The Vision of Generation Joshua
The Vision of Generation Joshua is to assist parents to raise up the next generation of Christian leaders and citizens, equipped to positively influence the political processes of today and tomorrow.
Generation Joshua is a part of the Homeschool Legal Defense Association (HSLDA). Inspired by Alexander Hamilton’s “Christian Constitutional Society” as well as the book The Joshua Generation: Restoring the Heritage of Christian Leadership by Michael Farris. Generation Joshua exists to train and equip this generation of young people to be Christian servant leaders in America. It’s about starting the kids young and getting conservative godly youth involved in the political system.
To accomplish these goals, Generation Joshua provides training opportunities for teenagers, one of which is the local club format. Our goal is to use these opportunities to challenge teens to stand up for what is right, to grow in their own beliefs, and to learn about how they can make a difference in their communities and nation.
At Generation Joshua, we believe that real leaders must stand for their beliefs. Many of today’s “leaders” do not actually want to lead; they just want to be the top person in charge. That is not leadership, it is celebrity. True leaders want to lead people to make a difference and to stand up for what is right. And that first requires the leader to have a core set of beliefs upon which to act.
The Goal
Our goal at Generation Joshua is to cultivate leaders and to equip them to use their beliefs to influence the political process. All of our programs either challenge youth to strengthen their beliefs, or give youth the opportunity to put their beliefs into action. We know that not every person is called to enter the political arena, but every person should be a leader who is willing to stand up for what is right, wherever they are called to serve. To that end, Generation Joshua exists.
We, as Christians, are called to be good stewards of our family, our community, and our nation. Generation Joshua provides opportunities for youth to be good stewards in their communities (through our club program) and in our nation (through our Student Action Teams).
Generation Joshua wants America to be a beacon of biblical hope to the world around us. We seek to inspire every one of our members with faith in God and a hope of what America can become as we equip Christian citizens and leaders to impact our nation for Christ and for His glory.
When Does our Club Meet? how do I join?
The third Monday of the month at 2pm students meet for Generation Joshua club (you do not have to be enrolled in HLDSA to participate). CONTACT US to join or email: pauline@classicalhomeschoolcurriculum.com to join or for questions.
What Does Our GenJ Club Do?
Through Generation Joshua we teach students how to make a real difference in our nation and prepare them to become the future leaders of America. At our GenJ Club the kids run the monthly meeting taking on roles of leadership and following Robert’s Rules of Order (Pauline is the adult host that is present). Together they plan and engage in civil service activities that support conservative pro life/pro family candidates or organizations.
It is a fun time of fellowship and camaraderie serving our Lord and making an eternal difference in this world! The children feel a great sense of worth and purpose setting for to accomplish big tasks and seeing their efforts contribute to change.
Optional Reading List:
This list is by no means required…but who doesn’t love a GREAT book list!? It is sure to inspire the free, educated, thinker in us all! How many have you read?
Generation Joshua Recommended Reading List
Thomas Jefferson once wrote “I cannot live without books.” But what books ought the educated member of a free society read?
Here at Generation Joshua, we’ve taken time working through some of the greatest classics of Western civilization to compile a list of books that we would recommend to any conservative American should read.
The list ranges from classic texts which built Western philosophy, such as Plato’s Republic or Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, to iconic works of Western literature, such as Dante’sThe Divine Comedy or Shakespeare’s Henry V, to modern classics of conservative political theory, such as Russell Kirk’s The Roots of American Order or Richard Weaver’s Ideas Have Consequences. In addition, we’ve included a number of supplemental resources to aid in understanding the big picture of Western civilization.
Wondering where to begin? Try The Roots of American Order, or email us at GenerationJoshua@hslda.org
Christian Living
Thomas a Kempis – The Imitation of Christ
Martin Luther – On Christian Liberty
John Foxe – Book of Martyrs
Brother Lawrence – The Practice of the Presence of God
G.K. Chesterton – Orthodoxy
Dietrich Bonhoeffer – The Cost of Discipleship
C.S. Lewis – The Screwtape Letters
C.S. Lewis – Mere Christianity
C.S. Lewis – The Weight of Glory
Brother Andrew – God’s Smuggler
Corrie ten Boom – The Hiding Place
Francis Schaeffer – How Should We Then Live?
A.W. Tozer – The Knowledge of the Holy
Literature
Ancient
Homer – The Illiad
Sophocles – Antigone
Virgil – The Aeneid
Medieval and Renaissance
Beowulf (Author Unknown)
The Song of Roland (Author Unknown)
Dante – The Divine Comedy
Sir Thomas Malory – Le Morte d’Arthur
William Shakespeare – A Midsummer Night’s Dream
William Shakespeare – Julius Caesar
William Shakespeare – Henry V
Enlightenment through 1800s
Daniel Defoe – Robinson Crusoe
Jonathan Swift – Gulliver’s Travels
Jane Austen – Pride and Prejudice
Mary Shelley – Frankenstein
Sir Walter Scott – Ivanhoe
Charles Dickens – Oliver Twist
Charles Dickens – A Tale of Two Cities
Charlotte Bronte – Jane Eyre
Harriet Beecher Stowe – Uncle Tom’s Cabin
George MacDonald – Phantastes
Fyodor Dostoevsky – Crime and Punishment
Jules Verne – Around The World In 80 Days
Mark Twain – The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Robert Louis Stevenson – Treasure Island
Leo Tolstoy – The Death of Ivan Ilyich
20th Century
Baroness Orczy – The Scarlet Pimpernel
G.K. Chesterton – The Man Who Was Thursday
T.S. Eliot – Murder in the Cathedral
T.S. Eliot – The Four Quartets
C.S. Lewis – The Space Trilogy
C.S. Lewis – The Chronicles of Narnia
J.R.R. Tolkien – The Hobbit
J.R.R. Tolkien – The Lord of the Rings
George Orwell – Animal Farm
Ernest Hemingway – The Old Man and the Sea
Ray Bradbury – Fahrenheit 451
Robert Heinlein – Starship Troopers
Harper Lee – To Kill A Mockingbird
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn – One Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich
Robert Frost – The Poetry of Robert Frost
Orson Scott Card – Ender’s Game
Philosophy
Overview
James Sire – The Universe Next Door
Bill Bennett – The Book of Virtues
J.P. Moreland and William Lane Craig – Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview
Historical Texts
Plato – The Trial and Death of Socrates
Plato – The Republic (Books 6-7)
Aristotle – The Nicomachean Ethics
St. Augustine – Confessions
Thomas More – Utopia
Sir Francis Bacon – Essays
Blaise Pascal – Pensées
C.S. Lewis – The Abolition of Man
Politics and Economics
Aristotle – Politics
Machievelli – The Prince
John Locke – Second Treatise on Civil Government
Montesquieu – The Spirit of the Laws
Adam Smith – The Wealth of Nations
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay – The Federalist Papers
Edmund Burke – Reflections on the Revolution in France
Alexis de Tocqueville – Democracy in America
F.H. Hayek – The Road to Serfdom
Richard Weaver – Ideas Have Consequences
Russell Kirk – The Roots of American Order
History and Biography
Sun Tzu – The Art of War
Plutarch – Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans
Benjamin Franklin – The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Winston Churchill – A History of the English Speaking Peoples
Elizabeth Eliot – Through Gates of Splendor
Whittaker Chambers – Witness
Edwin Meese III – With Reagan
Eric Metaxas – Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet
Worldviews Hostile to Christianity
Karl Marx – The Communist Manifesto
John Stuart Mill – Utilitarianism
Friedrich Nietzsche – Beyond Good and Evil