NEXT

We at Next want to help transfer a love for local church communities from one generation to the next. But there can often be a big obstacle to this transfer, and it goes something like this.

• Step 1: One generation rediscovers the biblical foundations of commitment to the church passionately pursue involvement in a church in their community.
• Step 2: A rising generation sees this commitment the first generation had to local churches. This next generation imitates the involvement, but they don’t take the time to go back and see the Scriptural foundations for involvement in the local church.
• Step 3: The rising generation runs into challenges to local church commitment––maybe they don’t “get much out of church anymore,” or they encounter a leader who damages the church, or they don’t have close friends in the church anymore, or maybe they just get burned out doing the same thing over and over without a compelling reason. As a result, they leave the church behind.

Sadly, I’ve seen this pattern occur at times in Christians who’ve grown up in church. Here’s the point: If you don’t have biblical truth driving your church involvement, sooner or later the going will get tough and you’ll drop your involvement. It’s like joining your friends halfway through a building project without asking why and what they’re building to begin with––the work might be fun while your friends are there, but when they leave you in charge you’re sure not going to be pounding nails just for fun. 

This month we want to give you some Scripture-grounded reasons to keep pounding nails.

We’re featuring articles that aim to give you biblical reasons to keep building the church. We want to help put biblical convictions behind local church involvement. And good news: these articles are short enough to read while you’re waiting for your Pop-Tarts to toast.

Read the introduction to this month
Or
Jump straight into the articles

Take a few minutes to revisit the Scriptural blueprints of the church. It’s a small way to help transfer a love for the church from generation to generation.