How can the church bridge the generational gap and foster unity among its members?

Kevin Swanson highlights the necessity of a generational connection within the church, emphasizing the biblical mandate found in Titus 2 where older men and women are instructed to disciple the younger generation. This discipleship has often been neglected, leading to a divide characterized by various cultural expressions, such as traditional and contemporary services. Swanson argues for a restoration of honor towards past generations and their cultures, which is crucial for the church's reconstruction in the 21st century. The wisdom and mentorship from older to younger generations are essential for spiritual growth and unity.

Swanson also addresses the self-centered mindset prevalent in the older generation, urging them to provide both spiritual and material inheritances to their descendants. With the approaching challenges of an aging population and economic instability, the church must revive and reform to care effectively for the elderly. This involves reconstructing family and church life to ensure the well-being of widows and avoid reliance on a flawed social security system. By embracing these responsibilities, the church can set an example of obedience and faithfulness in a world facing moral and economic bankruptcy.

Proverbs 13:22 (NKJV): "A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, but the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous."

Well, everybody plays a part and we really need a generational connection between the older generation, the younger generation, the churches. Titus II requires it. The older men disciple the younger men, the older women disciple the younger women. And that has really not happened enough. And of course with this cultural revolution that has come in, such that we have different music styles, we have the old fogie church service, then we have the contemporary service, then we have the nose ring service and so forth, all supposed to be ministering some sort of a gospel to these vastly different generational situations, but rather we need to restore the honor of fathers and mothers, the honor of previous generations and their cultures.

So until we can cross cultural boundaries by the honor of previous generations, I just don't think we're going to see a reconstruction of the church in the 21st century. So again, this is a matter of the younger generation honoring the older generation and realizing there's so much wisdom that has to be conveyed from the older to the younger generation through discipleship and mentorship. As well, the older generation needs to rid itself of this self-centered, I'm spending my children's inheritance worldview and save an inheritance, a spiritual inheritance certainly, but also convey a material inheritance to the next generation. We live in an age in which 80 million baby boomers retiring now have slaughtered 80 million babies and now looking forward to euthanasia and a bankruptcy of the Social Security system. That being the case, by the year 2034 the church absolutely must be revived and reformed such that we're ready to care for the elderly.

The elderly generation is still passing inheritance on to the next generation and we have a reconstruction of the family life and the church life in which the widows are being well taken care of by the churches, and we don't have to turn our elderly over to a bankrupt social security system and the euthanasia program that will proliferate in the 2030s. So the call is to the family to revive, the church to revive, and as I say plant gardens in the ashes of what used to be a civilization, what used to be a healthy socioeconomic system. I think we can do it by the grace of God. I think we can plant the gardens in the ashes and see a beautiful thing happen. While the world is aborting its children, we are adopting.

While the world is euthanizing the elderly, we're caring for them. While the world is spending the children's inheritance and spending their great grandchildren into a massive debt to GDP ratio, we are saving inheritance for children's children. So the church, the true church, will be an amazing example to a bankrupt world in which they have utterly destroyed relationship, they destroyed their economies, They destroyed their social systems. I think the next 20, 30 years will be a beautiful opportunity for the church to exhibit itself as a true, obedient, sanctified Church of Jesus Christ against the world that has embraced such bankruptcy.