“And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him. So the people of Israel obeyed him and did as the Lord had commanded Moses.” (Deuteronomy 34:9)

“Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua and had known all the work that the Lord did for Israel.” (Joshua 24:31)

“And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the Lord had done for Israel. And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110 years… And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.” (Judges 2:7-10)

“And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. And they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the Lord to anger.” (Judges 2:11-12)

Israel served the LORD, Yah-weh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, during the days of Moses (with several notable failings along the way). Moses laid his hands on Joshua as his successor, as the Lord had directed, and Israel obeyed (imperfectly) Joshua as they did Moses. And the people continued to serve the LORD all the days of Joshua – and all the days of that generation of elders who outlived Joshua. BUT… after that generation died, there arose another generation who did not know or serve or obey the Lord. Instead, they abandoned Yahweh, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of slavery in Egypt, and worshiped other gods instead.

What happened? The baton was dropped between generations following Joshua’s death. Joshua led the people faithfully as Moses had done. Joshua led a whole generation of elders who faithfully served the Lord. But that generation failed to make disciples of the next generation. Therefore, when Joshua and that generation of faithful elders died, the next generation abandoned the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in order to worship other gods.

The elders of Joshua’s generation – and slightly younger who out-lived Joshua – were faithful disciples and served the Lord faithfully. Faithful disciples – but they failed as disciple-makers. They followed the Lord faithfully during their lifetime, but they failed to make disciples of the next generation.

That basic pattern is tragically being played out in thousands of churches all across America right now. The recent pattern has been for 6,000 to 10,000 churches to die every year in America. New churches are being planted, but the number of churches closing their doors every year exceeds the number of churches opening theirs. Deaths outnumber new births. And not all those dying and deceased churches are “liberal” churches that no longer preached the Gospel. Dying churches include Bible-believing churches with sound doctrine as well as those who have strayed from the truth.

Many of those dying churches have good facilities and good bank accounts and regular weekly activities. Their members are faithful believers who attend regularly and give faithfully and served actively in the church for decades. But their numbers are dwindling. And their members are getting older. And dying. And they are only a few funerals away from closing their doors.

Faithful believers and church members serving faithfully for decades – but failing to make disciples of the next generation – or the next. Failing to develop younger leaders of the next generation. Failing to disciple younger disciple-makers who in turn can make more disciples and keep reaching the next generation. Consequently, few if any young families left. The older members wish for younger people to come, but years ago they failed to make the necessary changes to attract and disciple those young families. And now there’s nothing for them.

That is NOT happening at Cornerstone. That MUST NOT happen at Corner-stone!

Cornerstone is as full of life and health and vitality and fruitfulness now as at any time that I’ve been here. We are in a good season and give thanks to God for His abundant blessings. Certainly, we are in the best financial condition we have ever enjoyed in our history. We celebrate that. We want to be good and generous stewards of that abundance. Certainly, we rejoice in a missions surplus to invest in God’s Kingdom work in the coming year along with a significant increase in our missions budget.

But we also want to be wary of over-confidence due to our financial blessings. For it is possible for a church of good givers in their mature years to prosper financially even while they begin to decline in evangelism and in attracting and discipling younger families and young adults.

To be honest, our financial condition encourages me. But it’s not the most significant thing I see happening in our church right now. Seeing two young men baptized on Easter Sun-day – that excites me! Leading a TTI Disciples Making Disciples training class of 30+ people – from young teens to adults in their 60s – including nearly 20 youth – that excites me! (And that’s just in Eldridge – even more are taking TTI in DeWitt!)

Training disciple-makers across all age groups – not only is that key to fulfilling our vision of “Every Christ-follower a disciple; every disciple a disciple-maker” – but it will also ensure that faithful discipleship at Cornerstone does not die with the present generation of leaders.

Not only do we want to give our people skills and confidence and Spirit-filled power in sharing their faith and leading others to Christ and teaching others to follow Christ and grow in spiritual maturity and fruitfulness – we also want to develop a church culture in which spiritual reproduction becomes the norm. We want to develop a church culture in which the goal is not merely to be a growing disciple and faithful church worker – but the goal is to make disciples who make disciples and to develop leaders who will develop future leaders. We want to develop a church culture in which mentoring and discipleship relationships will become the norm – a culture in which new believers are being discipled, young married couples and parents are being mentored, members are reaching out to unsaved friends with the Gospel, and growing and mature disciples are investing in the next generation to make disciples who will make disciples. A culture in which parents will be effectively discipling their own children – and other kids as well. We want to develop a church culture in which it will be the norm that those who are serving as leaders and volunteers in various ministries will train someone else to do what they are doing. We want to develop a church culture in which the norm for our members will be to be fruitful AND MULTIPLY.

One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts. (Psalm 145:4)