How to Treat Each Other

"Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity." 1Timothy 5:1

Even though these are Paul's sage words of advice for the young Pastor Timothy, they are sound counsel for all of us. Our relationships with different age groups in The Body of Christ, which is The Church, (including Grace Harbor of course), should be appropriate and respectful. There are a handful of scriptures that address this issue and we should keep in mind that if Paul is talking about it, it probably was an early church problem too. I say 'too' because we can easily write off younger’s or olders, men or women in broad sweeping generalizations when we should keep all relationships both Biblical and personal. Whether you are 9 or 90 the principles apply. You are never too old or too young to be expected to be respectful to everybody.

We share often about honoring people in that Great Generation (those born before the end of WW2). We really have made it a theme of Grace Harbor to treat our Super Seniors with the regard they deserve. I don't think we do as well with the younger generation. It is too easy to dump them into lumped categories of irresponsible, lazy, entitled or spoiled. We may see them as weird or different anyway, and tend to not listen to them. I mean really listen to what their hearts say. A few bad experiences and we quickly disconnect from all of them.

This Millennial Generation (born between 1980-2000) is here to stay and we need to get to know them, appreciate them and interface with them. Us Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers who are in between must join hands across the generations and keep the smooth transition of the work of the ministry of the Gospel moving forward. We must respect and acknowledge youngers and olders simultaneously. Not an easy task, but doable. What it takes is communication, community and commitment. The key to successful communication is listening. The key to real community is time just hanging out together. The key to commitment is to make it about Jesus, not the church, or the methodology, or the style. Across the generations.... no harshness, more exhortation.

Brothers and sisters of all ages, we are the family of God, let's act and talk like it. Make an effort to reach out across all of the Generations. Paul thought that was a really good idea and so do I. He and I might actually say it was 'Cool' (a transgenerational word) We can all relate to that, can't we?

In His Grip,
Pastor Fred

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