Equipping the Next Gerneration: Learning to Listen -- By: Jay Strother

Journal: Journal of Discipleship and Family Ministry
Volume: JDFM 01:1 (Fall 2010)
Article: Equipping the Next Gerneration: Learning to Listen
Author: Jay Strother


Equipping the Next Gerneration:
Learning to Listen

Jay Strother

Jay Strother is Campus and teaching Pastor of the Church at Station Hill. He previously served Brentwood Baptist Church as the emerging Generations minister, overseeing the spiritual formation processes for families and all ministries birth through college. Jay is a graduate of Greenville College and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He has authored small group resources for Serendipity House and coauthored Perspectives on Family Ministry (B&H Academic).

“Listen, Israel,” the Holman Christian Standard Bible renders the familiar words of Moses, “the Lord our God, the Lord is One” (Deut. 6:4).

The setting in which these words were delivered was one of the great scenes of Scripture. God’s people are poised for conquest, camped within sight of the long-promised land. Moses, now a seasoned leader who knows his days are numbered, gathers the people to remind them one last time what matters most. Recalling their struggles, Moses shifts his focus from codes and rules. Moses, inspired by the very Spirit of God, gives the people a single command that sums up all the statutes and ordinances in a single sweeping statement. This command isn’t aimed only at the head; it aims for the heart too: “Listen, Israel; the Lord our God, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and with all your strength. These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart.”

This passage is saturated with key relational words: “Listen!” “Love!” “Heart!” These words would forever alter the way in which the people of Israel considered their connection to their God.

Listen.

Listen to the timeless word of God, for “many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it’s the Lord purpose that prevails” (Prov 19:21).

Listen to Solomon instructing us to “train up a child according to the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Prov 22:6). Could it be that God designed the home as the first and best “small group” because no one understands better than parents the unique “bent” of each child?

Listen to the Spirit-fueled words of Peter at Pentecost, who tells new believers that the promise of new life in Christ Jesus, the new covenant, is not just for them, but “for you and for your children” (Acts 2:39).

Keep listening.

Listen to single parents in forty percent of American homes who are struggling to pay the mortgage and to keep food on ...

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