The following sermon was presented by the Reverend John W. Howe, Rector of Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia, on September 7, 1986. The title is A Generation for Jesus, and the scripture reference is Deuteronomy chapter 6, verses 1 through 9. 

A reading from the book of Deuteronomy. Moses is speaking to the people of Israel. chapter 6.

Now this is the commandment, the statutes, and the ordinances which the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land which you are going over to possess it, that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son's son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. Hear, therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and with all your might.

And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart, and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house, and on your gates.

The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. We sent out information to you this week concerning our church school that already needs to be revised. And I apologize to you at the very outset for any confusion that that may have caused. I want to make two points of clarification this morning.

What we're talking about and what we tried to share with you is a plan to include our youngsters in an experience of family worship. And the first point is that that does not mean that we're going to try to bring all of them in here every Sunday. We're working out a rotation that will bring some of them in each week while the others go on having their classes and their chapels as usual.

And by the way, that includes classes for all ages up through 6th grade at 8 o'clock, which was not what we said in the letter. Secondly, that system of rotation, of bringing kids into this service, doesn't begin until October. So we're going to ask you, if you have children in our church school during this month, just take them directly to their classes.

It just seemed with newcomers arriving and children needing to be registered for their classes that it was better to back off and wait a couple of weeks before trying to begin all of that new program. We're going to have more information about that in the newsletter and in the service leaflet in future weeks, and I trust that that will all be clear eventually. The concern behind this is what I want to share with you this morning.

Several things that are related to each other. It seems to me that in program after program here at Toro, just as in most churches, we have the phenomenon that the family arrives together, the parents go one way and the children go another. And so church, rather than being a place where we experience community with multiple generations interacting together, instead becomes a place where we segregate people in their own peer groups according to their age.

And the model that we're using for passing on the Christian faith from one generation to another is really the model of the secular school system. And if you stop and think about it, that assumes that the Christian faith is something that we primarily learn with our minds. Only, of course, it isn't. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, as well as with your mind, with all your strength.

Somebody has well said that Christianity is not so much taught as it is caught. you get where the real thing is and you want in on it I think that's probably the experience of most of us we found ourselves at some point surrounded by people who really had a living faith and we wanted that we caught it of course there's an element of teaching but you have to be in the midst of it we learn to trust God by being surrounded by people who trust God. And I think that one of the things we've been going through this past year in a kind of intense way is in worship.

We learn to worship by worshiping, by being in the midst of a people that is worshiping. You don't learn about it by studying it somewhere. And if that's true for us, how much more true will it be for our kids?

we've had parents saying to us look if my children go to Sunday school week after week and never come into the big church how are they ever going to learn what that's all about and we want them to learn so that's what we wrote you about and we need to work out the details of it but I'd put it this way that including our children in worship with us on a regular basis is only a small piece of what we're considering. And I want us to see an even bigger perspective this morning. Deuteronomy 6, which we read a moment ago, I believe is representative of the whole witness of Scripture.

Go from one cover of the Bible to the other, and you're going to find that at least three things are true. Number one, the primary responsibility for the spiritual nurture of children belongs to their parents. Do you believe that?

I think that's easy to say, but the truth of the matter is we try to leave it to the priest and the Levite, the scribe and the Pharisee, or the pastor and the church school teacher. the primary responsibility for the spiritual nurture of children belongs to their parents. Moms and dads, what we read in Deuteronomy 6, is that you are to take every possible opportunity to be sharing with your kids what it is to know the Lord.

When you sit down in your house, when you go on a trip, when you're getting ready for bed, when you rise in the morning, You're to teach His Word diligently, it says, to your children. Teach my Word diligently to your children, both in a structured way, in family Bible study, in Scripture memorization. Do you have a program of doing that?

And in an informal way, in just bringing the Lord into the everyday discussion of the little details of our lives. That's your responsibility and your high privilege. James Dobson has cited national studies analyzing the amount of time the typical American father spends one-on-one in discussion with his kids in an average day.

I wonder if you can guess how much time that is. It will shock you if you haven't already heard it. The typical American father, one-on-one in discussion with his kids every day, spends an average of less than 90 seconds.

Compare that with seven hours in a secular school where God's name cannot be mentioned, four to five hours in front of a television where it's consistently taken in vain, somebody has estimated that by the time a child reaches high school he's probably seen approximately 35,000 murders on television and compare that with how much has he heard about the Lord Jesus we've got to do something about that don't we we've got to take a hard look at our schedules and revise our priorities We've got scores of books in the bookstore that will help you if you're not already doing something by way of family Bible study and sharing the Lord with your kids in an intentional way. We've got workbooks, discussion guides, storybooks, picture books for the little ones. Don't put it off.

Don't put it off. The time that we have them is so brief. Don't put it off.

We cannot possibly make up for a week's worth of godlessness in an hour of church school. It's your responsibility and it's your privilege. Secondly, I want you to notice that God promises His blessing to the extent that we'll be faithful to this priority and this calling.

God promises His blessing from one generation to the next. Hear, O Israel, these words, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you and with your son and with your son's sons, and with your daughters, and with your daughters' daughters. Hear these words and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you and your kids and your grandkids.

God promises to bless our children and our grandchildren if we'll take seriously our calling to make them a priority in sharing the Lord Jesus. You know, there was a time when churches were known for great preachers. A few well-known churches were known for great preaching, and there's still a few around.

In recent years, the emphasis has shifted, and the great churches are those that have great congregations. And I say thank God for that. We're committed to that.

Great congregations meaning places in which the laity are deeply involved. We are committed to that here at Toro. We believe in every member ministry.

And if you're a newcomer, we would invite you to find, to seek out and find from the Lord where it is that He wants you to be exercising your particular ministry among us. But I'm interested in reading through Scripture. It doesn't seem to me that the Bible puts anywhere near as much emphasis on building a great congregation as it does on building a great generation.

Building the next generation. for Jesus. How are we doing?

I think of the story of Eli in the Old Testament. Eli was the high priest of Israel. He was a godly man.

He was the holiest man of his day. And yet somehow he had failed to communicate that to his own children. And the Lord not only took away the ministry from him, but He said to little Samuel, You go and tell Eli that I'm about to punish his house forever because of the iniquity of his sons.

That sobers me up real fast. How about you? I think I dreamed last spring that when we got all these new folks on staff, my life would be made easier.

I woke up this fall to a rather different reality. My life has never been so busy. And in addition to responsibilities here, I'm traveling a tremendous amount this fall.

In the midst of that, I am scrambling to try to find, to make, to steal quality time for my own children. And I'll tell you this, that if Truro Church became the greatest church in the history of Christendom, and I failed to share it with Jonathan, with Kathy and Jessica, I've failed. And I need your prayers.

And you need mine. I've begun trying to take my kids with me when I'm traveling. It's not usually possible, but once in a while it is, to take them with me to have an intensive time together.

I took Jessica with me on a trip this summer. I'm hoping to take Jonathan with me in November when I go to Rome and to Africa, and that's not just because it's a kick to travel. I want him to see firsthand what it is to share the Lord Jesus in decadent and occult Rome and in impoverished but spiritually booming East Africa.

Somehow, I hope I'm able to do that. Because that's the priority in my life. That's what God has given to me before all the rest of it.

What would it mean to commit ourselves to building a generation for Jesus? What would it mean? Did you have a little shudder as you heard the words of the Lord Himself when He talked about counting the cost?

You cannot be My disciple unless you put Me absolutely first, and that means counting the cost. Don't start to build a tower unless you've figured out how much it's going to cost and whether you're going to be able to complete it. Don't go off to war unless you've got enough people to fight the battle with you.

Did you have a little sense of concern as you heard that? Don't start a family. unless you're committed to seeing it through as your highest priority to bring those kids to know and love the Lord Jesus.

But, thirdly, please be clear that it's not just the responsibility of the parents. It is theirs primarily. But God calls all of the rest of the community of faith to stand with them and to support them in that most vital of callings.

If you've been sitting there saying, this doesn't apply to me, I don't have any kids, or my kids are all grown and gone, you've missed the point. It applies to all of us together as the family of faith to raise the next generation to know and love the Lord Jesus. Paul said to Timothy, who was inheriting the responsibility for leadership, Paul said, that which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust the same to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

That's four generations if you stop and think about it. Paul to Timothy to faithful men to others, and they to others, and they to others. how many generations has it been that have handed on that faith to you?

And did you ever stop and think about the fact that if any one of them had broken the link, you wouldn't know anything about it? Amen. Thank you, Cornelius.

How many of you say amen? Amen. And how many are depending on us not to break the link?

And so we need each other. We're taking a fresh look at virtually everything we're doing. Shepherd groups, now we're calling them home groups.

Up until this point, they've been almost entirely adult-oriented. And we're saying, wait a minute, we've been blindsided in this. Let's think of ways that we can include our kids, whether it's potluck suppers once a month, or whether it's special activities from time to time.

Let's think of ways to include our kids. Let's think as a parish of more special events such as intergenerational activities like the share fair coming up in a few weeks. Let's think of ways to broaden the experience to have baptisms on Sundays so that kids can see them at least from time to time.

And know, again, be reminded and understand more deeply what their baptism is all about. I would urge you to seek out the Lord to find out what He would have you do in particular to aid and abet that process, to support it within the program, within the ministry of the larger church family, but more particularly in your own. What would God say to you in terms of your priorities, your schedule, and your kids?

Teach these words diligently to your children, that it may go well with you and your son and your son's son, because there's no higher priority than raising a generation for Jesus. I'm going to ask the fathers who are present, whether your kids are at home or away, would you please stand with me and pray with me? I ask you to just join me in this prayer.

Father in heaven, I thank you that you are my Father. And you've called me to be a Father. And Lord, I regret how badly I've failed in that.

I want to do better. I need your help. Help me to reorder my schedule.

To spend quality time with my kids. To find imaginative ways to share you with them. And help them to come to know you in a deep personal way.

I'm going to ask the mothers to join us. Would you stand? Lord, help us to build strong families.

Help us to love and support each other within the family. And to put you at the very center of our life. Help us to be examples to our children.

And to honor you within our homes. I'm going to ask everybody else to join us too. Let's just take hands with each other wherever we are.

Father God, thank you that you call us into a larger family. Help us to fall in love with each other. Help us to be the family of God.

And help us especially, Lord, to raise the little ones of this parish. in a way that will please you. Help them to come to know you and trust you, love you, honor you.

For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.