Why We Must Be Intentionally Intergenerational in Ministry by DR. STEVE GREENE for Charisma News
It was only a five-minute encounter. But that brief meeting changed my life.
I’ve written before about Dr. Charles Green and what I now know was our divine appointment. It happened when his son Michael and I, both 17-year-old high school seniors, made a quick stop by the Word of Faith Temple. Our choir would soon sing in the church’s huge auditorium, and our music teacher sent us to work out a performance detail.
I’d heard of Green’s effective ministry with high school students. But I didn’t expect a busy pastor to notice me, much less stop and speak to me.
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I don’t remember just what he said. I do remember that the words of life he spoke over me blossomed in my salvation two years later. They also grew within me the same desire he had to impact generations.
I spent many years replicating Green’s impact in the young souls God sent my way. We shared life, love, laughter and a whole lot of my wife’s shrimp etouffee and jambalaya.
But I also had the opportunity to speak words of life and to share Spirit-birthed truths–to go call the next generation up higher by listening to them more than I spoke.
Years later, when Green and I had another divine encounter at the memorial service for Chancellor Oral Roberts at the University he founded under instructions from the Lord, I took time to thank him for the significant spiritual deposit he made on that day in his church. We continue to speak regularly, and he never fails to impart wisdom and stories only he could tell.
When I think back over my years in education, marketing, ministry and now publishing, I see how God has woven the call to reach, teach and impact the younger generation(s) throughout my life. My staff knows the Lord called me to Charisma to change lives, particularly of those in succeeding generations. And that’s how I see Him using me every day. I’m called to speak life into the next generation.
