“Gnarly,” “Tubular,” “Drip,” “Based”—slang changes throughout the decades. Sometimes, it feels as if different generations speak entirely different languages. Technology and the world’s geopolitical landscape change almost as fast. How do we carry Christ across generations when our grandparents or our children sometimes seem like people living in a totally different world?
We posed the question to our global leaders. Here are some of the highlights of our conversation.
If you could give young believers one gift or piece of advice from your experience, what would it be?
But what about the other side of the conversation? Younger generations of believers need to be heard too. What do you wish older generations knew?
Should how we communicate the gospel change from one generation to another?
We can allow any number of things to form and define us—our experience of technology, the norms of our culture or generation, the pervasive influence of despair and isolation. We can allow these things to become barriers to sharing, and receiving, the gospel. But as our brothers and sisters so urgently desire to impress upon rising generations, our identity is rooted in Christ. And, as Josias Mohanoe, our ministry director in Lesotho, noted, “In my experience, different generations can work together in Christ, while it seems unbelievers can never cooperate.”
The unity of the body of Christ across every kind of border—language, geographic, generational—is a bright witness!
