send the whole army
“The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I don’t need you!’
And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’
On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable…”
1 Corinthians 12:21-22
“When we seek for connection, we restore the world to wholeness.
Our seemingly separate lives become meaningful as we discover how truly necessary we are to each other.”
Margaret J. Wheatley
This past week, I had the honor of being at the Hebrides Revival Conference in Stornoway, Scotland. Those of you who know me know what an impact the 1949-52 revival had on my vision of ministry and awakening. It was a glorious time.
I witnessed a biblical miracle during my time there. A woman was dramatically healed when God moved in the room and removed a large lump from her chest.
I had the opportunity to sit with 98-year-old Pastor Willy MacLeod and his wife, Margaret, as they shared stories of what God did during the revival and still wants to do now.
I watched Pastor Donna MacNeil preach on resetting the plumbline around Jesus and a need for passion in the church again. God's power came down in a remarkable way.
However, one of the most important encounters occurred during the sermon from Matthew MacNeil on God being glorified among the generations…
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We live in a moment where everyone is talking about what God is doing among Gen Z, and in many ways, rightfully so.
The latest data coming out of the USA and the UK is beyond encouraging. Barna called Gen Z the most spiritually open generation they have researched. Young people are turning to Jesus in significant numbers, and University campuses are seeing public baptisms numbering in the thousands. This is the stuff we have been praying for—for years.
But Matthew pointed out that if we aren’t careful, in our excitement for what God is doing among the young, we will unintentionally send a message that other generations don’t matter. Young people have zeal, but they also lack life experience and a measure of wisdom. Middle-aged folks may not have the zeal of youth, but they have experience leading and organizing organizations, churches, and movements. Elderly folks may not be managing and leading as much anymore, but they have decades of wisdom and discernment to offer insight into what is happening now.
If we are not careful, we may only be sending a part of the army in the spiritual battle of our age, while signaling to older generations they are not needed for the fight.
Where battles are fierce, you don’t only send in new recruits.
You send the whole army.
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The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising took place in April and May of 1943. In the heart of Nazi-occupied Poland, in a corner of Warsaw walled off from the rest of the city, lived over 400,000 Jews crammed into the Warsaw Ghetto. Disease, starvation, and systematic deportations to extermination camps had decimated the population. By 1943, the remaining 60,000 residents had nothing left to lose. The Nazis planned a final liquidation of the ghetto. But the remaining Jewish community refused to go quietly to their deaths. The uprising didn’t begin with soldiers, but with students, tailors, mothers, rabbis, and orphans who made a commitment to resist. Everyone was needed.
On April 19, 1943, as German troops and SS units entered the ghetto for the final purge, they were met not with submission but with gunfire, Molotov cocktails, and barricades. The Jewish resistance had formed underground months earlier. Groups like the ZOB (Jewish Combat Organization) and ZZW (Jewish Military Union), armed with a handful of smuggled pistols, rifles, and homemade bombs, fought with impossible courage. They sent the whole of the community into battle.
Children served as messengers, slipping through sewer lines and ruins. Women served as lookouts, soldiers, nurses, and smugglers. Entire families were involved. When bullets ran out, they fought with knives. When buildings were burned down by the Germans, they fought from the rubble. For nearly a month, they held out against one of the most brutal armies in the world.
Though the uprising was eventually crushed, and most fighters either killed or captured, the Nazis had expected to finish the operation in three days. It took them nearly a month, and the psychological blow was immense. The sight of a community—men, women, and children—fighting together with nothing but courage and a few weapons became a symbol of defiant human dignity in the face of unspeakable evil. As one survivor noted: “We did not fight to save our lives. We fought to prove we were human. That we had a right to live, and a right to die with honor.”
When the battle is fierce, you don’t send a part of the army.
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The apostle John knew the power of all the generations fighting in the kingdom of God. He valued the whole army. He wrote:
I am writing to you, fathers,
because you know him who is from the beginning.I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one.
I write to you, dear children, because you know the Father.
I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
(1 John 2:12-14)
We need the wisdom of the sages.
We need the heart of the mothers and fathers.
We need the zeal and passion of the young.
The next move of God will not just be a move among Gen Z, but a multigenerational move. We need the whole body of Christ for what God wants to do.
Sages, mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters fighting together. This is what Jesus prayed in John 17. Not just across traditions, but across generations.
Wherever you are coming from, you are needed for the fight.
Let’s send the whole army into war.
Thanks for reading.
Cheers.
Jon.