I like this. I like it because it is true. I like it because it shows God's great mercy and love. I like this because it is needed as much today as it ever was

After leaving the institutional church almost three years ago, I was first wracked with doubt about my place in the kingdom. After all, who was I to speak for Almighty God? I had been trained for decades to believe that only those who were ordained by the church had the authority to be considered as elders. Yet when those same elders pushed me away from the fellowship of believers, I knew that this couldn't be right. What I experienced was not Biblical. It had all of the hallmarks of the kind of self-righteousness that we reject as Christians. Jesus didn't die to fill in the gaps in our own righteousness. He died to substitute His righteousness for ours

I've never been much of a guy to follow the rules. My instinct is always to do what is best, not what is easy or expedient or expected. When it came to church, it was one of the few places that I deferred to authority because I thought that it was God-ordained. But when I saw my church behaving more like a cult than an assembly of believers then it was time to question things. What I discovered is exactly as you describe, Dan. Being picked as an elder from a slate of candidates does not make one wise or experienced or even qualified in the Biblical sense. Those things come from the school of hard knocks as it were. Those who have learned the hard lessons have not only the duty to share them with those who are younger, but it's a joy to do this as well

This line really gets to me...

Please consider this: Somewhere in your circle there are younger people who could use your help

My experience over many years, especially these last few, is that younger people crave the affirmation that they get from older people. The younger generations are so extremely critical of themselves and their peers that it's a wonder that they can function at all. So they crave affirmation. Lots of us older folks lament that every kid gets a participation trophy for just showing up to an event, but when I see the kind of response that I get when offering a simple word of encouragement to a younger person then I think that maybe I understand a little. So often as I was growing up there was somebody there to help encourage me, so when this is missing for young people today then they will grasp at anything that comes along, even if that's a meaningless award

The best thing that we can do today as elders is to build trust. I have a number of young people that I know who listen to me not because they are forced to but because they want to. Because they know that I'm quick to encourage, they pay attention to me when I'm more forthright about my concerns for their lives. I've found it easy to establish trust because they seldom get any unconditional love from anywhere. Those of us who are older can provide that for them at no cost to us

So please, to those reading this... your time spent getting to know a younger person is not in vain. Whether that kid comes from a great Christian home with loving parents, or they come from a troubled home with nothing but bad influence, every kid needs to know that their choices do not define who they are. Every human being, by the nature of being created in the image of God, deserves a minimum level of respect. If the young person in your life knows that you have their best interest at heart then you can share anything with them, especially the Gospel. After all, if there was ever a story of unconditional love and acceptance, Christ's suffering and death is it