“Building a Generational Church” by Joakim Lundqvist

Welcome to Gateway Churches Podcast.

Wherever you're tuning in from, we hope you're encouraged by today's message.

Maria and I are super excited to be back in the house, and uh I'm really excited about this weekend.

It's part of our series made for each other.

And you know, when the leadership of this church, the elders prayed and asked God for a visionary focus uh direction for our church in this season, the Spirit of God responded by saying a few things that were specifically on God's heart for our church and this season.

And these things for evangelism, discipleship, worship and prayer, and generations.

And today I'm gonna speak to you about building a generational church, and I can't wait.

But I just want to share with you something very unusual that happened in the prep prep process.

I started preparing this message back in late January, and as I was like in the prayer phase, I had this unusual experience.

It was like, hey, there's a song here somewhere.

There's a song waiting to be born.

And I realized there are hardly any worship songs about God being the God of generations.

There should be a few.

So I wrote down just the basic draft lyrics, and then I got in touch with the amazing songwriters of this house, Mark Harris, Josiah von der Burke, Sak Row, and they took the baton and ran with it.

And we worked on this song for several weeks, and it came out as a song that is called God of Every Generation.

And we've actually been saving it for this very moment right here and right now.

So what I would like us to do is to once more stand to our feet all over the campuses as well, because I don't want you to only hear this song, but hopefully sing it.

But even more than that, proclaim it in Jesus' name.

Proclaim it over our church prophetically that we are a generational church.

God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

He's the God of generations, and we are the fathers, mothers, daughters, and son of his family.

So as you hear it and as you kind of get to know it, just join in.

But more than anything, proclaim this from the bottom of your heart.

Let's just worship the Lord together.

You are the author writing our story.

We are the fathers, mothers, daughters, and the sons.

This is your temple, full of your glory, and we stand here as the family of God.

You're the God of Jacob, God of Isaac, God of Abraham, you hold the end in the beginning in your faithful hand.

You cover the future and the past.

Oh God of generation, you are faithful from every time every time, you cover the children yet to come.

Oh God of generation, you are faithful.

Again, we want to speak about building a generational church here today.

Um, as one of the main focus points of our church in this season.

And if you brought your Bible, I would really encourage you to uh to turn to turn with me to Exodus chapter 3 and verse 15.

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

Exodus chapter 3 and verse 15.

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

Uh, this is God encountering Moses and giving Moses his calling, and in that process, he says something very, very special, and it's clear that this is not just a word to Moses, but actually to you and me forever and ever.

Exodus 3, verse 15.

Exodus 3:15

God also said to Moses, say to the Israelites, the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me to you.

This is my name forever, the name you shall call me from generation to generation.

Now, every time God reveals himself and gives himself a name, it's important because it reflects his character.

When he says, I am El Shaddai, we learn something from that name, that he is more than enough.

When he says, I'm Jehovah Rapha, we learn something from that name.

He is the Lord, our healer, and and so on.

So here he reveals himself not just as the God of three unique individuals, but rather the God of generations.

So, how do we honor that God of generations?

And how do we reflect the God of generations in this world?

One of the best things we can do is to build a generational church.

And a generational church is more than a multi-generational church that simply contains many generations, like individual planets that are orbiting in the same solar system.

God doesn't want generations to only coexist, he wants them to connect.

See what I did there?

Not just coexist, but connect.

The very last verse of the Old Testament, Malachi 4, verse 6, says that the hearts of the parents need to connect, be turned to the hearts of the sons and daughters, and vice versa.

Malachi 4:6

And when that happens, when generational connection happens in church, we actually reflect the God of generations.

So how do we do that?

How does this happen?

Well, one of the greatest keys in building a generational church is to accept our responsibility for the new generation, for the young generation.

Because people might say, Pastor Joachim, isn't every generation equally important?

And the answer is yes.

The answer is yes.

Still, there are some reasons why every church who wants to survive beyond one generation needs to put an emphasis and a strong focus on winning the young generation and equipping the young generation.

Let me just give you a few of these reasons.

Number one, the word of God calls us to be spiritual parents.

The word of God calls us to be spiritual parents.

And in our very individualistic time and season of history, I think that this truth might be more foreign to us than in previous generations.

But we can just read, for example, Psalms 78.

There are so many, really, so many uh scriptures to choose from.

I I counted 154 scriptures that speak about generational connections.

Psalms 78 is truly one of them.

Oh, I love this so much.

From verse 3.

The things we have heard and known, things our ancestors have told us, we will not hide them from their descendants.

We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power and his and the wonders he has done.

He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel with the com uh which he commanded to our ancestors to teach their children, so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn will tell their children, and then they would put their trust in the Lord and not forget his deeds, but would keep his commandments.

They would not be like their ancestors, and so on and so forth.

So while we struggle to plan a week ahead, God speaks about four generations right here and right now.

And the kingdom of God is being passed on from one generation to the next by the parental generation, accepting the responsibility to not just live and walk with the Lord, but actually communicate the presence and the power of God to the next generation.

And if you ask me, I know I'm I consider myself a youth pastor, uh, like uh what do you say?

A youth, a covered up youth pastor, like a youth pastor in um in disguise.

Thank you, honey.

I always say that.

I'm like a youth pastor in disguise.

I I used to be a youth pastor back then.

I don't know why it's never left me, but I guess I just it's just the way God wired me, the give the way God put me together.

But every time I see people of my generation or a little bit younger or a little bit older, understanding and realizing that I'm not just uh an attorney, I'm not just a surgeon, I'm not just a teacher, I'm also a spiritual mother or a spiritual father in my church family that is the church.

There's such a beauty found in that.

I recently came across a testimony from a lady called Yolanda from a North Fort Worth campus.

Uh, that that uh came to camp a few weeks ago and got this realization.

So I just want you to hear a short video of her testimony.

Let's run that, please.

I've never worked with middle schoolers before as far for my own kids.

Um don't actually do this on middle school.

Anyway, it's a first-time leader, first-time person with middle schooler.

And these girls and boys have just blown me away.

The staff here, the people that are pouring into them, I see their heart, and it is a beautiful thing.

I see the students' lives being changed right before my eyes to be able to be in the first next thing and see them on their face, hands down, or hands up, hand down, and just heart filled.

It brought me into curious last night because I was just so thankful that I got to see and be a part of something bigger than just my daughter and I.

And so I just want to encourage you if you have ever thought is there is there value in sending my child for Wednesdays, is there value in sending my child to youth?

Oh my goodness, yes.

But here's the value even more stuff that you joined.

Because I have seen it from a totally different perspective as a mom just concerned what's going to be going on there with my daughter who I'm fully vested.

I'm like all in.

So thank you, Gateway youth, for pouring into our kids in the way that you do, for supporting and encouraging your leaders the way you do to just be what our kids, this next generation, needs.

Thank you.

How beautiful is that that is amazing.

God calls us to be spiritual parents.

Um, another reason why we need, as a church, to put a focus on winning and equipping the next generation, the young generation, actually came to me as a word from the Spirit of God.

I was praying and meditating over this revelation of generations, and all of a sudden the Spirit spoke to me.

And what he spoke to me, I would like to add to my next point, the next reason as to why we all have a part to play in believing God to invade our young generation.

This is what he so said to me.

Prior to every major move of God, there has been an attack on the next generation.

Prior to every major move of God, there has been an attack on the next generation.

And I started praying over that and reading the word of God, and I realized that is so true.

If we look at the Old Testament, what is the major move of God that happened in the Old Testament?

Without a shadow of a doubt, it was the miracle of the Exodus.

It was God bringing the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt and back to the promised land, even crossing through the Red Sea on dry land.

Prior to that miracle of deliverance and salvation, it was like the devil realized God is up to something.

God is up to something, and he became nervous, and in his nervousness and in his fear, he attacked the young generation, and thousands of Jewish babies were killed.

That was his attempt to wipe out that seed of salvation that he knew that God was about to plan.

You have the story in Exodus chapter one, and then fast forward to the New Testament.

What is the greatest move of God in the New Testament?

Well, obviously sending his son, right?

The incarnation.

And the same thing happens again.

The devil realizes God is up to something, and in his panic and in his fear, he strikes again at the young generation.

Matthew chapter 2.

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

The enemy places in the heart of Herod to attack the young generation, and again, thousands of Jewish babies are being killed.

And Gateway, I want you to think about what is happening right now.

What is happening in the young generation right now?

There is so much confusion, there is so much hopelessness, there is so much self-harm, there is so much mental problems, there is so much the suicide rate is going through the roof, and and even doctrines are introduced like gender ideology that tries to steal from the young generation even their basic identity of knowing that you're either a boy or a girl.

What is that?

That is the enemy attacking the next generation.

But what does that mean?

It means that God is about to do a major move of revival in our nation and in the Western world.

But we as fathers and mothers need to step up, pray for that next generation, and cover it with protect with prayers of protection.

Can we say amen in the house of God?

A third reason why we need to maintain a strong focus on winning and equipping the young generation is historically passing the baton has been the greatest challenge of the church.

Historically, passing the baton, as in a relay race, has been the greatest challenge of the church.

Many years ago, I set out to study all the major moves of revival in the Western world in the past 150 years.

I studied 28 moves of revival that was uh born by the Spirit of God, and I I studied how they came about and what God wanted to do and say in and through this movement, but also how they came to a close.

And I realized that the greatest, the most common way that a revival or a movement kind of faded out and died was not heresy, it was not false teaching, it was the unwillingness or inability to pass the baton to the next generation.

And you know what?

That triggers me.

I says, that's a hill I want to die on.

I want to make sure to do whatever we can to make sure that what God is doing in this time and in this season will not be a one-generation thing, but will be passed over to the next generation and go from glory to glory to glory to glory in Jesus' name.

So, how do we do that?

How do we build this generational church?

I'm so glad you asked.

I was just getting there.

Three words, three key words that we need to proclaim to the next generation.

Invite, include, and involve.

Invite, include, and involve.

Let's look at the first word, first of all.

Invite.

If you brought your Bible again, would you please go with me to Matthew chapter 20?

Matthew 20 · chapter mention

Matthew chapter 20 contains uh a parable, the parable of the workers in the vineyard.

Matthew 20 · chapter mention

And Jesus says from the first verse, for the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard.

He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

About nine in the morning, he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing.

He told them, You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.

So they went.

Now I'm aware that it doesn't really say in this parable.

That this last group were teenagers.

But they were teenagers.

They bear every resemblance.

They were standing around doing nothing all day long.

But what strikes me here is their response when he asks them, why are you not involved?

Why are you not serving?

Why are you not doing something with the time you've been given?

And they say, Well, no one has hired us.

No one has asked for us.

No one believed in us.

Nobody wanted us.

And you might think, but come on, make an effort.

Knock on some door, make some calls, say, hey, I'm available.

But you see, the young generation will not do that.

They will wait for an invitation.

They will wait to be invited into church, not just into the youth ministry of a church, but they will wait to see if this church interested in what I can bring, what I have to offer.

And I've been doing a lot of coaching churches in this regard, like helping churches to kind of move toward becoming more of a generational church and more friendly to young people coming in.

And one pastor, he stepped up to me and he didn't get it really.

He didn't really get it at all.

He said, Pastor Joachim, I don't understand what's the problem.

In my church, young people are welcomed and appreciated.

And I wouldn't slap his face, but I didn't.

Because I my gut reaction was that that's good, but that's nowhere near good enough.

You see, we need to move from the point where young people are welcomed and appreciated to the point where they feel essential and needed.

We need to proclaim to them we cannot do gateway without you.

We cannot move into the future without you.

You carry building blocks for the future of Gateway that is 100% essential.

We need you in this house.

And you know, when we do that, when we invite the young people, when we welcome them, when we make them feel essential and needed, we invite spiritual vitality, we invite spiritual freshness, we invite spiritual energy, and we also invite a whole lot of weird ideas.

I know that from experience.

Let me tell you, a few years ago, back then, our church in Sweden, Word of Life, we were doing a project called the Euro Tour.

Basically, what we did was every other year, our young people prepared a 45-minute evangelistic concert, like to present the gospel for non-believers.

So the concert was all about, you know, it's music and dance and spoken word and multimedia and everything.

So, and then in the summer, we toured Europe and working together with local churches all over Europe, we performed this concert in European capitals, outdoors, in the middle of the city centers.

So we performed this concert in Paris and London and Vienna and Prague and Copenhagen and Oslo.

18 European nations all in all.

And we saw hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people giving their lives to Jesus.

So this specific year, uh the concert was already done.

Our young people had done a great job with like putting together the concert.

We've almost done with the whole like tour uh program of our destinations, and we were like heading out for on the tour in about six weeks or so.

All of a sudden, I was in my office and there was a knock on the door, and I could tell from the knock that it was a teenager outside.

I've I've learned about how teenagers knock versus older people.

If I hear this, I know there's an adult outside, but if I hear this, there's a teenager outside.

So I said, Come in, and in comes a 14-year-old girl from our youth ministry.

Our a few of our Christian schools are actually in the church building, so all the young people know they have access to me.

So she came in and she was fired up, and she said, Pastor Joachim, I got a great idea.

I'm too old to even do the gestures anymore.

Um, and she said, In the upcoming Euro Tour, why don't we do a big fat concert at Disneyland Paris?

And I smiled at her, but it was this kind of smile.

Because in the back of my head I was going, Oh, little girl, the things you do not know.

Because our concert is like a Jesus in your face concert, it's radical evangelism.

And I realized there is no way Disneyland would have this concert on any other stages.

But of course, I didn't say that to her.

I said, Wow, interesting.

And she said, Well, thanks for hearing me out, Pastor.

And she left.

And I have to be honest with you, Gateway.

When she left, when she walked out that door, her idea was already halfway down my mental waste paper basket.

I had no intentions of following this up whatsoever.

So I went back to what I did before, but all of a sudden the Spirit spoke to me.

And he said, Yo, I can when did you become so proud?

As to not even think that an idea might be from me simply because the messenger is 14 years old.

And I repented and I picked the idea up again.

I looked at it and said, What do I do with this?

This is crazy.

And I realized the only thing I could do was to call Disneyland Paris.

And I so did not want to call Disneyland Paris because I didn't want to make a fool out of myself.

But you see, that's the definition of pride right there.

When you elevate your concern about what other people might think above your obedience to whatever the spirit wants you to do, that's pride.

And we need to stomp it down.

So I called Disneyland Paris, got to talk to this person in charge of the concert, and she so did not want to talk to me.

She so wanted to end it the end the call.

But eventually she said, just send the promo videos and we'll take a look and we'll call you back.

And he was like, Yeah, we're totally gonna never call you back, sweetish idiot.

So we send the videos and we just prayed and placed it in the hands of God.

One week later, they called us back, and they said, We've never had anything Christian at Disney ever, but these videos are good.

So we called a board meeting, and we decided to give you a shot.

So we're gonna offer you a 15-minute slot on the smallest stage of Disneyland, the Winnie the Pooh stage.

And then she said this, are you okay with Winnie the Pooh from a Christian perspective?

And I said, Christians love Winnie the Pooh with all of our heart.

Oh, for us, Jesus is here, we need the poo is right there, right there.

So we came and we did a 15-minute Jesus concert on the Winnie the Pooh stage and they loved it.

And they said, Next time you come, we're gonna give you 30 minutes on the Buzz Lightyear stage.

So we came and we did 30 minutes on the Buzz Lightyear stage and they loved it.

And they said, Next time you come, we're gonna give you the full 45 minutes on center stage Disneyland.

So we came and we did a full concert on main stage Disneyland.

And when our 200 young people stepped up on that stage and preached Jesus across this amusement park, I thought to myself, thank God for a 14-year-old girl who caught an idea that I would never have come up with.

Come on, let's give some glory to Jesus.

We need to invite the young generation.

Number two, we need to include the young generation.

There's a beautiful word in Genesis 21, verse 18.

Genesis 21:18

This is God speaking to Hagar, the mother of Ishmael, when he's do not doing well at all.

And God says to her, Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.

Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.

Now God had a plan for that next generation.

God already knew I want to make this boy into a great nation, but still, he needed the help and support of a mother to raise him up and take him by the hand.

It's exactly the same with church.

Right now, in the hearts of all the children out in our kids' ministry are planted seeds of great things.

But God still needs us to lift them up and us to take their hands and lead them into their destiny.

Throughout the Bible and throughout history, there are so many examples of success stories when this has happened, but also there are some horrible stories and examples of when this has not been available, where the next generation had been left to their own, and whatever God planned did not come to pass.

And I want to share one of those stories with you.

I want to tell you a story about a young boy who was born in the Netherlands in 1853.

Now, this boy was raised in a Christian family by godly parents, and early on in his life he realized that he had a burden for the lost.

He wanted to share the gospel with as many as possible, and this desire consumed his entire heart.

And when he was only 20 years old, he moved over to Belgium and to a coal mining district where the lost and poor people were living, and he started to preach the gospel of Jesus to the poor, to the alcoholics, to the prostitutes, and a beautiful move of revival started taking place.

People got saved, people got delivered, and God started working among this group of people.

But here's where tragedy struck.

You see, the established organized church did not like this young man at all because he brought unwanted people into their churches, low-class people into their nice churches.

So instead of embracing him, instead of lifting him up and taking his hand, they started to accuse him, they started to spread lies about him, they started to attack him high and low.

And this young man was so surprised and so hurt because he thought these people would help me, these people would embrace me, these people would see my heart.

And how I wish, Gateway, at that moment that there would have been a spiritual father around to lay his arm around the shoulders of this young man and say, Do not let disappointment into your heart, do not let it turn into bitterness.

Guard your heart, forgive and forget and keep serving Jesus.

But there was no such voice, no one lifted up, no one took his hand, he was left all to himself, and he couldn't keep his balance.

Disappointment turned to bitterness, bitterness turned to darkness.

Eventually, he left the whole revival movement and it collapsed.

And then he went back to the doing.

The only other thing he knew how to do apart from preaching the gospel, and that was to paint.

And he started painting the wheat fields where he used to preach the gospel about Jesus.

He started to paint the houses, the homes, and the furniture of the simple people that his heart used to be on fire for.

He said, Come and work in my vineyard.

Come and work in my vineyard.

He didn't say come and hang out.

He didn't say come and chill.

He said, Come and work in my vineyard.

The young generation needs to be invited to work in the process of building our church and building the kingdom of God.

Maria and I have many times been in a church in Singapore called Heart of God Church.

I guess I ministered there 25, 27 times in the past 20 years, and I've never seen a church do this better than they do.

The way they invite the young generation is amazing.

They don't even have a youth ministry.

Not that we shouldn't have a youth ministry, but they just invite the young generation to be right in the middle of the church.

A few years ago, I was there.

I went down to the tech area and I took this picture.

That's 12-year-old Benny, who is in charge of the lights of the service.

His 12 years old have to stand on a stool to reach the control board.

But Benny's not left alone.

Next to Benny is a 16-year-old boy telling the 12-year-old what to do, and next to the 16-year-old is a 20-year-old telling the 16-year-old what to tell the 12-year-old.

This is all about building a generational church.

Last time we were there, that was in January last year, I noticed there was a guy that kind of kept close to me, and I realized he's he's he's assigned with taking photographs of the main speaker.

So he kind of stayed close to me and I chatted with him, got to know him.

His name was Ethan, but Ethan stood out to me because Ethan was eight years old.

This is all about building a generational church.

But you know what, gateway?

This is actually happening in our church right now, and I just want to honor God and praise the Lord for it.

Um, there's a guy here called Nolan.

Nolan Siegris, do you around, man?

Come on, Nolan, come up, come up to me.

Nolan is 13 years old and serving on the camera team in Gateway.

Can we just give this young man a big shout of praise?

You know what?

On behalf of Gateway Church, I just want to tell you, man, because now you're gonna represent the entire generation, your generation.

And I want to tell you that we're proud of you and that we believe in you, and that we will always lift you up, and we will always take your hand, and we will never leave you to yourself, and we're so proud of you for serving.

Can we give it up for the next generation of this house?

Because this is your church.

As much as it is the church of your parents and grandparents, this is your church, and inside of your heart and the heart of your generation are the building blocks for the future of Gateway.

Can we just put our hands on our heart right now and just pray for God to make us fathers and mothers of this time and this season?

Father, we thank you that you are truly the God of generations, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

And we pray right now that you will give us the grace to build this church, Gateway Church, our beloved church family, into a generational church where each generation is celebrated and each generation is connected.

As fathers and mothers, as sons and daughters, make us one, Lord, and may your kingdom and your plans go from generation to generation and from glory to glory to glory to glory.

This we pray in Jesus' mighty name.

And all God's people gave a big shout to the God of generations.

Thanks so much, man.

Come on, give me a hug.

Thanks for joining us today.

If you'd like to connect with us, text Connect to 71010 or visit gatewaypeople.com.

We hope you have a great week.