The WIGTake for Spiritual Generations
All 12 Ingredients for Spiritual Generations and Podcasts
By Pheaney (Peter) Lindell and Chuck & Deb Wood
We have covered eleven ingredients, from character and love to the very promises of God. But all of them require one final element to see them through to the fourth generation. Spiritual reproduction is not a sprint; it’s a marathon full of hurdles.
If you expect quick results, you will quit. We see this resilience in Jesus, who modeled a gritty perseverance with His disciples despite their chronic slowness to understand. When they panicked in the storm and accused Him of indifference—“Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” (Mark 4:38-40)—Jesus didn’t abandon them; He calmed the sea and then addressed their fear.
The Jesus Model
Throughout His ministry, He faced their hardened hearts. When they worried about bread mere moments after a miraculous feeding, Jesus had to ask, “Do you having eyes not see, and having ears not hear?” (Mark 8:17-18). Later, when they failed to heal a boy due to their lack of faith, His frustration was palpable: “O unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you?” (Mark 9:14-19). Yet, He did put up with them. Even after the resurrection, He had to reproach them for their “unbelief and hardness of heart” (Mark 16:14).
Most leaders would have fired this team. But Jesus was patient and persevered. In His High Priestly prayer, He declared victory not because they were perfect, but because He had finished His assignment: “I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do” (John 17:4-8). He stuck with them until the transfer of the mission was complete.
The Scriptural Model
Paul understood that the ministry of spiritual reproduction is a marathon, not a sprint. He urged the Corinthians to run in such a way that they might win, disciplining their bodies like athletes to avoid disqualification (1 Corinthians 9:24-27). He knew the temptation to quit was real, so he anchored his endurance in the mercy of God: “Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we received mercy, we do not lose heart” (2 Corinthians 4:1).
But perhaps the most encouraging word comes to the Galatians. Paul shifts the focus from the labor to the harvest: “Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary” (Galatians 6:9-10). The author of Hebrews echoes this, stating simply, “For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised” (Hebrews 10:36). The scriptural model teaches us that the promise is on the other side of patient perseverance.
Stories
At 3:00 AM, staring at the shadows on the ceiling, the words finally escaped my lips: “I quit.” I had reached breaking points twice before, but I had never dared to utter the “Q-word” to God. I was a “crispy critter”—burnt out, hollowed out, and physically failing.
The truth was, I wasn’t acting my age, nor was I respecting my disease. Living with Primary Lateral Sclerosis (PLS) meant my body had a finite capacity, yet Deb and I were still trying to maintain a high-octane, military-like schedule in our ministry. A younger, healthier version of me might have muscled through, but the real me was finished.
It was in this “forced desert” of a two-year sabbatical that God began to reconstruct my understanding of sustainability. I realized that for a movement of disciples to multiply through generations, the pace of the leader must be repeatable. If my “Ranger” mentality required superhuman effort, I wasn’t modeling a lifestyle—I was modeling a crash course.
Sustainability is the essential ingredient for seeing generations of disciples. If the first generation burns out, the second generation becomes afraid of the cost, and the third generation never exists. I had to stop playing Tetris with my calendar and start embracing “Rest Rhythms.” I had to learn that saying “No” was not a failure of mission, but a protection of the mission’s future.
I began to ask: Why did an omnipotent God rest on the seventh day? It wasn’t because He was tired; it was to set a sustainable rhythm for all of creation. And why did this same God give Adam and Eve a full day of rest before they had even lived 24 hours? In the New Covenant, rest is an act of trust—a declaration that Jesus is the one building the Church, not my frantic striving. Now, I act my age and respect my disease, knowing that a sustainable pace is the only way to ensure the baton is successfully passed to the next generation.
Suggestions
- Rest Rhythms: Model a weekly 24-hour Sabbath where you disconnect from work and ministry to rest. Teach the disciples that the world doesn’t fall apart when they stop spinning the plates.
- The 10-Year View: When they are discouraged by slow growth, remind the disciples to zoom out. Help them set 10-year goals rather than just 10-day goals.
- Conflict Resolution: When things get hard between you, don’t let the disciples ghost or quit. Teach them how to have hard conversations and resolve conflict biblically. Perseverance is often learned in the friction of relationships.
Application for Disciple Makers
For us, the WIGTake requires holding the tension between long-suffering love and wise stewardship. We must refuse to give up on people too soon, rejecting a cancel culture that discards people for their stumbles. Spiritual parenting requires grit—loving people through their “hardened heart” phases. Yet, perseverance is not blind stubbornness. We must discern the difference between a person who is struggling to grow and one who is refusing to follow. We persevere with the willing, no matter how messy the process, but we also exercise the wisdom to know when an investment is no longer bearing fruit. It is the holy grit that refuses to let someone’s current immaturity determine their future destiny, while maintaining the discernment to know when to say when.
This concludes our look at the Top 12 Ingredients of the WIGTake. While the list isn’t exhaustive, these are the non-negotiables. Now, the question isn’t “What does it take?” but rather, “Are we willing to pay the cost?”
All 12 Ingredients for Spiritual Generations and Podcasts
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