Amid the noise, his eyes turned red. "No one truly knows my father. Only I understand him well—a faithful servant who loves the Lord," Pastor Yin said.
Pastor Yin serves in a southern city experiencing a gospel revival. Among this national gathering of church leaders, he is well-known for his service during the event and his successful youth ministry.
Despite his youthful appearance, which is often mistaken for being younger than he is, Pastor Yin is over 40 and has experienced ups and downs. Perhaps shaped by the culture of his region, he achieved career success at a young age, owning multiple companies and properties. However, he eventually sold everything to embark on full-time ministry. Since then, he and his wife have lived in rented housing for a decade.
Having endured hardships himself, he told young brothers at the dinner that if a preacher remains concerned about salary or complains that believers are shallow in their spiritual lives and fail to understand the meaning of offerings, it simply shows the preacher has not yet fully committed.
In his church, offerings are not made casually. If one does not grasp that giving is both a responsibility and an act of sacrifice, the church will decline the offering. Of course, this distinction is not solely based on whether the pastor teaches about offering well. Many believers in impoverished areas are willing to give but lack the means.
Traditionally, the value of an offering lies in its priority and the sense of sacrifice; in other words, a widow's two small coins may exceed a rich man's generous tenth.
What makes Pastor Yin remarkable is that these values define his way of life. He devotes himself fully and serves fervently. He is actively involved in youth education within his congregation and also supports ministry training in other churches and cities. In his church, passing on the faith to the next generation is not a concern. He is loved by young people—even the children of pastors from other churches choose to attend his church's services.
"They don't like their fathers." Congregants may not know, and outsiders may be unaware, but the children understand what it's like when their fathers return home.
Pastor Yin has observed a concerning trend: the children of pastors no longer believe, and in some cases, even harbor resentment toward the church. This signals a breakdown in spiritual inheritance—a painful reality that is not unique. "A family altar is not defined by how well you preach or how gifted you are, but by how closely you resemble Christ. No one knows the gap between your words and actions better than your family and children."
Parents can either be a stumbling block or a guiding example. Pastor Yin reflected on his own father. While pastors across the city, both young and old, knew him well, few knew his father.
"My father can't preach; his speaking skills are limited, and even believers look down on him." However, Pastor Yin recalled how, as a child, his parents would kneel in prayer daily for the church. He remembered when he first started organizing a youth event where no one helped with the meal service, and it was less than two hours until lunchtime. Anxious, he called his father, who responded, "Leave it to me." His father then went to buy groceries, cooked the meal, and carried it up the mountain to the camp, providing lunch for 40 people.
"Gifts are important, young people value gifts, and they also need affirmation," Pastor Yin acknowledged. However, he emphasized, "Godliness is better than gifts. Your holiness and loyalty to God surpass any talent or ability."
For individuals, faith is inherited through their children, while for the church, it is carried on by the younger generation. What do young people value? Eloquence, knowledge, or qualifications? In response to this question, Pastor Yin echoed the sentiments of Rev. Dr. Clement Chia, principal of Singapore Bible Seminary, who, in a recent lecture, observed that postmodern young people place greater value on the spiritual character of pastors and leaders. They want to see if you live out the fairness, justice, sincerity, and mercy that you preach in the gospel.
Dr. Chia explained that postmodern spiritual characteristics are marked by "dissatisfaction with modern rationality, which devalues art, literature, religion, and other experiences," "dissatisfaction with modern hegemony, advocating for quantitative, systematic, and institutionalized standards," and "dissatisfaction with modern dualism, which separates mind from matter, reason from experience." Postmodernism embraces diversity, complexity, and ambiguity, emphasizing broad understanding and opposing absolute authority and domination.
Dr. Chia asked, "Is there someone in your church who is never challenged?" Contrary to popular belief, he pointed out that the younger generation is not against the church itself. Actually, they are opposed to modernism. The church may mistakenly perceive that postmodern people and culture are against the church, perhaps because the church has been too accommodating to modernism.
The unchallenged authority, disregard for experience, and pursuit of quantity and scale... Dr. Chia urged church leaders to reconsider the relationship between the church and modernity regarding intergenerational faith inheritance.
Certainly, the faith of postmodern individuals may lean toward moral religion, focusing on personal healing, happiness, success, and harmony, rather than a devotion to the Lord, self-sacrifice, and the cross. However, rather than offering blind criticism, Dr. Chia believes the church should confront its own shortcomings and exemplify the core truth of the gospel through storytelling and life itself. Living out the gospel, he argues, can fulfill the postmodern expectation of moral responsibility. Experts at the recent Fourth Lausanne Congress also highlighted that Generation Z values sincere, equal relationships and is willing to accept and participate in groups that offer love and service to the community and society.
Dr. Chia emphasized that to embody spiritual characteristics that resonate with the younger generation, one must enhance self-awareness through reflection, study the Bible for moral guidance, employ critical thinking to navigate complex issues, and integrate spiritual experiences to strengthen inner strength.
"Do you think postmodernism and the church are compatible?" Church leaders are encouraged to overcome prejudices and, as Pastor Yin and Dr. Chia have encouraged, focus on people and character in the intergenerational transmission of faith within families and churches, embodying godly spiritual qualities to win the next generation for the Lord.
- Translated by Poppy Chan
