Dear Millennials, Can We Be The Leaders The Church Needs?

The announcement this week of scandal upon scandal wreaking through Christ’s beloved Church is breaking my heart. From the Roman Catholic Church to beloved Protestant congregations, no one seems exempt from the pain of the Fall.

It is easy to become discouraged and dismayingly wonder why we should even continue on. But we don’t continue on because of flawed people, we continue on because the Church is the Bride of Christ. And if He is committed to purifying her, we should be as well.

Fellow Millennials, can we step up and be the leaders the Church needs to see her through this crisis? 

If we are going to be the generation that rises up, we need to radically commit to loving the global church, with all of her beauty and all of her flaws. And we need to stand boldly.

We need to be a generation like Esther.

Instead of hoping that someone else will do the hard work of being bold, we need to be the ones to go boldly forth and sound the alarm when we see corruption. May we be leaders who boldly go and call out corruption.

We need to be a generation like David. 

When our own sin comes to light (and it will because we all are sinful) we need to be quick to acknowledge our shortcomings and repent. We cannot lead in the battle against sin if we are unwilling to fight the sin in our own heart. May we be leaders who don’t focus on our own self-righteousness, but who know our deeply rooted sinfulness and depend solely on Christ for our righteousness.

We need to be a generation like Moses. 

Moses feared that he couldn’t be used to lead because of his speech impediment. But he was willing to be used anyway. And God provided someone to speak for him. May we be leaders who don’t focus on our limits but on our limitless God.

We need to be a generation like Paul. 

Instead of concerning ourselves with our own advancement, we need to be grateful that the gospel is going forth. May we be leaders whose sole goal is the Gospel of Jesus Christ reaching this lost and broken world.

We need to be a generation like Daniel. 

Daniel didn’t focus on his own strength but relied upon the strength of the Lord to serve his king. May we be leaders who rely only upon the strength of God.

We need to be a generation like Deborah. 

We need not shy away from how God will use us but we need to be willing to boldly serve even if it defies cultural conventions. May we be leaders willing to do what God has called us to and to call others to step out to where God is calling them.

We need to be a generation like John the Baptist. 

Sometimes, doing the good work God has prepared for us will claim more of us than we want to give. For John the Baptist, his commitment to calling sin what it was even claimed his life. May we be leaders willing to pay the ultimate cost.

We need to be a generation like Jesus Christ. 

We need to see people who for they really are, broken and sinful, and we need to have compassion on the inside and a desire to give ourselves in the pursuit of helping them be who God created them to be.

Instead of being cynical or naive, can we see the Church for what she is and both lament her brokenness and rejoice at beauty of what she can be?

Can we be the ones who rise and commit to loving the Church through her imperfections? 

We owe the Church more than cynicism. We owe her our commitment, our encouragement, and our spiritual gifts.

And it’s not just our local church that needs us, it’s the Body of Christ as a whole.

I have hope that our generation can be the one who loves the Church and loves her too much to let her stay in a state of corruption.

And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?”And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer. -Mark 9:28-29, ESV

May we be a generation committed to prayer and fasting on behalf of the purity of our Church. Because while the Church is composed on individuals, no individual alone is the Church. We need one another. We need the whole. And we need to be the ones willing to work on behalf of the whole.

And we need to be the generation committed to following Christ’s commandments and His desire for a pure, and spotless bride.

Can we rise up, abandoning selfish ambition, and taking up the cross of Christ? Can we pray, not my will but Yours, and then boldly step into the roles in our Church, roles of leadership and of service, where God is calling us?

Will you rise with me to the servant leadership that Christ exemplified and called us to so that, when we face our Maker, He may say that we have done well what we were given to do.

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