I live in the country and am surrounded by trees. I see all kind of critters. At times, I observe beautiful animals at work in nature that are rarely seen by others such as woodpeckers, finches, red foxes, and chipmunks. At other times, I encounter hideous animals which I wish had not crossed my path. For example, a large oak tree stands next to my back porch. This tree has a dark hole in it whereby I can stand on my back porch and shine a flashlight down into the hole to see what has crawled inside. Over the past two years, the hole has been occupied by a rat snake, a possum (which jumped out at me), hornets, and creature(s) you will discover below.
Seeing the best and the worst just comes with the territory. What I am about to tell you next is the worst and reads like a horror story. A few nights ago, I was walking in my bare feet in my house with the lights off around midnight when I nearly stepped on a scorpion (think tail up and pinchers out). As you can tell from the above excerpt, this sighting comes as no surprise. I knew what needed to be done. I immediately went to access my pocket knife so that I could divide the scorpion into two. What happened next, however, is something that I would not have predicted. Think about the movie Alien (or Tremors) with the little mouth (or worms) coming out of the alien’s (or tremor’s) big mouth or what happens to Gremlins once they touch water.
Scorpion babies are born alive and not hatched from eggs like insects (sometimes, mother scorpions even eat their babies). Once I pressed my knife blade on the back of the queen scorpion, seven baby scorpions jumped out and scattered going in all directions. Now, it was incumbent upon me to save my feet and at the same time track down and kill eight scorpions. The beast had multiplied in front of my eyes. To make a long story short, my precious feet were not harmed and I won the crusade by massacring the scorpion empire. But you may be asking yourself at this point, “what does this horror story have to do with next generation ministry (NGM)?”
Before I give you the “what” answer, you need to understand that any ministry or desired ministry outcomes that you have must start with the question, “Why?” I learned this “what’s your why” principle from next generation guru Dr. Jeff Lovingood, author of Make it Last. Likewise, Simon Sinek, who wrote Start with Why, says “the why” provides a framework upon which organizations can be built, movements can be lead, and people can be inspired. “The why” has nothing to do with money or making a profit.
The purpose or “the why” of NGM is to make disciples (Matt. 28:19-20). Dr. Aubrey Malphurs has correctly stated that a Christian is a disciple. Jesus expects disciples to grow in their faith from the moment they become his follower. Next generation ministry is a discipleship process whereby students from the cradle through college worship, study, and serve together as they transition from one life stage to the next.
NGM produces a unity and cohesiveness between age-graded groups. Overlap occurs in and between preschool, children, youth, and collegiate ministries making the discipleship strategy a team approach. Since no age group or ministry is left out or considered less than another, disciples are made. NGM is about multiplying disciples, not dividing ministries. Students who have been discipled then develop into adults who marry and multiply in the form of Christian families, beginning the discipleship process all over again in next generation ministry, this time with their babies.
Unlike the horror story I shared, the gospel represents a beautiful awe-inspiring redemptive story. Multiplication is a theme in both stories, but multiplying disciples, not scorpions, is what Jesus has commanded his followers to do. NGM is a strategy used to accomplish the end-goal of making disciples.