Preparing a generation for missions requires time, effort, and intentionality. In preparation, churches should equip everyone (adults, students, children, and preschoolers) to live out their Christian lives through missions discipleship. Missions discipleship is being intentional about praying, training, and equipping disciples who make disciples and carry the message of Christ to a lost and dying world.

• Prayer can be taught as a way to talk with God. Preschoolers can begin by being thankful for family, other people and items around them.  Children build on the foundation of being thankful. As a child becomes a Christian, they learn that prayer is part of the salvation experience through asking for forgiveness for sins. Children can pray for opportunities to share their faith story with their friends. Children can begin to see how praying for missionaries affects their ministry. Through missions discipleship, students dive into learning about people groups and discovering the physical and spiritual needs for prayer.
• Giving to the Cooperative Program helps reach the world for Christ. This type of giving runs deep in Southern Baptist history. The local church gives though the Cooperative Program, the Lottie Moon Christmas offering, Annie Armstrong Easter offering, and the Dixie Jackson Arkansas State Missions offering to reach out to un-reached people groups around the World, North America, and Arkansas. Church plants are formed and people who have never heard the Gospel receive Biblical literature and see spiritual needs being met. This is a result of the local Southern Baptist church giving through the Cooperative Program and special offerings throughout the year. Preschoolers and children can learn the importance of giving at a young age which leads to consistent giving throughout adulthood.
• Learning about missionaries as they meet the physical and spiritual needs of people groups around the world help open young eyes. In learning about missions, the local church sees how the Cooperative Program and special offerings assist with people carrying out the Great Commission. As preschoolers and children learn about missions around the world, God will use them to reach the world for Christ.
• Participating in missions creates an environment where people are actively participating in hands-on activities where theory and theology becomes practice. Preschoolers and children need to see Christians living out their faith by participating in missions action projects. A part of participating in missions includes learning to tell your faith story. As faith stories are told, children and non-believers see the words and actions of Christians hold true. Children learn through hands-on mission projects. Challenge your children to participate in a mission project during the year. Challenge a student who is a Christ follower to tell their faith story to a friend.
• Living a missions lifestyle is not for missionaries only. Jesus gave the Great Commission to all believers. Christians need to be on-mission in their everyday lives. Preschoolers, children, and students follow the example which is set before them. The next generation needs to observe a committed community of believers living out their faith in Christ at home, work, and in the world. The missions lifestyle is everyday living one’s life for Christ.

Preparing the next generation begins today. What steps are you taking to prepare the next generation?

Charity Gardner works with Arkansas churches developing missions education. When she is not working, she is serving with her home church, Epoch Church, a church plant in downtown Little Rock. She loves seeing movies, hanging out with friends, and checking out the latest on Twitter and Facebook.