Passing On The Faith To The Next
Generation

Service on Sunday came in many but powerful segments. It started off with an engaging Bible Study, then came the sermon, a naming ceremony and finally a beautiful graduation of some young ones from the children’s ministry to the teens section of the youth ministry.

The speaker for the day was none other than our resident pastor, Pastor Ebenezer Agyapong. He spoke on “passing the faith to the next generation”. Expanding on 2 Timothy 1:3-6, he spoke about how Paul reminded timothy of a faith across generations in his family; the first was his grandmother (Lois), then his mother (Eunice) and finally him (Timothy). He added that there had been a successful transfer of faith across three different generations.

Pastor Agyapong strongly made a case that once a child is brought into the world by his or her parents, it is their responsibility to make sure that the child is well brought up. “God expects us to be responsible”, he added. He also stated that most of the challenges and vices we have in our society now are due to broken and dysfunctional families.

He further stated that children spent more time with their teachers in school than they did with their parents at home. They spent about 9 hours daily at school and when all other activities such as sleep are deducted, they are left with merely five hours to spend with their parents; these five hours are usually not fully utilised. He added that the children were basically being brought up by their teachers. Speaking to parents present, Pastor Agyapong mentioned that it was not enough for them to have high paying jobs at the expense of spending time with and training their children.

Revealing a different dimension to the story of the two women mentioned in 1 Kings 3:16-21, he mentioned that personal comfort at the expense of helping the next generation can affect and kill them. The woman lost her child because she laid on the child and this, Pastor Agyapong used as symbolism for personal comfort at the expense of the next generation. Drawing lessons from 2kings 2:21-24, Pastor Agyapong admonished parents not to rain curses on their children as this act was not good.

In Acts 20:8-10, Paul was teaching and a young man named Eutychus trying to follow fell from from the third story to the ground. Paul went down himself, threw his arms around the young man and said “Do not be alarmed, he is alive”. Pastor Agyapong mentioned that Paul represents the older Christian Generation and Eutychus represents the younger generation. Just like Eutychus, the younger generation may fall and make mistakes, but God is able to help the older generation embrace and help fix them. “This does not mean we should not punish”, he was quick to add.

Concluding, he mentioned that if we did these things, we will successfully pass on the faith and keep the next generation. Prayers were said after the message. The service continued with a naming ceremony and the Sunday School Graduation.

Indeed, it was a glorious time of fellowship!