God’s salvation not just for you, but for future generations (2024)

“God is rich in mercy.” “You are saved by God’s grace.” That was the beating heart of our faith, said the letter to the Ephesians. God saved us FROM a broken, self-seeking way of life. But that wasn’t the end of the story; it was just the beginning. What Jesus called “the kingdom of God” aims to restore not just individuals, but this whole broken world to God-given wholeness. God didn’t save any one person just to do something nice for that person. Ephesians said, “God did this to show future generations the greatness of his grace.” If God’s saving grace hadn’t had that future focus, no one alive today would ever have heard of it! So that future focus clearly calls us to respond, not just by gratefully accepting salvation (which is the essential starting point, of course), but also by determining to play a role in showing future generations how good God is.

• The United Bible Societies’ guide for Bible translators worldwide said of Ephesians 2:7, “What God has done now will for all time to come be a demonstration of his great grace. The meaning may sometimes be expressed by “for generation after generation” or “for days that never end” or “for years that no one has ever yet thought of.” * If you grew up with Christian ideas (whether you accepted them early or late), it’s easy to just assume that they were routinely “there.” But the only reason we know about Jesus is centuries of faithful work by countless nameless Christians. “By the sixth century, an illiterate Europe had no libraries left. Thomas Cahill relates in How the Irish Saved Civilization how monastic communities copied every ancient text they could get their hands on. For many centuries, monasteries were the only institutions in Europe for the acquisition, preserving, and transmitting of knowledge.” ** It’s your turn. How will you join in God’s purpose of “showing future generations the greatness of his grace”?

Spring Hill United Methodist Church was a historic location with community ties going back generations. Stained glass windows show the names of the people who helped the church become a place where Jesus could be found in the missions and ministries of the people. A few people could still point to a name and claim a personal relationship.

The church started in 1858 with an out-of-town preacher riding in on horseback, identifying the potential for a worshiping community that would meet in homes, a hotel, and a few buildings before the current space was built in 1911. In 1991 the church identified the need for more space and purchased a 27-acre piece of land that would someday be the home of a bigger church building. Since then, the church decreased in size, to the point where that particular piece of land is likely to stay vacant.

I became their part-time pastor in 2021. When we identified our perilous financial situation and the aging of our congregation, we approached Resurrection, inquiring about the process of becoming a location. After a year of prayer, the congregation supported a motion to close Spring Hill United Methodist Church in order to open as Resurrection Spring Hill in the fall of 2024. This process was filled with hope, excitement, disagreement, tears, questions, discernment, and the Holy Spirit’s inspiration.

The most exciting part of this process for me is the realization that we are bringing to life the dreams of the people who came before us. People didn’t build a church building in 1911 only for it to be permanently shut down 100 or more years later. The people who purchased land in 1991 believed that the church could reach more people than was possible in the space it currently occupied. I believe the generations who came before us would be thrilled to see that the people of Spring Hill United Methodist Church made the courageous step towards something new and unknown, so that generations from now people will experience and be changed by a United Methodist presence in the south Johnson County area. Thanks for your prayers as we move forward in faith, knowing that generations will be blessed through all Resurrection locations.