Who’s Next?

By: Charles Steiner

I read a book recently called The Death of WCW. In the book the authors share how World Championship Wrestling, owned by billionaire Ted Turner, went from being the most popular wrestling company ever in 1998, to going out of business and being bought by it’s competition in 2001. One of the reasons the authors gave for the companies collapse was older wrestlers who were past their prime like Hulk Hogan refused to give up the spot light to younger wrestlers who were entering their prime. One of the wrestlers who should have carried the torch for WCW into the future was named Bill Goldberg. His catch phrase was “who’s next?” That’s exactly the question that WCW failed to answer. Who would be the next stars to follow the older guys on the brink of retirement?

Could what happened to WCW also happen in the church? More personally I ask could it happen to you and your family? We know through history that the church of the New Testament, which had rapidly grown in just a few short years, was almost non-existent just a few hundred years after it begun and had to be restored to its original form over a thousand years later. It can happen. We need to be asking ourselves “Who’s Next?” Who will be the adult church of tomorrow? And most importantly, what are we doing to ensure that there will be a church of tomorrow? Here are 3 things you can do to help increase the chances of your young loved ones being faithful Christian adults.

Pray. Pray with your children and grandchildren. Pray for them. Pray in every instance imaginable (happy, sad, mad, grateful, depressed). By doing so, you put your life into the hands of almighty God, and teach the young ones that you love to do the same. I Thessalonians 5:17 “Pray without ceasing.”

Apply the Bible to every day life. Reading the Bible is great and needs to be done. But scripture will never come alive more than when you apply it directly to the way your child behaves. If your child complains that someone is being mean to them at school and they don’t know what to do. The Bible comes alive when you explain that Jesus said to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you (Matthew 5:44).

Put the Kingdom first. “Jesus said seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness (Mt. 6:33).” Your children notice what is really the most important to you. If you sacrifice the extra hour of sleep to come to Sunday school, they will notice. If you choose to skip something that would have been really fun to do something spiritual they will notice that too.

Who’s next? It’s a question we all need to be asking to help our young loved ones get to heaven.