"To the Tenth Generation" (Ray & Jani Ortlund)

TITLE: To the Tenth Generation God’s Heart for Your Family, Far into the Future
AUTHOR: Jani Ortlund and Ray Ortlund
PUBLISHER: Brentwood, TN: B&H Publishing, 2024, (192 pages).
 

There is an ancient Chinese saying: "富不過三代." In other words, the wealth or the family's material well-being will not last beyond three generations. If we look at statistics among businesses founded by Chinese families, this seems to be largely true. For many Christian parents, one of the major concerns of faith is whether their faith can be passed on successfully to future generations. Each generation has its own challenges to overcome. What about faith or faith matters? Will it falter by the third generation? As far as the Christian faith is concerned, faith is a gift to be passed down from generation to generation. Using Deuteronomy 23:2-3 as an inspirational springboard, authors Ray and Jani Ortlund believe that God will bless families with every spiritual blessing from one generation to the next. We just need to join God in this holy endeavor. With this in mind, they help us journey through the perspectives of marriage, family, parenting, and grandparenting. Written in three parts, the authors point out ways to share the faith in the family, in our homes, and for many future generations. They call this book an "investment proposal." Part One begins with a call to think beyond our own shells. "Bigger thoughts grow bigger faith" is the mantra. Calling us to keep following Jesus and to use our lives as examples for our descendants, they believe that as long as we live our lives faithfully for God while we can, God can use our lives and legacies to form future generations. God uses us as channels of influence. They pay particular attention to marriages because our children pattern their lives after what they see in their parents. 

Part Two looks at how we can make our home a "foretaste of heaven." This means keeping the Word of God central in the family. It means treasuring one another in care and love. It means modeling "gospel culture" in a way that points our children back to God. With regard to parenting, the authors list down 8 insights on how we can point our children toward spiritual truth in God. They also allocate a chapter to show us how we can influence our extended families and Church. Regarding the latter, they provide some interesting ideas on making Church special in our hearts and homes. 

Part Three helps us visualize what we can do for our grandchildren's generation and beyond. From boisterous family gatherings to quiet prayers, there are many subtle acts that we can adopt to influence future generations. Simple things like celebrating special occasions like birthdays to faithfully praying for each of our loved ones could mean a lot. Some of the most touching moments some from the feedback received from grandchildren about what influences them most in their growing years. The last two chapters address some potentially difficult issues such as dealing with an imperfect family and how we can move forward even when family feels like a failure. The last chapter on Ten Truths is worth the price of the book.

My Thoughts

Let me offer three thoughts on this book. First, the all-important core message that deserves to be reiterated: We exist not for ourselves. We live for God and our lives should reflect faith in God for our children and descendants. Faith in God is not just believing. It is sharing the gospel truth through our teachings and our living. For many of us, a large part of our lives center around learning and practicing our faith in order to grow spiritually. We read the Bible, books on biblical truth, and various resources on Christian living. We learn from our mentors. We interact with fellow Christians through Bible studies, Church activities, and Sunday School. There will come a point in which we need to ask ourselves: How much more learning must we do? How much more do we need to grow spiritually? What are we to do with the spiritual truths we have benefitted from? The definite message is that these are not meant to be stored up in our heads or our physical libraries. They are meant to be shared widely. The authors consistently remind us to live our faith with the future generations in mind. This is called generational stewardship in the hope that the lives that we now live will be an example of faith for others to follow.

Second, we need an intentional plan for sharing the gospel culture. The authors give us a three-phased approach, first with ourselves followed by our families, and finally to our extended circles of influence. This parallels our own life stages as well. When we are younger, we can learn and accumulate knowledge. As parents, we teach our children while they are still young. Once our children have grown up, they are pretty much on their own. Faith becomes something that is more modeling rather than teaching. At each stage from marriage to parenting, and from parenting to grand-parenting, we read about different faith strategies. All of them are connected back to biblical truth. The conclusion of the Ten Truths to Keep gives us a concise summary of what strategies are essential at various stages of life. We will need to customize our own plans for our loved ones.

Third, the importance of prayer. I notice that as the chapters progress, there is a greater emphasis on prayer. From the initial chapters on what we can do, the authors end with a sense of letting God do the rest. We can sow, water, and till, but only the Lord can give the increase. The plant metaphor is relevant here. We sow, water, and prepare our young ones as best as we can. After that, we can only go to the Lord in prayer for the rest of their lives. This is especially so because few of us can see what happens beyond the third generation. In prayer, we look to God who could see all the way to the tenth generation and the eternal future. 

Anyone who has a burden for sharing the gospel to our families and loved ones should seriously pick up this book. 

Ray Ortlund is president of Renewal Ministries and a founding member of The Council of the Gospel Coalition. He established Immanuel Church in Nashville, Tennessee, and upon retirement was named “Pastor to Pastors.” Among his other books are The Gospel: How the Church Portrays the Beauty of Christ and Marriage and the Mystery of the Gospel. His PhD is from The University of Aberdeen, Scotland.

Jani Ortlund, vice president of Renewal Ministries, hosts the “He Restores My Soul” podcast and is the author of numerous books. Serving Christ through writing, speaking, and discipling is her chief passion in life. She and Ray, married more than fifty years, have four married children and (as “Bapa” and “Mayme”) have fifteen grandchildren. 

Rating: 4.25 stars out of 5.

conrade

---

This book has been provided courtesy of B&H Publishing via NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.