EDITORIAL

Gordon Luk

How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news! Romans 10:15b

Do you remember the person who changed your life by bringing the gospel to you? Have you also wondered about who brought the gospel to them? And what about the person who brought the gospel to that person, and the person who brought the gospel to them…

We are all part of a beautiful ‘family tree’ of faithful messengers who passed the gospel from generation to generation.

Beautiful?

If there’s a word that describes what 2020 has been so far, it’s probably not the word, beautiful. It’s been an ugly year. Unsurprisingly, most of this Societas edition was produced in isolation. Our theme, however, “from Generation to Generation”, was actually decided before that. So, after COVID-19 changed things here in Sydney, as it did around the world, we contemplated whether our theme needed changing too. This global pandemic raised so many questions about everything, including everything to do with Christian living and ministry: How do we live as Christians now? How do we do church now? We had good options for an alternative theme. But in the end, we decided against changing. Why? Because sharing the gospel is still beautiful. The gospel of Jesus Christ is still the most beautiful news in the world.

The world still needs the good news of Jesus Christ.

We still need to ensure His gospel spreads, not just around the world, but to the next generation. But how will we do this?

Botswana’s Economics

One of my former managers explained to me how his country, Botswana, transformed from one of the world’s poorest countries to having one of Africa’s highest GDPs.

The answer, he said, was education: fundamental to this remarkable economic transformation was heavy investment in the next generation. Within three decades, Botswana was among the world’s leading countries for teachers per capita. To ensure our gospel passes faithfully to the next generation, it’s fundamental we raise up, teach and train the next generation of gospel servants: the next generation of preachers, pastors, ministers, evangelists, teachers and leaders.

But it’s also more than that.

It also means growing children’s and youth ministries; it means older men and women discipling younger men and women; it means helping parents raise their children in the Lord; it means churches trying to share this life-saving gospel with every family in their neighbourhood; it means new churches to reach more neighbourhoods; and much, much more.

But why?

Why should we pass the gospel onto the next generation?

It must be because we simply can’t stop talking — about who our God is and what He has done for us.

In other words, we do it for His praise.

Let this be written for a generation to come, so that a people not yet created may praise the LORD: that He looked down from His holy height; from heaven the LORD looked at the earth, to hear the groans of the prisoners, to set free those who were doomed to die... Psalm 102:18–20

We pray that this Societas edition encourages you to invest in the work of passing this beautiful, life-changing gospel on to generations to come, so that they may join the multitude of generations praising our LORD.