This is what God created me for! This is what God created you for! This is why God called you & I together! I firmly believe that by the grace of God, “Next Generation” will sneeze into our church & into the community in which we live, spreading its germs, becoming infectious, so that new ministries will grow & more people of all ages, shapes, sizes & colors will come to love Christ. Ultimately, we aim to create an epidemic in which new missional ministries are being spread across our church & into the community in which we live.

A sneeze is messy. A sneeze is chaotic & uncontrollable. There is no rhyme or reason or order to a sneeze. And yet, a sneeze can be the most effective way to infect a large number of people in a very short period of time. A sneeze can be the catalyst that starts an epidemic. The emerging missional church operates like a sneeze. The new church of the early 21st Century will not be birthed like a baby or planted like trees in an orchard; rather, it will be caught like a cold.

Before “Next Generation” was officially launched, its cold had already spread. I wish you could have been downstairs that very morning when more than 20 of our children learned a memory verse, sang praises, gave an offering & grew in their love of God & each other thanks to the cold some of our members caught. This is the kind of epidemic the “Next Generation” sneeze will spread across the body of Christ that is Forest Hills Presbyterian Church.

Now that I’ve got you covering your mouths & washing your hands, just what is “Next Generation?” It is the discernment of God’s will for our mission & vision that’s been mutating for generations. It seeks to focus the ministry of our church on building intimate relationships with the teens in our community.

Teens today live in a completely different world than the one their parents grew up in. With the technological advances our world is enjoying, young people have more access to knowledge, communication & community. And yet, they feel more isolated & more alienated then ever. These post-moderns long for intimate relationships. They long for communion.

In an attempt to reach the next generation, we have discovered that “modern” evangelistic tactics do not work. A brand new way of being the church is required. We seek to redefine what it means to “do” church by actually “being” the church so that by experiencing the Kingdom, teens might come to know the King of Kings.

For “Next Generation,” this means investing in teen’s lives, going to them, & living incarnationally within their community. By practicing KIONONIA, we seek to reach the next emerging generation for Jesus. The Greek word, KIONONIA, means “to share communion with” & can refer to God, others, the Word, & suffering. This word, KIONONIA, is at the core of what this new kind of ministry is all about. It is the “cold that we caught.”

It’s time to be infectious! It’s time to spread some germs! It’s time to sneeze!

“Gesundheit!” ~ God Bless You!

† Special thanks to Rev. Jim Walker of the Hot Metal Bridge Faith Community for permission to use the “sneeze” concept.