are also to look forward, to the future, at the Lord’s Supper; “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Cor. 11:26 Emphasis mine). Both the remembrance of Christ’s sacrifice and the hope of His return should change how we live and act in this world and carry out the work of the ministry that Christ has entrusted to us.

As we consider how to reach this fallen world with the Good News of Jesus Christ, we need to follow the example from 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 … we need to remember the past, but keep looking to the future. We should hold onto meaningful tradition (but not tradition for tradition’s sake alone) and timeless Truth (the Word of God). But, we must also recognize that this world keeps changing. If we fail to recognize this and adapt, we will find that we’ve tailored our ministry to serve only one generation. While we may make efforts (and even see some success) to reach other generations, we will have a hard time keeping them. As Aaron Thomason mentioned at the CEF Banquet, they think and do things differently. If we are not careful, the next generation will find that they don’t fit in to our way of doing things. As the saying goes, it’s awfully hard to fit a square peg into a round hole.

But, how do we minister effectively to multiple generations? Well, that’s the hard part, and I don’t have all the answers. This is something we all must be thinking, praying, and acting on if we want to obey Christ, do the work of the Great Commission, and see this ministry flourish in the years to come. I think we’ve still got some work to do in this area. Will you commit to pray with me about this? Will you be involved in the process (what ever that may be)? Please let me know.

In His grip,
Pastor Decker