As we head into Father’s Day weekend, I am reminded of the importance of passing the baton to the next generation. This blog post written by a friend of VCN reminds us of just that. I hope it encourages you as it has me.

Dr. David Whitaker, VCN President

Generation to Generation

Christine Caine shared this story at Catalyst West Coast. In the 2000 Olympics in Australia, the 2004 Olympics in Athens, and the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, in the 4×400 meter Women’s Relays, the American team should have won each time.  They had the best individual runners and had the best record of any other team.  They lost because they failed to pass the baton well. All the team’s discipline, training, and diet came down to a 1.9-second pass in the exchange zone. You see, the way we carry the baton will determine the future of the Church.  Individual performance doesn’t matter. It’s the whole team. We have to pick up and pass on the baton.

When this “passing the baton” doesn’t happen, there are dire consequences. For example, did you know that the first 113 Colleges and Universities in the United States were schools established to prepare pastors and missionaries for full-time service? Harvard, College of Wm & Mary, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Brown, Rutgers, and Dartmouth are among those colleges.  Today, all of them aggressively deny God. Somebody dropped the baton of passing godly values and biblical truth to a new generation.  When one generation stops telling the next about God, there are consequences.

In the Scriptures, we find that all of Israel moved to Egypt to live in the safety of Joseph, who was 2nd only to the Pharoah. But after Joseph died, Israel was forced into 400 years of slavery under a new Pharoah.  Exodus 1:18 says, “Eventually, a new king came to power in Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph or what he had done.”  Someone forgot to pass the baton to the next generation. When others, especially our children, see that God is not all that important to us, they may walk away from Him altogether. Let’s all work on our passing game so we don’t drop what’s most important.

Bob Lehman

Vice President of Mobilization and Missionary Care with Missions Door