Implementing this commission, however, required a painful "Comfort Detox." I had to accept that I could not mentor from a distance, nor could I influence a generation I was busy judging. In 2018, my wife and I conducted what we called a "Table Ministry Audit." We looked at our calendar and realized that 90% of our social interactions were with people our own age and socioeconomic status. We were failing the biblical mandate of hospitality. We decided to adopt a "Posture of Radical Inconvenience." We stopped waiting for the church to assign us a formal mentorship program and simply opened our front door. We invited a young couple, Mark and Sarah, who were drowning in debt and parenting toddlers, to dinner every Tuesday for six months.
* The Rule of Listening: I had to learn to shut my mouth. My instinct was to fix their problems with my "superior experience," but I learned that Strategic Availability is about holding space, not giving lectures.
* The Ministry of Presence: We didn't do a Bible study. We held their crying baby so they could eat a hot meal. We let them vent about their anxieties without offering immediate correction.
* The Humility Check: I volunteered to park cars at our church, a task usually reserved for teenagers. Why? because it forced me to serve rather than demand the deference due to my age.
I found that when I served in the nursery or cleaned up dishes at 10 PM on a Tuesday, the barriers between the generations crumbled. I wasn't an out-of-touch boomer to Mark and Sarah anymore; I was a safe harbor. Humility became the currency of my influence, and I had to spend it lavishly to earn the right to speak into their lives.
Ultimately, this transition became a matter of urgent spiritual warfare. I realized that the Church is suffering a massive deficit of spiritual fathers and mothers because we are too busy securing our own legacies or vacations. I began to view my role as manning the "Watchtower of Intercession." Young parents like Mark and Sarah are physically exhausted; they are in the trenches of career building and diaper changing. They often lack the mental bandwidth for deep, sustained prayer. I, however, have the time. I wake up at 5:00 AM now, not to beat the traffic, but to fight battles they cannot see. I treat my prayer list with the same rigor I used to treat my P&L reports.
* Identify the Targets: I ask the young people I mentor specifically: "What is the one giant facing you this week?"
* Heavy Artillery: I commit to praying for that specific issue every single day until it moves.
* The Report: I text them when I pray. "I am holding the rope for you today."
Do not underestimate the power of a righteous elder on their knees; it is the most productive work I have done in my entire career. As I approach my own finish line, I refuse to coast. I am commanded to run the race with endurance, not stroll across the line with a cocktail in hand. My goal is to die empty - to ensure that when I am buried, I have nothing left to give because I have already transferred my faith, my wisdom, and my courage into the hands that follow. This is the Sunset Commission: to finish well, ensuring the baton is firmly gripped by the next runner before we let go.
