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#1: Why Does The Next Generation Matter?
67 Plays4 months ago
In this launch episode of NextGen Matters Podcast, Rich invites ministry leaders to rediscover the eternal significance of reaching today’s youth by asking one of the most important questions in ministry: Why does the next generation matter? Drawing from Scripture, personal experience, and decades of youth ministry, Rich explores the urgency of reaching, discipling, and empowering the next generation for Christ. From Psalm 78 to Deuteronomy 6, and examples throughout the Old and New Testaments, he unpacks biblical foundations for NextGen ministry and challenges leaders to see the eternal impact of their calling.
Grab your coffee and join Rich as he unpacks the scriptural mandate, the spiritual opportunity, and the discipleship pattern that calls leaders to rise with clarity, confidence, and consistency. If you’ve ever felt the tension between your calling and the chaos of adolescent culture, this episode will remind you why your ministry matters, why your leadership is essential, and why the gospel must reach the next generation—before it’s too late.
Resources Mentioned:
• The Navigators - https://www.navigators.org/
• Dawson Trotman, Born to Reproduce - https://www.navigators.org/resource/born-to-reproduce/
• United States Census Bureau - https://www.census.gov/
• Barna Group Research - https://www.barna.com/
Timestamps:
• 00:00 – Introduction: Why this next generation matters
• 01:30 – The biblical urgency of reaching the next generation
• 03:00 – Psalm 78 and the call to generational discipleship
• 05:00 – Rich's personal reflections as a grandfather and ministry leader
• 07:00 – The Shema and the call for family and spiritual community discipleship
• 08:30 – Old Testament models of multigenerational worship and teaching
• 12:00 – Jesus’ ministry to children and adolescents
• 17:20 – The urgency of the harvest: 84 million young people and the gospel gap
• 22:30 – Why adolescent ministry is crucial for shaping worldview and faith
• 24:40 – Generational discipleship and the warning from Judges 2
• 27:00 – Paul’s mentoring model: investing in the next generation of leaders
• 30:00 – Living with urgency: preparing future leaders of the Church
• 32:30 – The eternal value of investing in God’s Word and people
• 33:45 – Call to action: Thank God for your calling to serve this generation
• 34:30 – Closing encouragement: Your leadership matters because the gospel matters
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Importance of Next Gen
00:00:01
NextGen Matters
Hey friend, welcome to the Next Gen Matters podcast, a show for ministry leaders seeking to move beyond overwhelm and move into leading with clarity, confidence, and consistency.
00:00:12
NextGen Matters
I'm Rich Brown, and today we are asking a question. It's a question that's just not timely. It's a question that's eternal. Why does this next generation matter?
00:00:26
NextGen Matters
Yeah, why does this next generation matter? You know, currently, according to the United States Census, there are over 63 million school-aged children in this nation from the ages of 5 to 19. 63 million. I'll break those numbers down a little bit later in the show.
00:00:46
NextGen Matters
If you include young adults 20 to 24, that's another 21 million. That would be 84 million.
00:00:53
NextGen Matters
children, adolescents, and young adults. And these are the people that you serve, whether you work in children's ministry, adolescent, youth ministries, or you work in young adult ministries.
00:01:05
NextGen Matters
All part of the Next Gen Ministries podcast, right? Here we go, 84 million. So, have you ever felt the tension between your calling and the chaos of today's adolescent culture?
Three Reasons Next Gen Matters
00:01:26
NextGen Matters
If you've ever wondered if your ministry is really making a difference and why you do what you do, then this episode is for you.
00:01:39
NextGen Matters
In these next moments together, we're gonna be looking at and unpacking three basic reasons of why this next generation matters. And I'm gonna use one word that kind of encapsulates all of it, and it's the word urgency.
00:01:54
NextGen Matters
The first reason I would say, if someone says to me, Rich, why does this next generation matter? And I would say, because of the urgency we see in the scripture. Uh-huh.
00:02:05
NextGen Matters
See Psalm 145 in verse four, David, King David writes this verse. One generation shall commend your works to another.
00:02:17
NextGen Matters
One generation shall commend your works to another. Psalm 78. Psalm 78 is the psalm that I chose as the anchor scripture to Next Gen Matters even before I had the name figured out, the brand name, Next Gen Matters.
00:02:36
NextGen Matters
When God put this ministry, this business called NGM or Next Gen Matters on my heart back in the summer of 2019, nineteen Yeah, the scripture Psalm 78 was what first came to me.
00:02:49
NextGen Matters
That's what I wanted to do before I even named it Next Gen Matters.
Generational Discipleship and Personal Reflections
00:02:55
NextGen Matters
Now, if you're watching on YouTube, you can see behind me my clock. And above the 12, it has the brand Next Gen Matters.
00:03:02
NextGen Matters
And below the 6, it has Psalm 78. seventy eight Let me just read to you verses 4 through 6.
00:03:10
NextGen Matters
This is Asaph. This is not David. This is the worship leader for David, the worship leader of God's people in Jerusalem. Asaph writes this, We will not hide them, God's commands, we will not hide them from their descendants.
00:03:27
NextGen Matters
We will tell the next generation of the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, His power and the wonders He has done. He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to teach their children.
00:03:47
NextGen Matters
Let me stop. Sounds like Deuteronomy 6, doesn't it? See, he attaches what he is saying, Asaph, is attaching that back to Deuteronomy 6. And we'll look at that in a moment.
00:04:00
NextGen Matters
Back up to what Brother Asaph was saying here. which he commanded our ancestors to teach their children. So, verse 6 says, the next generation would know them.
00:04:12
NextGen Matters
Even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children. That's four generations of what I would call generational discipleship.
00:04:24
NextGen Matters
Next-gen ministries. Now, that verse and that though that those verses says, It's significant for me being a student ministry worker for all these years, but five years ago, it really began to take a deeper deeper place in my life.
00:04:43
NextGen Matters
It was five, almost six years ago that my oldest grandson, Joshua, was born. And when he was born, and then his sister came along, And then my other grandson came along.
00:04:57
NextGen Matters
And then the next grandson came along. And then four months ago, my little granddaughter came along. And yeah, we got five at this point. We we keep telling the kids, no pressure, but y'all keep keep coming. You know, we're good with that.
00:05:08
NextGen Matters
We got five right now. Now that I'm a grandfather, those verses are much more significant. Even today, as I pray over my grandchildren, which I do on a daily basis, I also pray.
00:05:25
NextGen Matters
that when, and let's be honest, I know the math. I'm 62. I just pray I'll be around to see their graduation from high school. Okay? But I would love to see my great-grandchildren, but I know the math.
00:05:38
NextGen Matters
Honestly, I'm being realistic. I probably won't. But unless Jesus doesn't return, and as they grow up to love God, and then to teach their children, I will not physically see this side of eternity, my grandchildren,
00:05:54
NextGen Matters
but I'm still praying for them, my great-grandchildren. I'm still praying for my great-grandchildren, that they too would embrace the gospel of Jesus. That is my heart, just not as a youth worker, but it became much deeper when I became a grandfather.
Scriptural Foundations for Next Gen Ministry
00:06:10
NextGen Matters
You know, years ago, um i i went through the book of Psalms specifically doing a word search on the phrase next generation. I challenge you to do the same.
00:06:21
NextGen Matters
It was amazing to me. And when I was teaching residentially in the university to youth future youth leaders, you know, 18, 19, 20 year olds, I put this in my research in one of the work texts.
00:06:34
NextGen Matters
happens to be an entire page long. The verses out of the book of Psalms, just Psalms, the verses that speak of the next generation, the battle cry for us to take this message of God and his word and his truth to another generation. i challenge you to look it up as well.
00:06:52
NextGen Matters
Do a word search on the next generation and see what you find.
00:06:58
NextGen Matters
Deuteronomy 6, we know that as the Shema. The Shema, the Lord our God is one. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one. And those beautiful verses which describe specifically what should take place in a home, and that is that family discipleship, not just necessarily, let's say, a hard, fast instruction time, even a bigger picture of a lifestyle of discipling our children to become young men and young women who follow God.
00:07:29
NextGen Matters
But I want something to not be lost when you see Deuteronomy 6. I'm going to push the button a little bit on this. I know it's used a ton for family ministries, and I agree. Again, I'm a dad. I'm a grandfather. I get it.
00:07:44
NextGen Matters
But Deuteronomy 6 isn't just for the family. It's also for the family of God. Because look at the very beginning of Deuteronomy 6, y'all. Moses says, Hear, O Israel.
00:07:58
NextGen Matters
the Lord our God is one. You see, it is about family, about the biological family, raising up another generation, but it's also about the spiritual family.
00:08:09
NextGen Matters
And we see that principle going right into the New Testament as well. Something else I want you to consider when I see the urgency from the word of God, another thing I want to point out is something that takes place in the Old Testament.
00:08:24
NextGen Matters
In Deuteronomy, it's specifically chapter 31 and verse 12, as well as Joshua 8.35. We see two different occasions where what's called the general assemblies, where the shofar plays, you know, the trumpets, if you will, and all the people of God gather together. In Deuteronomy, it's Moses. And in the book of Joshua, of course, it's Joshua leading the people, not just in worship, but teaching the people the very words of God.
00:08:53
NextGen Matters
And who was there? The men, women, and children. What I want you to see is the urgency of the Word of God is to have not just adults hearing the Word of God taught and preached, but also a younger generation.
00:09:13
NextGen Matters
I love Nehemiah 9. I actually have it here in front of me. In Nehemiah 9, I'm sorry, Nehemiah 8. Nehemiah 9 talks about that as well, but specifically in verse 8. You have Ezra dedicating, not just the temple, but dedicating also the walls, which was the theme of the book of Nehemiah, the rebuilding of the walls to protect the city, the city that had been devastated by Babylon 70 plus years later. There's a new temple that's been built.
00:09:44
NextGen Matters
And the people of God have come back to their home in Jerusalem. And Ezra gathers all the people together. And as the people of God join him in this large assembly to hear the word of the Lord read, specifically the Torah.
00:10:06
NextGen Matters
This is chapter 8. Let me read a couple of verses. Verse 2 says, So on the first day of the seventh month, Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly, which was made up of, you ready y'all?
00:10:20
NextGen Matters
Made up of men and women in hall and all who were able to understand. And all who were able to understand. That phrase is used again later in that passage.
00:10:33
NextGen Matters
There were people there, men, women, and those who were able to understand. I don't think it's a stretch to realize that's adolescents, probably even older children.
00:10:44
NextGen Matters
They were there with mothers and fathers, just not their parents, but others' parents as well. the We use the phrase a students. The students were there, let me have a little fun with it, during the Sunday morning worship service.
00:10:59
NextGen Matters
All right.
00:11:01
NextGen Matters
And as the word of God was read, specifically the law, the passage lays out in this chapter eight and also in chapter nine, the people of God broke in a heart of repentance.
00:11:12
NextGen Matters
They realized they had not been following the law. They realized they had violated the law. They were broken over their sin.
00:11:24
NextGen Matters
What a powerful moment for adolescents to be watching adults, especially their own parents, become very humble and real before a holy God.
00:11:41
NextGen Matters
What a powerful moment. So what we're seeing is, in the urgency of the scriptures, the Bible is for, let's say, the next generation. They even see that in the book of Nehemiah.
00:11:56
NextGen Matters
Now, go into the New Testament. Some of the most famous passages we know of, of the teachings of Jesus and the activities of Jesus.
Jesus' Model for Inclusive Teaching
00:12:06
NextGen Matters
I'm going to lay a few out for you.
00:12:09
NextGen Matters
Jesus' is public teaching ministry. In Matthew 14, we see specifically in verse 21, this is referring to the feeding of the 5,000. Matthew says,
00:12:21
NextGen Matters
shares a detail that Mark and Luke don't, because Matthew, as a Jew, you've heard before, is writing to Jews, right? Matthew says, and it was 5,000 men besides the women and the children that were fed, but that also were in that, let's say, day-long seminar with Jesus, right?
00:12:45
NextGen Matters
That means women and children were there as well. They were together as families. So if there's, if there's 5,000 men, I'm not saying that every man was married, but I think we're safe in saying a high percentage were.
00:12:58
NextGen Matters
So for math's sake, let's say 5,000 times two married. okay You have 10,000 adults and also children. And if Jewish families only had two kids per Jewish family, and we think it probably was a lot more,
00:13:14
NextGen Matters
But that could be easily 20,000 people there. That's a big seminar. That's a lot of food.
00:13:25
NextGen Matters
That's a family that was hearing the word of God. Children were there hearing in the teachings of Jesus, not only in Matthew 14, but also the next chapter is the feeding of the 4,000 account.
00:13:40
NextGen Matters
Different city, different time, different crowd. 4,000, and Matthew 15, verse 38 says, 4,000 men and women and children.
00:13:52
NextGen Matters
So that means adolescents and children were hearing Jesus teach. Jesus had a heart for children. i also think of three ways that he ministered to them.
00:14:07
NextGen Matters
One is his his healing ministry in Matthew 9. Specifically, verses 18 through 26, we read the account of Jairus and his 12-year-old daughter, who was quite ill, and by the time Jesus arrived, she had passed away, but only for a short time because Jesus raised that 12-year-old back to life.
00:14:30
NextGen Matters
Jesus cares about 12-year-old girls. There's other occasions in the Gospels where Jesus healed children. We also see a Matthew 18, a time where there was a conversation about children and and and and their parents, and Jesus was among the people, and he took a child in Matthew 18 and put that child on his lap.
00:14:51
NextGen Matters
And he described faith. And he said, our faith needs to be just like the faith of this little one. What does that mean? He's talking about that sense of that simple trust.
00:15:04
NextGen Matters
The child was right there in Jesus's lap. Obviously that child felt comfortable, didn't get up and just jet away. The child was there on Jesus's lap, trusting, leaning in, listening to Jesus.
00:15:21
NextGen Matters
Jesus has a heart for children. Matter of fact, Right after he's speaking of that, he then defends children by saying, other words, he's saying,
00:15:36
NextGen Matters
spiritually etc better for you to have a millstone put around your neck be tossed into the sea in other words he's saying That's a better deal than if my father has to deal with you.
00:15:50
NextGen Matters
It'd be better for you to go, he's talking about commit suicide, than what my father's going to do because my father defends children. That's powerful.
00:16:00
NextGen Matters
And then Matthew 19, verses 13 to 15, Jesus bless his children. This is a cool story, right? So you got these parents of these little ones, the word there for child actually is infant, meaning very little ones.
00:16:15
NextGen Matters
We think of baby dedication today. Basically that is exactly what's going on here in this storyline. Families, are bringing their littles to Jesus to have a rabbi's blessing, to have Jesus bless the children.
00:16:30
NextGen Matters
But what the 12 do is they kind of create this like entourage guardian of the galaxy circle around Jesus. And like, it's kind of like yo, you got an appointment?
00:16:40
NextGen Matters
And Jesus wholly pushes that back from his 12. He pushes that away from his 12. He says, no, no, no, no. You let those little children come to me.
00:16:51
NextGen Matters
Jesus was embracing children. He was ministering to the children, and he was ministering to their parents.
00:16:58
NextGen Matters
And he blessed them. You know, Jesus has a heart for children, for adolescents. So what I see in the scripture is an urgency of God is pro-next-gen ministries.
00:17:14
NextGen Matters
We also see the urgency of the harvest. This is the second big point that i want to wanted to make with you and develop.
Youth Statistics and Ministry Opportunities
00:17:23
NextGen Matters
I've already mentioned that that number, 63 million. let me Let me break this down.
00:17:27
NextGen Matters
Between the ages of five through nine, the U.S. Census said this. This was just 2025. I'm recording this, and it was just this last year's census in 2024. Five to nine million.
00:17:38
NextGen Matters
I'm sorry, five to nine years. You have 20,102,000 plus. hundred two thousand plus 20 million between the ages of five to nine. That's basically kindergarten to about third slash fourth grade 10 to 14, which is like basically pre middle school, middle school, maybe their, their freshman year, 21,555,000 plus 20 million, five hundred fifty five thousand plus high school through just postgraduate 15 19.
00:18:04
NextGen Matters
plus fifteen to nineteen which is basically high school through just postgraduate in the nineteen 21,811,000, almost 22 million.
00:18:18
NextGen Matters
Then if you tack on the 21 million of 20 to 24 year olds, you have a total of 84 million. Now that just blows my mind. I don't, I can't get my head around that. That's just a number.
00:18:29
NextGen Matters
And here's where I want to stop and have you think. Don't be blown away with a number. I want you right now to think about that group you have that you serve. Maybe you're a small group leader.
00:18:42
NextGen Matters
You got three in ladies that, ma'am, you're working with. Maybe you got a small group of four or five guys. I have about four or five guys in my senior my senior class that I work with at our church.
00:18:56
NextGen Matters
Those dudes, right?
00:18:59
NextGen Matters
I want to think about right now, Cooper. I want to think right now about Matt. I want to think right now about some of the other names. I want you to think about some of the names that you minister to.
00:19:13
NextGen Matters
Let's not get lost in this massive number. I want you to realize that numbers have faces. So I want you right now as a steward to think about where God has placed to you.
00:19:25
NextGen Matters
Here's what I want to say. Of those 63 million between the ages of five to 19,
00:19:32
NextGen Matters
When someone asks me, what's the big deal about reaching out to children and adolescents? I say this. Those who are under the age of 18 are the most open age group of any age group to the gospel.
00:19:47
NextGen Matters
That is statistics between George Barna and other researching agencies. The most open anyone is to the gospel is under 18.
00:19:58
NextGen Matters
They are the most open to the gospel. Yet, those under 18 are the largest unreached age group for the gospel.
00:20:10
NextGen Matters
Multiple research agencies have come up with the same number. We can argue numbers all you want, but the reality is the harvest is huge.
00:20:22
NextGen Matters
It's 4%. four percent 4% of today's adolescents would even claim to have a grace through faith relationship in Jesus Christ, a saving relationship through Jesus, saved by grace through faith in his work and his work alone.
00:20:37
NextGen Matters
Not religion, Jesus Christ. crucified, buried, resurrected, and coming again. Lord of life. He is my Lord, my Savior.
00:20:49
NextGen Matters
He has given me new life. Through his grace, I have embraced him. I follow Jesus. Only four out of a hundred. So they are the most open to the gospel, yet they're the least reached.
00:21:06
NextGen Matters
Another reason I believe so firmly in adolescent ministries is this simple question. When is one's worldview formed?
00:21:12
NextGen Matters
Whether they're secular or faith-based, sociologists and psychologists will say that one's worldview is formed pretty much, locked in pretty much before the age of 18.
00:21:27
NextGen Matters
So when people ask me, and I've been asked, why would you focus so much attention on teenagers? My response is simple. Why would I not focus on teenagers?
00:21:43
NextGen Matters
As a youth ministries professor all those years, residential and even now in the online space, people would ask me and still ask me, why do you focus on adolescent ministries?
00:21:54
NextGen Matters
Why don't work with adults? That's where the big bucks is. You know, that's where the impact is. And I go, you know what? When I share some of these things with them, I just shared with you. I say, why wouldn't i work with adolescents?
00:22:08
NextGen Matters
The third reason I would say the third urgency is the urgency of next-generational discipleship. Of next-generational discipleship.
00:22:19
NextGen Matters
um If you watched the first episode, you listened to the first episode, my intro to this podcast, I said I want to, every week, each episode bring you biblical truth with actionable frameworks.
00:22:34
NextGen Matters
with a heart of encouragement. So yeah, I'm going right back to the word of God. Listen to this. This is the book of Judges. This is the judge's dilemma we have in the Old Testament. When I mentioned the urgency of the next generation needing to be discipled, listen to the book of Judges in chapter two. Let's set this up.
00:22:53
NextGen Matters
Moses dies at 120 years of age. Moses dies with no other people his age because his generation died off because of their rebellion and their sin.
00:23:05
NextGen Matters
The closest people he could find in his age were like Joshua and younger, who were 80 years of age and younger at that point. So you had the Moses generation who left Egypt, who wandered through the 40 years. You then had that that passing of the baton to the Joshua generation who finished up those 40 years and who entered into the Canaan land, the promised land, which is the book of Joshua.
00:23:29
NextGen Matters
Joshua. But then that Joshua generation passed away. And listen to what the book of Judges begins in chapter 2. This is verse 10. After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel.
00:23:51
NextGen Matters
The third generation the Moses generation, the Joshua generation, and the next generation, that third generation, the generation that was underneath Deuteronomy 6. In other words, when these parents and the church, pardon me, the community leaders were told by Moses to Joshua and the people to make sure you pass the faith down, the ball got dropped.
00:24:20
NextGen Matters
Because the very next generation says, They did not know God, nor the things that God had done. There is an urgency of next-generational discipleship. Do you realize how quickly, and you're a ministry, so you do, but do you realize how quickly, yes, God is sovereign, but humanly speaking, we can lose this thing.
00:24:45
NextGen Matters
It was President Reagan that spoke years ago, decades ago, about how fragile a republic could be.
00:24:53
NextGen Matters
Politically speaking, but spiritually speaking, I want you to think about this. Nations and families. Nations and families. I just gave you a national example how fast the Word of God can slip away from a generation.
00:25:12
NextGen Matters
I want to give you a family example. It's also in Scripture. The man... who sought God, the man who says, David, that he was a man after God's own heart.
00:25:25
NextGen Matters
Yes, he definitely had a lot of issues, a lot of issues, but his heart ran hard after God.
00:25:33
NextGen Matters
His son Solomon came into play, became king, started off very humble and very hungry,
00:25:42
NextGen Matters
and got very arrogant and disobeyed God immensely. And by the end of Solomon's life, he writes a journal, his memoirs, and writes it specifically, his target audience, chapter 12 of Ecclesiastes.
00:25:58
NextGen Matters
He speaks to young people, and he says, do not forget your creator while you are young.
00:26:05
NextGen Matters
But what's so unfortunate, one of his many sons, the one who was to become the next king, Rehoboam, checked out. Matter of fact, Rehoboam never bought in to Jehovah and the kingdom split.
00:26:20
NextGen Matters
That's how fast, that's how fast it can slide.
00:26:24
NextGen Matters
Wow.
00:26:26
NextGen Matters
I also think of Paul's, let me say, ministry team roster, the Apostle Paul, New Testament.
Paul's Ministry Model and Eternal Significance
00:26:33
NextGen Matters
Paul's team roster. See, when Paul began ministry in the book of Acts, he he framed himself or partnered himself with a peer, Paul and Barnabas.
00:26:44
NextGen Matters
Barnabas had a younger cousin named John Mark. Yes, he wrote the book of Mark later on. John Mark was part of that ministry team. John Mark was, we can tell, he was an adolescent.
00:26:58
NextGen Matters
I love this. Paul did ministry locking arms with a peer. also believed in taking someone younger with him to train that person to be another generational leader for the gospel's sake.
00:27:15
NextGen Matters
As we all know, Paul and Barnabas had their issue, yes, over John Mark's return, or potential return, and they split apart. They agreed to disagree, and they walked away from each other, and they both pursued their separate ministries.
00:27:29
NextGen Matters
Paul rebuilt his team in Acts 16. Paul and Silas, he's got a peer. In Acts 16, he picked up a young teenager. Almost every commentary has in Acts 16 this young man named Timothy at the age of 16.
00:27:44
NextGen Matters
Timothy is now the young protege. Paul has a peer, but also takes an adolescent with him, obviously with a mom's permission. And Timothy now becomes part of this missionary team.
00:28:00
NextGen Matters
You see, while Paul was living in the present, please get this. While Paul was living in the present, he was preparing for the future. I'm going to say that again.
00:28:12
NextGen Matters
While Paul was serving in his ministry, living in the present, he was preparing for the future.
00:28:19
NextGen Matters
It was close to 10 years ago, while I was teaching the School Divinity, our dean shared with us, faculty, that we are preparing the leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ for the middle of the 21st century.
00:28:36
NextGen Matters
Now, this was the 20 teens. This was by 2015, I heard this. All of us who were listening during that faculty meeting were born in the mid to the latter part of the 20th century.
00:28:50
NextGen Matters
o was born in 1963, and I was by the median age of the faculty.
00:28:55
NextGen Matters
What hit me as he said that, what personally struck me was I realized the impact I was making in the classroom into the personal lives of these students would be going forth
00:29:15
NextGen Matters
into their ministries after I was no longer here.
00:29:21
NextGen Matters
that fragility of life, that I have to realize I'm not going to always be here. That's a sense of urgency.
00:29:31
NextGen Matters
I must develop another generation to carry on the gospel. That was preparing for the future. And that's why this next next generation matters.
00:29:47
NextGen Matters
Hey, do you see it? What you do does matter because you are involved in something far greater than anything else I can think of.
00:30:02
NextGen Matters
You are in the messy middle of bringing Jesus to students and students to Jesus so they will become his lifelong disciples and in God's forever family.
00:30:16
NextGen Matters
I can't think of a greater calling. This is where the game is. It's working with children and students.
00:30:27
NextGen Matters
As I record this, the 2025 World Series just finished. Now I'm a Yankees fan. I grew up in New York and yeah, you have your opinions. Sure, why not? Hats off to the Dodgers. They pulled it off. They repeated.
00:30:41
NextGen Matters
But you know what happens right after the World Series is done? If you follow baseball like me, I'm a baseball junkie. Literally, the microphone run is going to be in somebody's face in the locker room and they're going to be asking, and I'm sure they did, can you three-peat?
00:30:57
NextGen Matters
Or they're asking the potential free agent, are you to come back to l LA? are you going test the free agent market? In other words, yeah, if you follow baseball, you track it with me. Free agency is already opened.
00:31:10
NextGen Matters
In other words, we're already now thinking about the 2026 season.
00:31:15
NextGen Matters
They just got their trophy. they don't eat These players don't even have their rings yet. There's not even been a parade. And MLB is already focusing on the 2026 season.
00:31:26
NextGen Matters
That's how fleeting and how fragile the things of this life are. But what I am pursuing and what you're pursuing is something far deeper.
00:31:38
NextGen Matters
Something far deeper. Years ago, I read a booklet by a gentleman named Dawson Trotman. If you're my age or older, you probably know that name. If you don't, search him up.
00:31:50
NextGen Matters
Dawson Trotman started the ministry called The Navigators during the era of World War II. And he wrote a small booklet, a pamphlet called Born to Reproduce.
00:32:03
NextGen Matters
Back in my day, I had my missions team read that booklet. And then we had conversation about it. And here was the basic premise. There's only two things in this life you can physically touch, which will then go on to eternity.
00:32:18
NextGen Matters
God's word and people.
00:32:21
NextGen Matters
God's word and people.
00:32:24
NextGen Matters
And I want to do all I can to invest God's word into people and have people get into God's word.
00:32:35
NextGen Matters
So
00:32:37
NextGen Matters
you have been, you've been given a high calling, my friend. So does this next generation matter? There is an urgency. The scriptures declare it. There's an urgency.
00:32:48
NextGen Matters
The harvest is here. There's an urgency to raise up another next generation of Christ followers. Every episode will finish with a call to action.
00:33:00
NextGen Matters
And here's today's call action. What I want you to do, it's simple. What I want you to do, as soon as you click off on this podcast, I want you to stop and thank your Father in Heaven for calling you to a ministry for such a time as this.
00:33:24
NextGen Matters
He has called you to this ministry. for such a time as this, because this next generation matters. Matter of fact, next episode, we're going to be looking into, does my calling matter?
00:33:38
NextGen Matters
We're going to unpack that in the next episode of the Next Gen Matters podcast. I'm going to close off today by saying the following, and I'm going to say in every episode that I close out, it is simple.
00:33:50
NextGen Matters
It is for you. Your leadership matters because your ministry matters because the gospel matters. God bless you. This is Rich Brown. Have a super day.