“Your destiny predates you. Before you were even conceived, God had a script for your life. And he is in the process of fulfilling it today.”
I read these words a few months ago in one of my YouVersion reading plans. At the time I liked the way that it sounded and I wanted to see how it would apply to my life. Not long after that, God began to show me that while it is ok to focus on me and my relationship with him, sometimes it doesn’t hurt to look outside of myself. As I reread that quote in my phone today I realized that while this quote relates to me personally it also relates to my generation as a whole. As our parents and grandparents are getting closer to the home stretch of their Christian walks, it is up to us to take up the baton and to represent Christ in the world.
Last night at bible study we got into a discussion about why so many of my generation leaves the traditional church for non-denominational churches and what do they have that the traditional church is missing. We talked about that for a while and it seems that for the most part the traditional church doesn’t always like to give us the freedom to serve God in our own way. This may not be true of every church but for some it is and for our church, it can be the end of us if we allow it.
In the church I grew up in, the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), we have a rich history. It was started by a former slave, Richard Allen, who purchased his freedom. He and others were worshipping in the predominately white church, but they weren’t able to do so freely. As a result of this they made the decision to leave the white church and began the AME church in a blacksmiths shop- fast forward 200 years later and here we are. We have a very specific structure and while the structure is one of the things I love about the AME church, it can also be very stifling. You see the structure doesn’t change no matter where you go in the world and that is good, but if the church doesn’t add their own flair it can get boring. Anyway, I digress, as we talked last night we all realized that a lot of us young adults feel like the older members don’t understand the way we communicate and therefore don’t tend to like our suggestions for new things to do in the church. We also came to the conclusion that unless the older members allow the younger ones to express themselves and their love for God in the way that is comfortable to them while in the traditional church we will continue to leave.
That being said our pastor has given us the task of designing our own service, keeping the structure that the church was built on while giving us the freedom to be who we are and serve in way that links our personalities and our commitment to God. He made us who we are and now we are getting the chance to introduce ourselves as a new generation of believers ready to lead our church so that it continues to withstand the tests of time.
It is our destiny to set this world on fire for God. Why else would the enemy be attacking us so severely? Because he knows that once we get started we won’t ever stop and well, we have God on our side so to him we are literally UNTOUCHABLE.
It will take place the 4th Sunday in February at my church Bethel AME in Baton Rouge, La and we are so beyond excited. The planning is only just beginning but more details will come as we get closer to the date.
blog playlist
- Christ Representers by Jonathan McReynolds (this song is EVERYTHING…it was on repeat as this blog was being written)
- Reason For breathing by About A Mile
- Silence You by Hayley Orrantia
- I love You by Jonathan McReynolds
