Final Week

Here were some of the ideas generated in my group on Sunday:

Benefits of study: increase in communication, setting for feedback, different groups one objective, place to rest and study, unified, bearing each other's burdens

What hindrances do we need to throw off: burden of past, worldly view, financial worries, a "we can't" attitude

Next step ideas:

not venue for activity but for relationships

setting for being loved, growing, and being honest with themselves and others

keep it real

focus on Scriptures

community music club

objective evaluation process to get honest feedback

spiritual gifts evaluation

hurts/healing ministry

youth participate/lead services

deliberate intergenerational activity in VBS

opportunities on other days

outreach training/specific ministry training

becoming model not just voice

On Saturday we will try to put all of our groups' input together and come up with a coherent next step

Week 8 - Conversation

Again, my group spent the majority of time discussing the Acts passage. It was amazing to see how we covered, or made obsolete my other questions simply by spending time on the story of Philip and the Ethiopian. One great insight from the passage is that Philip is told to walk near the chariot. It isn't always about us directly engaging, but being present and open. I have found this to be true in just my limited time at a coffee shop or at the bike shop. Just "hanging around" can give opportunity to talk. We also talked about the differences between last week and this. The last story we read about really highlighted the use of interuptions in life. In this story, Philip is told where to be. Often God puts people in our lives that we would otherwise not seek out.

We generally concluded that we should be open to new opportunities and to connecting with people, but not force interactions. We also recognized that we need to practice this because it doesn't come naturally to all of us. Part of this practicing is happening right now in our groups and support of each other.

Week 7 - Engaging People

This week we made the leap from big picture issues of youth and culture, to the individual aspect of actually talking to people. We spent a fair amount of time on the Acts passage, recognizing that many opportunities to share faith come at unexpected times. We also spoke of the importance of love and patience in our interactions with people. We made the conclusion that there is no single way to approach people, nor is there a training guide for this. We are all people and know how to talk to people. The important thing is to first of all love and ask a lot of questions, far more than you answer.

We also emphasized that as patient and loving as we should be that does not ultimately mean leaving people where they are. Jesus loved us enough to come where we were, but not to leave us there. The same is true as we walk together in faith, and as we love those who don't know Jesus. The question of timing is one we can't answer, but we can support each other, pray for each other, and help each other navigate these waters.

Next week we will start by discussing the next step after this study.

Week 6 - The World Beneath

Our group began by reviewing some of the posts from the youth end, particularly on their opinion of cultural differences between youth and adults. We then went into Mark 5, which I could not at first remember why I chose. Juliette and Louisemarie were also perplexed but found that the discussion was still good. Ultimately my group made connections with Jesus acting in the interruptions; and the desperate nature of the people's request, followed by their mockery of Jesus. In short, I apologize for forgetting the thrust of this passage for this week, but you may want to let it hang and see what your group comes up with.

In discussing the multi-layered world of youth we highlighted how adults often still live in layers but it may not be as dramatic. What this means generally for us is that we can't become overconfident that we have at any point figured out youth. There is always the center of the person that only God knows, so our task is not to unmask youth but to walk along-side them.

The topic of talking about our faith came up, and this is a struggle we will dive into in coming weeks. Two important points in the short term were, 1) no system or training is going to "fix" the difficulty many of us have with speaking about our faith. The devil is at work in shutting us up and we need to recognize this in order to overcome; 2) Bob Newton pointed out that you can't rush your witness, and that sometimes people see it more in your whole life than in a single conversation. More on this later...

Overall it was a great discussion and I want to pass along to all of you the encouragement we received from Pres Newton. He sees a lot of churches in his job as District President, but we was encouraged by the warmth of our congregation and the wisdom of our people shown in the visioning study. He commended us for not taking any short-cuts, and noted that he saw depth of change occurring here. This might be worth sharing with your groups.

Week 5 World Beneath (technically this is week 4 part 1 in the study material)

My Sunday group really focused in on 1 Corinthians 9. In the process we answered most of the other questions very naturally. For us the big issue concerned fitting in, and being able to confess Christ. We noted that Paul is not simply a great chameleon, but is able to find common ground with people in order to gain an audience. We also noted that in order for Paul to mix in with different groups, he needed a clarity about his faith and his role. This comes up in his opening statement: "Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone to win as many as possible." In order for us to feel comfortable enough to bridge the gap, we have to have this confidence in Christ and the freedom he gives us.

Another point was that Paul talks about Jews and and those without the law. He speaks in the plural, but we might wish to focus more on the individual. What I mean here is that our culture has so many sub groups that there is no way for us to be accepted by groups as they are. Rather we gain trust with individuals who then vouch for us with the group. This ultimately doesn't change Paul's approach, but ours is nuanced for our context.

Another advantage to working on the individual level is that we don't need to "fit in" so much as find points of connection. If we are focusing on youth, it is highly unlikely that any of us can become just another part of the group. But we can build relationships with individuals based on common ground, and following through on our promises. We essentially become all things not by changing who we are, but by meeting people where they are.

All of this brought up the question of the fine line between adapting to culture and living unholy lives. For example, Steve and Linda brought up this producer who has been very successful in the rap industry. You may want to ask them about this, but the general thrust I got was that sometimes self-expression can come about in ways that seem less than sanctified to us. We are called to be all things to all people, but we're also called to live holy lives. There is no easy answer for this, but we recognized two helpful points in navigating the dilemma. 1) God judges those outside the church, and we have often gotten this backwards. We judge those outside and ignore each others sins. If anything this should be reversed. This clarifies what it means to be the body of Christ and also what it means to relate to those outside. 2) If we're going to make an effort to interact with those who live radically different lives, we don't need the body of Christ judging our interaction, but helping us to maintain our identity in Christ even as we attempt to be in the world. The church then supports it's missionaries with direction, prayer and fellowship.

This was a very fruitful discussion. I look forward to hearing about yours.

Week 3b (Abandonment cont.) and 4 (World Beneath)

My Sunday group finished week 3 this week, and spent a good deal of time talking about issues of suffering. We recognized that there are those youth who suffer in extreme/visible ways, but there are also youth suffering silently under various burdens and feeling quite alone. We also noted that many of the fears and sufferings faced by youth also stay with many people as adults.

One of the best insights was that our own youth recognized adults as being more confident and having identity. We noted that this confidence doesn't come from being an adult necessarily but from our faith, and that they can have such confidence even now.

(Note: my group will be starting week 4 - World Beneath, this coming Sunday but we are technically into our 5th week)

Week 3 - Abandonment

Well, my group this Sunday just finished week 2, so we are probably behind the rest of you. Also, Harriet had no one this Sunday and joined our group. Among the best insights this week was that we might be right about what youth need, but the best way to find out is to ask and be patient for the answer. This also came together for us with our action plan. We decided to help with the OC this Sat (Feb 21) and get involved in a project that would get our youth involved in caring for the property, and paying them (meaning the PYRO account) instead of a landscaping business. I also told the group that I would hold them accountable to this promise.

In discussing the frightening things we found that we were afraid of being irrelevant and of really devoting chunks of our lives to another individual. These are great insights for us to be aware of as we make action plans. In terms of relevancy we found that being present and open-eared is more important than being cool or interesting. In terms of the second fear, we decided boundaries will need to be established in order for us to be more effective. We didn't decide on these boundaries as of yet.

I look forward to hearing from you.