A 3-Fold Calling for Generations in 2021

Kevin Swanson, founder of Generations, articulates Generations' vision for 2021.

I’d like to ask you to keep our ministry in your prayers and to consider supporting us financially.

2020 in Review

It's been an incredibly fruitful year for Generations! I am humbled as I look back at what God has done over the past twelve months. Glancing at our historical growth chart, I see that overall ministry growth in 2020 exceeded every other year since our inception in 2003. While God shook the world economy this year, He rolled out the red carpet for the Generations ministry. This ministry has reached over 100,000 lives this year through our Homeschool Summits, Zoom webinars, radio programs, and products. That’s four times the number we reached four years ago.

This year we participated in two major homeschool conferences in Nepal, a major online homeschooling conference for the Bahamas, and a family economy conference for Uganda and sub-Saharan Africa. We are scheduled for another large conference in the Ukraine in a few months. I also held Zoom sessions with pastors from at least twenty Southeast Asian countries who were interested in homeschooling and bringing a distinctively Christian worldview into education in an increasingly secularist age. The opportunities right now are endless!

Generations ministering in Kathmandu, Nepal

2020 has been a year of upset—political wrangling, riots, disease, natural disasters, economic turmoil, persecution of churches, closure of schools and businesses, and the humbling of the nations. But let us remember that Jesus is “head over all things to the church.” Through all of this, God is growing us, big time! Coming out of this year, what can be said? The world has changed.

The homeschooling movement itself has doubled just this year![1]

The battle for the hearts and minds of our children still centers around education and media. What voices are our children listening to in their formative years? What teacher is molding their hearts and minds? Whose worldview are they drinking in each day during school hours and free time? Are our children becoming grounded in the faith during their early years, or are they merely picking up some religious veneer from church and family life? Recent studies reveal that the majority of children raised in “Christian” homes have little knowledge of the faith they profess. Only 2% of millennials (and 6% of Americans) hold to a biblical worldview, while 61% still claim to be Christians.[4] Despite the religious veneer, America is losing the faith. For the past century, the entire Western world has been steadily losing faith. And the root problem is still the same: a bad worldview inculcated through education and media. The future of our nation looks grim. But, as parents continue to love God, and as the hearts of the fathers turn to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers, everything changes for our future families, churches, and nations. This is the root of the matter: Loving God, teaching the Gospel to our children through every subject in school, and glorifying Christ on a daily basis. This is the vision that changes the world.

All other political and cultural battles are tertiary to the battle for the hearts of our children—the next generation. If there is one thing we have learned in the last twenty years of elections and US Supreme Court decisions, it is this: government policy is not the primary battle; it is only a derivative of the mass culture and the liberalization of the schools and universities. The true battleground is right here in the home. 

Bottom line: We feel a deep sense of calling to equip God’s people for discipleship using media, print, and conferences. Throughout the year, we produced 260 radio programs, 260 World View news updates, and 25 days of webinars while developing 40 distinct Christian worldview resources for families. I wake up every day, and I know what the Lord wants me to do. For such a time as this, He wants us to strengthen the things that remain (Rev. 3:2). We must reclaim a Christ-centered, biblically-saturated, Christian-worldview-based discipleship program for the millions of evangelical Christian families in America and the hundreds of millions of Christian families around the world.

We released our 5th Grade Christian Discipleship Curriculum set this year, and we’re working to publish 1st-4th Grade by Spring 2021!

Whatever happens in the world economy and politics, let us stay on mission. Jesus told us to disciple the nations, and this begins with the children in our homes. This begins with discipling the three young men in our local church. Let’s not drag the secular model of education into our families and churches, a model which has proven a million times over to do just the opposite of what we desire. Instead, let’s return to Christ’s mission and model. Let’s engage in personal, one-on-one discipleship—and let’s take the next generation for Christ!

Over the next five years, our vision at Generations is to:

• Bring the message of Family Discipleship and homeschooling to families across the nation in a tour reaching all fifty states
• Continue developing curriculum accessible to more and more of the world’s Christian population, eventually producing material available in ten different languages
• Launch Christian Worldview Video Courses for the whole family
• Develop a Leadership Institute for discipling the disciplers who will take this message to other states and countries around the world

Let me be perfectly candid. I am a father and a pastor. The Generations ministry has never been the primary means of support for my family, but I have dedicated my life to this vision. For the first five years, my family contributed financially to get the ministry going. Now, by God’s grace, we have a team of thirty people contributing to the larger vision of God’s kingdom through this ministry. My wife and children still help every day with the ministry, answering phone calls, editing radio programs, packing boxes, scheduling interviews, and preparing the World View in 5 Minutes. I believe we are making very efficient and effective use of the resources God has given us through the years. But, most importantly, we could not carry on with this vision, impacting over 100,000 people around the world, without your help. Will you join us in this vision? 

We are praying for an additional $200,000 by the end of this year to keep the vision on track for 2021. Would you consider making a significant investment in this vision with a generous donation by December 31? We need your help to make the Christian Family Discipleship approach accessible to America and the world.

Above all, we appreciate your prayers. The spiritual obstacles are the greatest—and we know that financial resources cannot overcome these things. We have seen the “Red Seas” parted many times through the years of this ministry—and we know that can only continue to happen by prayer and God’s amazing power.

For the Kingdom of Jesus,

P.S. For any donation over $200, I would like to provide you with a personally-autographed copy of my new book, Epoch:The Rise and Fall of The West (tentative title). This 720-page hardcover will be hot-off-the-press early next year. As men of Issachar, our families must understand the times so we will know what to do (1 Chron. 12:32). This book captures the whole story of the very spectacular rise and fall of the Christian West, a story we need to understand as we face uncertain times ahead.   Generations is a 501(c)3 ministry. Donate Now!

[1] https://fee.org/articles/gallup-poll-homeschooling-rate-doubles-as-school-satisfaction-plummets/

[2] https://www.forbes.com/sites/stephenmcbride1/2020/07/21/why-college-is-never-coming-back/?sh=2ae281d624b7

[3] https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/26/why-we-need-new-trump-executive-order-on-no-college-jobs-hiring.html

[4] https://www.christianpost.com/news/just-2-of-millennials-hold-a-biblical-worldview-lowest-among-all-adults-study.html