A Daily Burn
From the Archives: Winter 2012
By Steve Smith, Avery
When people ask me how things are going here at Crossnore School, I answer, “Things can be pretty tough here, but being centered in God’s will is always enough, and this is where I’m supposed to be.”
Generation to Generation
I think God has impressed upon me that He is a God of the generations. He is a generational thinker. When He instructed the Israelites to build altars, it was so that when the children – the next generation – asked, they could tell them of the Lord’s work in their midst. The Apostle Paul speaks of having spiritual sons. There is a generational perspective that is strong within God’s nature. It’s a way of thinking that I have not really seen much of within my American church experience, especially within our individualistic culture.
So, as that perspective came to the forefront of my thinking, it began to answer a lot of questions I had about the future of the church, and it really led me into youth ministry with the idea of God grasping a hold of this young generation and His heart-desire to see the raising up of spiritual fathers for them. But, you know, youth ministry is tough. I am really not trying to be critical of the modern church, but often we have found that, due to some church culture issues, there is a lack of encouragement to raise up young people into devoted followers of Jesus. I have often heard, “We just want to keep our kids from losing interest in the church until they grow up and are able to move into the main service. We want our youth minister to teach our kids to be good citizens, good students, and to stay away from drugs and alcohol.” That is a rugged environment in which to cultivate radical devotion to Jesus. That is a tough arena and I have a world of respect for those who are able to effectively work in that environment.
The Burning God Put In Us
My wife, Brenda, and I really felt that the call upon us was to follow what the apostle James talks about in James 1:27: “Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.” As we were pursuing what that meant for us, God began to open doors into something new. My wife knew a couple people who worked at Crossnore School, and we came to interview for positions here. We were brought on staff as house parents (the proper term is Resident Counselors), and we began the work here that has now gone on for more than four years. We’ve seen great fruit in the lives of young people, and we love it here.
After a time, I was asked to serve as Chaplain, and I agreed to do so despite some reservations. You know, often when we take on new titles we have to make very intentional action to offset the fact that people can think we do things just to fill our title’s job requirements. A title can easily lead to a bunker or silo mentality, both to the person with the title and to the people we are working with. I can begin to act a certain way because that’s how a ‘Chaplain’ should act, and that thinking is so very contrary to how, I believe, God thinks. I’d much rather be known as ‘the RC who burns for God’. But despite my misgivings about taking on the title of ‘Chaplain’, I think things are pretty well established with the staff and kids here in that regard. The Chaplaincy does give us the opportunity to communicate good doctrine. We are doing an Old Testament Survey currently during Chapel times, and that has been interesting and a lot of fun for the kids. The title of ‘Chaplain’ helps in organizing activities, programs, and prayer times, so there is an upside to the title. Behind the title, however, is the ‘burning’ that God put in us, a sense of immediacy around the mandate from Malachi that God is, “Sending the prophet Elijah... turning the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers. Otherwise I will come and strike the land with a curse.” I believe that the ‘spirit of Elijah’ is here in our midst in these days in many people and that God has something growing. He is moving strongly in reaching the ‘hearts of the children’ in that generational movement. We are working alongside Him to fulfill His commission to bring a generation back to himself.
At the heart of it all, I don’t think of the Gospel so much as a spoken thing, but as the demonstration of the Holy Spirit and power in the life of a person. I think that there are times along our journey with God that things are kind of simple: we see what we should do and we just do it. But it seems along with that are also times along the journey that don’t seem so simple. As we are trying to move forward, as we are responding to that central call to follow Him, God has to reveal something new or fresh to us before we can really begin to go where He wants us to go next.
A Life Laid Down Speaks For Itself
God began to establish some fresh things in us as we were just moving toward this idea that God has ‘generational transfer’ on His mind, some revelations that seemed at first to be completely unrelated or disconnected. But now, we look back and see how He is fitting these things together. One revelation was this: the thing that makes a person most powerful in their own environment and community is their very devotion to the Lord. I guess it is the difference between an ‘outreach’ mindset and a ‘dedication to God’ mindset. We found that the difference between Christianity and a charitable organization is that Christianity is the open display of an intimate relationship with God and not a zeal for doing good works. I began to see that zeal by itself, while not a bad thing, does not get us in touch with what Paul is speaking of in Ephesians of “the good works He has prepared for us before the beginning of time.” So, if God’s already got some good works figured out then a relationship with Him is the key to unlocking and finding those works. Brenda and I are seeking to burn in our devotion to Jesus in the midst of the young people around us, sort of like Daniel and his prayers in Babylon. We are determined to grow in our relationship with Him daily, and we insist on laying our lives down daily. Then, just to live open lives in front of our kids should be enough, and we have found that to be true. It has been one the greatest spiritual experiences that we have ever had, that a life laid down for the Kingdom of God speaks for itself.
We have found that things have changed around us as we have allowed God to work in us. The change in us changes things around us. How can I help these young people? I am going to be in the midst of these kids, seeking to be saturated in the Holy Spirit continually. That should be normal and natural, and my trust is that they will then live Spirit-led lives with their own children someday. Generational impact, one generation to another to another: that is our hope and our prayer and our assurance.
Community Is Vital
We know that this cannot be done outside of community, outside of interaction with other people. Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said that the Christian life cannot be lived in a vacuum, apart from other people, apart from community. It is a wonderful platform to demonstrate that truth as we live with
these teenagers. Right now we have nine young women in our cottage. We get to test out the wonderful promise and the great challenge of 2 Chronicles 7:14, “If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and I will heal their land.” We are sold out to seeing this young generation redeem the Lord’s promise. I think He is healing the land and touching a generation right here and right now. It is really exciting.
