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God or Machine?

Inflatable Costumes - cell phone costume

James K. A. Smith has proposed that humans are what they worship. If this is true, I would propose that most humans, then, are nothing less than a walking smart phone. Did you know, for instance, that according to Pew Research, 80% of Americans own a smart phone and that the number rises to 96% if you are in the 18-29 age range?

The smartphone has become so common that many have identified it as an extension of the human body. After all, if an alien were to visit our planet, I think the first question he would ask himself is, “What is that body part called that is always seen protruding out of man’s right or left hand?”

Have man and machine finally collided into an inseparable bond? Wasn’t a man made to be more than a machine and a machine made to be less than a man? Yes, according to Genesis, it was this way in the beginning. It’s rather simple. God made man and man made machine. But now, man not only makes machines. He talks to his machines and his machines talk back. These conversational robots not only talk back. They perform specific actions that man commands and even allow men to talk to other men through them. “Hey Alexa, . . .” However, as time has passed, machine has demanded more from man and man has granted machine his request.

Will you put your machine down for just enough time to consider, to wonder if you might have been created for something more? You don’t have to be a walking smart phone! You don’t have to be defined by all of your social media accounts and apps that you use and that use you. You don’t have to become your avatar or avatar(s). You can choose to use the digital without worshipping it or worse, becoming it.

How?

Like the coronavirus, shut everything down. Turn off the Wi-Fi and the devices and then Seek God in that moment. Wasn’t it Jesus that said you can’t serve two masters, God and machine, I mean, money. Get alone with God in His Word and see what he might have to say to you about your machine. Oh, that’s right — your Bible is your machine because it’s on your machine. In that case, read the Bible on your machine without attending the bells and whistles of your most recent notification. In fact, turn your notifications off if you have to. Then turn off everything and enter an extended period of time in prayer about what you just read and what God would have you to do from what you just read.

You can have control of your machine, but you must first turn it off. In your solitude, put God first and let your machine fade into the background. In this way, you will see that you are more than your phone.

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Sharing Jesus in a post-pandemic world

Image result for cowboy wearing a stetson hat

Many Christ-followers freak out when called upon to share Jesus with others. Add a pandemic and you might see these same followers flip out. But in a world that has become increasingly fearful, Christ-followers need not fear.

When it comes to sharing your faith, there’s no need to make things harder on yourself than they already are. You can skip the mental gymnastics because the message has not changed! In other words, don’t worry about what to say; think more about how you’re going to share Jesus and if it’s the right time.

Some of you may say that it’s always the right time to share the gospel. I would politely disagree. We should do our best to live out the gospel at all times, but sharing the gospel may not be the appropriate action in and for every given situation. For example, let’s say an unbelieving friend calls you to tell you that their mother just died from COVID-19. This is probably not the best time to respond, “Well, let me tell you about Jesus.” There may indeed come a time for sharing Jesus and very soon at that, but in this one moment, your friend is most likely just looking to you for sympathy and or a loving touch. Hopefully, you would say something like, “Where are you at? Can I pray for you? When can we talk in-person?”

Remember, conversations are key in sharing Jesus with others! Why is this? Because conversations lead to relationships. Remember Jesus and the woman at the well! And don’t forget that in your conversations, you are to look for shared passions and pains between you and the person you are conversing with. Sometimes you will get both!

The other day I met a stranger in a coffee shop wearing a cowboy hat. Because I am an avid Georgia Bulldogs football fan (my passion), I couldn’t resist from asking the man if his hat (his passion) was a Stetson. I made an instant connection with the man through steering our conversation to the Georgia Bulldogs new starting quarterback, Stetson Bennett. The man went on to share with me his pain. The man had someone in his past do something terrible to him that he said he could never forgive.

Rather than say, “Well, let me tell you about Jesus,” I said to the man “you’ll never forget what happened to you.” As I walked out of the coffee shop, I told the man “God Bless You” as he opened the door for me and patted me on the back. Remember, sharing the gospel is more grand narrative conversation than it is polished presentation. What I did in the span of less than three minutes is set myself up for a possible second encounter with this man whereby now I can share the gospel! If not me, then maybe you! The seed was planted and the man is now open to hearing the good news.

What does the man need to hear next? He needs to hear that first he can be forgiven of his own sins by Jesus and second, that only when this happens will he be able to forgive those that have hurt him in his past. Pre-pandemic or post-pandemic, have no fear! Jesus is here! Let the Holy Spirit guide you in conversation and be in prayer for what you should say and next steps that you should take. Worry less about the results and more about being faithful. Who knows? It may be me who gets to lead someone to the Lord whom you first planted the gospel seed in!

Creation, Fall, Rescue, Restoration—Share the Story!

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Faith in the Fear of death

F.R.O.G. Fully Rely On God Silicone Bracelet

What do you do when someone you know and care for dies at a young age? I have experienced this tragedy all too often in next generation ministry. Whether by freak accident, overdose, or the taking of one’s life, the one thing that is certain is that these young ones left us before it was their time. God may allow events to happen where one does lose their life, but it’s not God’s will that one you dearly love be run over by a drunk driver, die to drug abuse, or take life into their own hands.

God’s Word teaches us that we battle the flesh, the world, and the devil and all of these often factor into an untimely death. Abortions and miscarriages are a reality too and the associated pain can last a lifetime. As the old saying goes, “A parent should never have to bury their child.” There are many things we will never understand on this side of heaven. God’s kingdom has begun in our hearts but will not be consummated until the end of time. Until then, we will have to wait for many answers that we have questions for. This includes the question of “God, why did you allow this to happen?”

A key thing to understand in the meantime as you wait is that God did not make this evil happen. God gives humans the ability to make choices and often the poor choices one human makes unfortunately affects the life and health of another human. And yes, fair or not, sometimes this results in one’s death.

I know what it’s like to carry the casket of a young man and a dear friend that left this world too early. I’ve had to do it on more than one occasion. I don’t know what it’s like to bury one’s own child and quite honestly, can’t imagine what it would be like. But, the one commonality we share is that someone in the next generation that we both knew and loved has gone on and passed from this life to the next.

When this happens, you’re really faced with two choices. You can have fear or you can have faith. Two expressions that have become popular in recent youth culture are the expressions FOMO and FROG. There are probably bracelets for both. If you have a “Fear Of Missing Out,” you might do and try a lot of things that you normally wouldn’t because after all, YOLO. Perhaps you are young yourself and you see your friend pass from this life to the next. You may think to yourself, “What if that was me? I can’t wait on God. What if I pass away without experiencing ____________________.” There are many movies that depict this type of scene and the line that causes one character to cave into the peer pressure of another character the most usually goes something like “This may be your/our last day on earth together.”

This kind of mindset, however, is the opposite of Fully Relying On God. No one said trusting God was easy. When I think about a FROG, I think leap or jump. Some frogs jump higher and farther than others. But just like a frog, if you are going to trust God with your life’s circumstances, you are going to have to take a leap of faith. In our minds, some leaps are going to require more faith than others because some trials are harder than others. But I think in God’s mind, if you just have a little faith, he’ll take care of the rest.

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Leadership

“Coach, are we talking about a Coach?”

With this week being NBA Finals week and my favorite team, the LA Lakers inching closer to a Championship, I thought I would talk a little basketball. Nearly twenty years ago, Allen Iverson of the Philadelphia 76ers was recorded by the media at a press conference as saying his now-famous “Practice” speech. I can still remember where I was when I heard this news for the first time. Things didn’t go viral back then, but this press conference was as close to going viral as one could get. It was played on ESPN every hour on the hour. You could just say that it was the press conference ‘heard round the world.’

What made the press conference so iconic was that it involved an All Star, an unmistakable voice, and a long-held belief and value being questioned at its core. When Allen Iverson (AI) said, “Practice, are we talking about practice?”, it came across to every listening ear that this star point guard thought of himself as above practice. AI is known as “The Truth” and the truth is Iverson didn’t become the all-star he is without practice. Iverson knows this is true and would tell you to this day that he regrets the press conference. AI has gone on record saying that everyone finds his quote funny, but himself. There were a lot of things coming together at one time that caused AI to blow up and go on a rant that echoes throughout time. To his credit, AI got to an NBA Finals. Unfortunately, he never won a ring. My Lakers beat him!

This all brings me to an NBA player today that plays the same position as AI and has a similar size, skillset, and game. Like AI, this player has made some questionable comments in the past, but none so questionable as the comments he made this past week. Brooklyn Nets Point Guard Kyrie Irving has gone on record saying “I don’t really see us having a head coach.” That comment would be fine if it were true, but the truth is Brooklyn just hired a new coach by the name of Steve Nash days before Kyrie made his comments.

To make matters worse, Kyrie’s all-star teammate Kevin Durant chimed in saying that Nash’s coaching was going to be a “collaborative effort.” In other words, the players and the coach will coach the team. In speaking of Kyrie and himself, Durant continues, “I think a lot of people may question our leadership, overall or just us two.”

Collaboration and leadership are great things, that is when they are properly understood. In next generation ministry, collaboration and leadership are vital. Coaches and players should always collaborate, but never to the point where the players become the coach. If and when this happens, why even hire a coach? I do question Kyrie and Durant’s leadership style. I see Kyrie and Durant as great players, but not as great leaders. The reason is because underneath all of the player quotes run a philosophy or a belief system called postmodernism.

Postmodernism isn’t all bad. There remains a mixture of truth within this system. For example, the coach who doesn’t listen to anything his players say shouldn’t be coaching at all. But postmodernism also produces a belief system that ultimately can’t be trusted. For example, Kyrie Irving is also on record saying that he believes the world is flat. Just because you believe something doesn’t mean that it is true, yet postmodernism would say that what’s true for you is true for you and what’s true for me is true for me. At that point, the standard of truth becomes subjective and not based on something objective, such as the Word of God.

Leadership matters. And so does authority. Postmodernism undermines authority. For this reason, I don’t see how Nash, Irving, and Durant will be able to co-exist long enough to produce an NBA Championship. You need more than great players to pull a championship off. You need a great culture and you need great leaders at every level. Bottom-up leadership is a great thing, but not at the expense of disallowing those up-top of the ability to lead. In this way, postmodernism operates upside-down as it doesn’t make any more sense than the sense it takes to believe the world is flat.

In life, the Holy Spirit is our coach. The Bible says that he is our comforter and counselor. We all need a teacher, a coach. What we don’t need to do is to say that coaches are a necessary evil. Coaches are in place to help players get to the next level, to their next stage of development. This type of philosophy works at the professional level as much as it does the middle school level. Once a player thinks he has arrived, his growth is stunted. Who better to coach Kyrie than a two-time NBA MVP? Last time I checked, Kyrie hasn’t won one of those awards.

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2020 Attitude Check

20/20 Vision - Granbury First United Methodist Church

Is 2020 turning out to be the year you thought it would? When I think of 2020, I think of 20/20 or what optometrists would label clear vision. I wrote about this in my booklet The Student Ministry Time Machine. I wrote how I thought 2020 would be the year that next generation ministry would begin to catch on. I was envisioning 2020 as the year where churches would begin gaining clear sight on the value of instilling the model of next generation ministry in their locales over and above traditional children and youth ministry programming.

While, certainly, this could still be the case and the pandemic may now urge this new mindset on, I would have to admit this was not what I had in mind. I could not have predicted a global pandemic, a global black lives matter global network, or utter lawlessness occurring in major U.S. cities in 2020. Next generation ministry is all about doing more with less and thus a global recession could indeed force churches around the world to change their model of student ministry. However, and if this phenomenon happens, this would not have been the way I would chosen.

What is God doing? Is he still in control? It is easy in this time to question God. Bigger national and societal issues are at stake than whether our favorite team is going to be able to play ball this fall. I certainly don’t understand it all, but God has never asked me to. God wants us to trust him, especially in these very uncertain times. Many things have been brought to the surface since the pandemic hit our country. However, the most important thing, I think, is that people are forced to evaluate their relationship with God. Pre-Covid 19, was God your family’s number one priority?

Covid-19 forced a lot of moms and dads to become children and youth pastors overnight. Parents were instantly forced to take charge of leading devotions in their home because they could not go to church. At the same time, churches instantly became the supporting role to parents that they were always supposed to be. Ministry leaders began equipping parents with the resources that parents needed so that parents could be the primary disciple-makers of their children. Again, this is the way it was always supposed to be; from the very beginning of time. But somewhere along the way, ministry leaders began to take over the parent’s primary role and churches began allowing it. Before long, this trend was not only accepted; it became commonplace and nearly every other model was frowned upon.

Thus, I am thankful for what God is doing. But, I am not always as thankful for the means for which some needed changes have happened. I don’t want to see people become sick and die. I don’t want to see families forced to stay at home and not allowed to come to church. I don’t want to have to wear a mask when I go out. I don’t want to see people lose their jobs. I don’t want to see my nation go down the tubes as its most prominent cities become homeless shelters and places of extreme violence. I want black lives to matter but not at the expense of promoting everything else that the black lives matter movement has come to represent.

If you watch the news 24/7, its easy to become cynical and to complain. But God has called us to give thanks in, not for, all circumstances and also to pray for our leaders. God desires that we turn to him like never before. We must open His Word and seek Him. We must not merely talk about all of the above items. God desires that we pray about them . . . God, help us to find a vaccine for Covid-19, to restore law and order on our streets, and to show the world that all humans are worthy of dignity because they were first made in your image. That’s a simple start, but we must begin fleshing these things out and praying in greater detail.

Don’t give in, give up, or give out. Now is not the time. The battle for our nation’s soul is at stake, but even more, so is the battle for our nation’s souls.

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Politics, Not as usual

Protesters Burn Bible, American Flag as Tensions Rise in Portland ...

America . . . “land of the free and home of the brave” . . . maybe not for much longer. 1492 has been replaced with 1619. Statues of the founding fathers have been torn down. Police are seen as the bad guys. And all this has happened while states, regions, and cities are being divided on every front . . . with conservative governors suing liberal mayors, with liberal mayors claiming they can override the President’s orders, and with lawlessness in major cities going unrestricted.

Faith, hope, and freedom are all on the line. All the things that made the United States of America the greatest country in the world are now being attacked and that includes the American flag and the Bible. Christians in this land need not only wake up. Christians must stand up, and they must rise up, together. Red, yellow, black, and white, Christians need to show the world there is something greater to unite around than a pithy statement.

I long for the day when Democrats could be what they used to be. But that party no longer exists. Even Republicans aren’t what they used to be. Today’s democrat, at least on the national level, is a socialist, a marxist, a communist. Thus, a vote for a democrat national leader is a vote for an America where the nation’s history goes out the window. In fact, history classes are already being removed from some schools and the history classes that have been being taught have been teaching an UnAmerican history for many years now.

You must see that it is more than America’s history that is being re-written. It is America herself. The America we knew and that has been known for the last 244 years could well be a thing of the past. What we are are seeing unfold daily before our eyes is not politics as usual. The upcoming vote is not just another important vote. The 2020 vote pits ideologies against each other such as lawlessness vs. law & order, socialism vs. democracy, marxism vs. capitalism, and much much more.

I hope you are aware of the “Unity Task Forces” 110 page document, also known as the Biden-Sanders socialist manifesto. Of the New York Post, Miranda Devine writes, “The biggest clue to the destructive ideology that drives the Biden-Sanders manifesto is the word “equity,” which appears 34 times. Equity means equality of outcome, not equality of opportunity. It is the very DNA of Marxism and everything bad flows from it, as we saw in the Soviet Union, Mao’s China, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela.”

I don’t have to tell you how marijuana dispensaries and liquor stores can remain open while many churches must remain closed. I don’t have to tell you about how many businesses such as health clubs, restaurants, and salons have been treated unfairly and how their owners have been ostracized. The double standard was evident when liberal leaders allowed rioters to destroy their own cities and their own cities’ businesses, all the while not enforcing Covid-19 protocols on the protestors and the rioters. We are fast becoming a land where each is to his own and where everyone does what is right in his own eyes (Judges 17:6).

Ultimately, my hope is not in America or her leaders, be it Democrat, Republican, or Independent. But, I do love my country! I want it to stand for faith and freedom as long as it can. I hope it can return to the God who has been so good to it. I hope it will not have to endure a second civil war, but will instead turn to the only one who can unite it, Jesus.

This is “politics, not as usual” because politics has now overreached her jurisdiction. The political sphere has overstepped its bounds in the economic sphere, in the religion sphere, in the sports sphere . . . pretty much any sphere that exists. What are we to do? As American citizens? and as Christ-followers?

Well, some Christ-followers are standing up, literally. Some professional athletes who are Christians choose to stand for the national anthem and not kneel, because they say that the Black Lives Matter Global Network stands for so much more than the statement “Black Lives Matter.” It is these athletes’ choice whether to stand or kneel, but I do agree with their assessment of the global movement. The movement’s own website declares that BLM is also about destabilizing the family unit and affirming a queer network.

How can you stand up for America and for truth? Besides voting your conscience, I would encourage you to use your social media platform to educate and to inspire. Understand though, that even your content is being censored by social tech companies, further highlighting how we as Americans are losing our freedom of speech. Let’s do our own part and try to keep America a land of the free by being brave ourselves. A better America makes for a better world! It’s not easy to go against the tide, to buck the system, but Jesus has called us to be countercultural. We must go against the grain and swim upstream when our culture is against Christ. We must be in the world and not of it, while loving everyone in the world and praying for their salvation.

We must help the next generation understand that Antifa as a “Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement” along with its ’10 Points of Action’ are not the solution to America’s ails. Jesus is the answer to all humanity’s woes! His movement is eternal and it deals with what plagues us all, sin. We must not sit back while the government impinges upon our freedoms. We must be strong and courageous so that the next generation can inherit a free land and a brave home like we once did.

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Make God Great Again!

The title for this post is misleading in that God is great whether we as humans acknowledge his greatness or not. This title could also lead mislead people to think I am equating the re-election of President Donald Trump as making God great again, or even worse equating Trump as God. I am doing neither. I am simply stating the need for a spiritual awaking in our country. “Woke” has become the new word of the day. I prefer to use the word in a different way in this post. God’s church needs to wake up and make God great again!

In my last post, I spoke some on the reality of heaven to come. This past week, President Trump said that “If Joe Biden gets elected, the whole country would go to hell. And we’re not going to let it go to hell.” Theologically speaking, Trump is dead wrong. Are there hellish things happening on this earth and specifically in America? Certainly. But, we need to distinguish between what we often call “hell on earth” and hell.

I prefer not to use the word “hell” unless I am talking about the real place the Bible refers to as hell. No matter your stance on the word, you should never use the word in passing or as a way to express your anger. Hell is nothing less than eternal death in an eternal place. Physical death on earth happens to us all in a moment, though our suffering before death may last much longer. But eternal death is different. Eternal death is a state of death that you live in forever, not just a moment. I can’t explain what that looks like. I am not like some who claim they have travelled to hell and come back. These folks usually write books or make movies and then make money off of their experience. The hell I read about in the Bible is different. If and when you go there, you don’t come back. Not only have you died, you are dead forever.

The church needs to make God great again so that people don’t have to go to hell. We need to tell people that it is bad on earth, but that it doesn’t compare to eternal death because anything that happens here is temporary. Jesus is the Way out of hell and Jesus is the way we can all make it through the current mess we have to endure. Joe Biden is not the answer. Donald Trump is not the answer. Jesus is the answer!

But how will people hear the good news of Jesus if the church doesn’t go and tell? The church has already been commissioned and sent. Jesus is waiting on you. What are you waiting on? Trump always talks about Biden hiding down in his basement and not coming out. I worry that Christians are in their basement just waiting for Jesus to come back and take them home. We always need to be on watch! But rather than waiting in our basements, we need to be working for the Master. Does a certain parable in Scripture come to mind? In a land full of division, God has called you to be a peacemaker. Now, go and make peace! Make God great again!

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Salvation comes from no other name

America’s dealing with three issues now: the pandemic, the black lives matter global movement, and police inequality which has led to utter lawlessness in some major cities.

For good or evil, the next generation has played a pivotal role in each issue. The one common theme, however, that holds these issues together is the role that politics play in each.

Being that this is an election year, politicians on both sides have unleashed a no holds barred attitude toward each other in order to push their political agendas forward. It plays out more like a WWE Rage in the Cage match rather than a simple fence that separates neighbors. Believe it or not, there was a day where politicians from different parties could disagree with one another on the House and the Senate floor during the day and then go out and enjoy dinner together with one another that very same night . . . this is no longer the case. Politicians have become so polarized in their views that their seems to be no middle ground left.

Thankfully, it has been said that for Christ-followers, our salvation does not come from an elephant or a donkey, but rather a lamb. It should not surprise us that the animosity between Republicans and Democrats have reached a fever pitch. And we should not be blind to all that is happening around us. However, we also know that life’s ultimate answers do not come from government. We know the lamb is also a lion and will one day rule and reign over all governments past and present. Not only will this lion rule over all governments, he will rule over all peoples.

We find this scene in Revelation 7:9-10:

9 After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throneand before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. 10 And they cried out in a loud voice:

“Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb.”

As you can see, black lives do matter in this account. But so do all other lives! The Lamb of God was sacrificed for all. Though we often distinguish humanity by the color of one’s skin and call this phenomena “race,” there actually is no such thing. In the beginning, God created Adam and Eve and from these two, we all come. We are one, the human race, and we all share the same blood. But, we all also have a sin problem … just look at what’s happening in the world. And for this reason, the Lamb of God was slain. Now, with his blood, our sin is covered and one day, his justice will roll like a river.

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Conversations Matter

Unlike the news and media, I won’t use this post to preach ad nauseam the difference between a riot and a protest. I think we all know the difference and if we don’t know the difference by now, we need to pull our heads up out of the sand. I have been keenly watching the split-screen action on tv switching back and forth between the riots and the protests. Peaceful protests usually happen in the daytime and are an offshoot of Martin Luther King Jr.’s philosophy of using non-violent means to reform the system and or achieve justice. Unruly riots usually happen when dark falls and are an offshoot of Malcolm X’s philosophy of using violent means to reform the system and or achieve justice. Of course, what makes the protests occurring today different from the protests of the past are the racial diversity that is on display. The crowds makeup is mostly that of young adults, college-aged students, and teenagers of all ethnicities.

The one thing I am hearing over and over is that the peaceful protesters just want to talk. They want guidance from the older generations on how to protest and they want policemen to befriend them, not to block them. After a couple of days of protesting in Atlanta, the next generation said the third day was what made the difference. What was the difference? It came down to one cop, a young white cop who met the protesters at the blockade formed by police. This one cop looked at the protestors and asked them, “What do you want?” The protesters said, “We want to walk.” The cop said, “I’ll walk with you. Let’s go.” And off they went, with the cop leading the pack and talking to protesters all along the way. The protesters claim that rather their mayor or their city’s celebrities yelling at them, they just wanted someone to talk to . . . rather than the cops treating them like criminals, they just wanted to be heard. A lady from the local media’s news channel interviewed the cop and told him that he was being called a hero. The cop’s response was “I’m not a hero.”

At the same time this peaceful protest was happening, rioters were gathered in a different spot with a news camera on them as well. I won’t waste my time talking about the rioters. Those who are peacefully protesting have a just cause and deserve to be heard. But riots should be expected in communities that won’t listen to peaceful protesters. I am certainly not advocating riots, only stating that they are often the end results for people who over a long period of time feel their voice has not been heard.

Here is what we as communities need to acknowledge: George Floyd and many other men of color should not have died at the hands of police and that justice should be served. I am not saying these men of color were all completely innocent. The underreported side of these encounters usually do tell a side where a minor crime was committed, arrest was resisted, and authority was undermined. None of these are good things, however in most of the cases made public, the actions of the cop do not fit the nature of the crime. For example, you don’t kill someone for stealing a candy bar.

I have long been a proponent of churches and communities hosting racial reconciliation roundtables. We need to be able to sit down at the table with others who look and talk differently than we do and have a civil conversation. I think we all have a lot to learn. But what I am learning in this latest episode is that we need to have next generation roundtables. We need to get the generations together, of all colors, to sit down and talk about what is happening and why it is happening. Where is the next generation coming from and why are they so passionate about what they believe? What have older generations gone through and what guidance can they offer the next generation fighting their own causes? These conversations need to happen and they need to begin happening now. This is where healing begins.

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Please take time to . . .

. . . talk to the next generation. Last night, Tucker Carlson of Fox News interviewed a father who recently lost his son. I’ll spare the details as the video speaks for itself. I will say, however, that watching the video was a gut-wrenching experience for me and that the video should serve as a sobering reminder to us all of what is really important in life; life itself. With Covid-19 and the ongoing Minneapolis, MN riots, there is a lot happening in our world and nation. Let’s not forget what is also happening to many in the next generation.