Discipling an Awakening Generation, Part 3: Protect

Adapted from a talk given to 242 Community by Olly Goldenberg

We've prayed, taking up the stick of authority to stir things in the spiritual realm. We've provoked, prodding the children in our care toward boldness. There's a third thing left to do with that stick: use it to fend off evil. Protect what's being lit in them.

Josiah Went Where No One Expected

By this point in his reign, Josiah had already done the unthinkable — dismantled idols across every town and village in Judah, some of them centuries old. His advisors must have been bracing for civil unrest. But then he did something bigger still.

"So he did in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, as far as Naphtali... he broke down the altars... throughout all the land of Israel." (2 Chronicles 34:6–7)

Israel, at this point, wasn't Josiah's territory. It had already fallen to a foreign power. He wasn't just risking division at home — he was walking into land he had no earthly claim to and tearing down idols there too, operating not off his political authority but off a divine mandate that went further than his job description technically allowed.

That's instructive for us. This next generation is likely to express their faith in ways that don't fit our existing categories — differently structured, maybe more organic than what we're used to. It may unsettle us. Our job isn't to hold it back or write it off with "that's not really God." Our job is to protect the space for it — and to keep their focus fixed on Jesus alone, not on the structures or what other people think of them.

When the Glint Fades

I want to tell you about a boy — talented, maybe thirteen or fourteen — who'd been part of our children's ministry since he was six. He was gifted on keys, could handle the sound desk, and do pretty much anything asked of him. As he grew, the wider church noticed, and he started getting pulled into more and more teams to help — playing in services, serving the youth ministry, helping out here and there. Six or seven different areas, all wanting a piece of him.

I watched him get used in every corner of the church and flourish. But as time went on I noticed the little glint in his eye whenever Jesus was mentioned had faded.

I asked him how he was doing. "Fine," he said. "Doing great."

"What's your prayer life like?"

"Honestly? Not really praying at the moment. I don't feel like I have time."

Notice the other team leaders had not stepped up for him. This is not because they didn’t care. For some it was that they did not have the level of relationship to notice the change, for others they saw how he was helping build their area of ministry and were not really thinking about his personal discipleship and walk with the Lord.

We talked it through, and he came to his own conclusion: he needed to step back from everything and get his relationship with the Lord right again. I went round each of the six or seven teams he was part of and explained he was taking some time out. He got himself restored — properly restored, back on fire — and then stepped back into ministry from that place.

That's what protecting our children looks like as much as anything else. It isn't only shielding them from the world outside; it's making sure their usefulness to us never outpaces their intimacy with Jesus. Their personal walk with the Lord is always a higher priority over anything they do for the Lord.

They missed it

I was talking with a pastor who was buzzing with excitement as he told me that the children in his church had started praying like never before — meeting in each other's homes, praying so much that some of them didn't even want to come into Sunday school anymore. He said they were thinking of sending some of their Sunday school leaders in to go and see what God was doing.

But it didn't sound wonderful to me. Praise God that he was moving in the children and stirring them in prayer, but if God's moving that powerfully, why were their groups so out of step with it that the children didn’t want to attend anymore! And why were they only now thinking to snd in leaders to see what was happening. Surely they should have already been a part of it, not taking over but on the edge, cheering the children on.

We're not called to observe this move of God from a safe distance and catch up later. We're called to steward it — which sometimes just means bringing the children in, stepping back, and saying: lead the way. Do what God is calling you to do.

From the very start of releasing children into ministry in the church we must ensure we are protecting them from well meaning but unhelpful comments. If a child leads worship, many people will want to encourage them and say, ‘Well done. You were brilliant.’ But this puts the emphasis on them and what they did – a pathway to spiritual pride. Instead we can encourage them by saying, ‘Wow, God really used you today – how did you find it?’ This places the emphasis back on the Lord and acknowledges that it is Him who is working through them, so they must remain dependent on him. We must protect their hearts.

And that applies just as much to us as leaders as it does to the children we lead. Protecting them starts with protecting our own hearts too. Without God we can do nothing. If we keep this at the forefront of our minds we too will keep in prayer before the Lord and dependant on him for everything. We too will remember that our personal walk with the Lord is always a higher priority over anything we do for the Lord.

What Happens When We Get This Right

Get prayer, provocation, and protection right together, and you get a generation who won't be shaped by whatever the world tries to impose on them — not because they're avoiding the world out of fear, but because they're too hungry for God to be distracted by it. And be ready: they will start to challenge us. Let them provoke the wider church to greater zeal for the Lord.

Critic or Steward?

Here's how I'd sum the whole thing up: God is inviting each of us to be part of something he's already doing globally among this generation. We get to choose whether we're a critic of it or a steward of it. Being a steward means taking up the authority we've been given for three things —

• Pray — consecrating ourselves and interceding for the children in our care.

• Provoke — encouraging and challenging them to step out further, even when it's uncomfortable.

• Protect — guarding them from the enemy's plans, and guarding their hearts so their focus never drifts from Jesus alone.

Heavenly Father, we thank you that you know and love each one of us. We recognise your Spirit is moving in a particular way in this generation. We don't want to be the ones who miss what you're doing — we want to walk in step with your Spirit and serve the move of God taking place right now. We don't want to see our children set to one side while you move around them. Instead, let us see you move powerfully through them. In Jesus' name, amen.