How Randy (thankfully) Ruined My Week
I had a plan. I had the rest of this year all planned out for our youth Bible Study. And then I heard Randy’s sermon on Sunday, and I knew my plan was toast. For those of you who missed it, it was about community (click here for the transcript--it's well worth the read).
To be perfectly honest, I couldn’t get it out of my head. This fixation was made even worse with the remembrance of an online conversation between Ron Cole and James Kingsley about this same topic (check that one out here ). Re-reading this conversation, and re-reading Randy’s sermon, made me, well, a little uncomfortable. Randy, James, and Ron were making me ask myself if I was really participating in true community. And more than that, they were making me ask myself whether I was, as James would say, really “uncovering” community in our youth ministry, or if I was just contributing to the status quo.
So I took a good hard look at what’s been happening in our youth ministry—or, more accurately, what hasn’t been happening. The phrase that kept coming back to me was this: what kind of community are we to be? I stole one of Ron’s phrases to help me contemplate that question: the re-telling of who we are. How does our story shape us?
Several years ago our youth chose a verse that we would centre our ministry around: “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.” (Ephesians 2:19-20 NIV).
I went back to that verse, asking how it shapes who we are.
…fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household…
-A community where togetherness abounds, because we are family
-A community that holds each other accountable, because we are family
-A community where new people are welcomed, because we are family
-A community that prays for each other, because we are family
-A community that prays for our global neighbourhood, because we are family
…built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets…
-A community that gathers around the Word of the Lord like a campfire
-A community that learns from those who have gone before
…with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone…
-A community where the good news of Jesus is at the centre of who we are
Is this who we are? To a certain extent. But I’m not willing to settle for “sort of”. I’ve heard people say that you can’t experience true community in a ‘youth group’—that they will always be cliquey, always be exclusionary. I can’t believe that’s true, or I may as well pack it in right now. So Randy, James, and Ron, thank you for ruining my week, because the apple cart needed an upset.
To be perfectly honest, I couldn’t get it out of my head. This fixation was made even worse with the remembrance of an online conversation between Ron Cole and James Kingsley about this same topic (check that one out here ). Re-reading this conversation, and re-reading Randy’s sermon, made me, well, a little uncomfortable. Randy, James, and Ron were making me ask myself if I was really participating in true community. And more than that, they were making me ask myself whether I was, as James would say, really “uncovering” community in our youth ministry, or if I was just contributing to the status quo.
So I took a good hard look at what’s been happening in our youth ministry—or, more accurately, what hasn’t been happening. The phrase that kept coming back to me was this: what kind of community are we to be? I stole one of Ron’s phrases to help me contemplate that question: the re-telling of who we are. How does our story shape us?
Several years ago our youth chose a verse that we would centre our ministry around: “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.” (Ephesians 2:19-20 NIV).
I went back to that verse, asking how it shapes who we are.
…fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household…
-A community where togetherness abounds, because we are family
-A community that holds each other accountable, because we are family
-A community where new people are welcomed, because we are family
-A community that prays for each other, because we are family
-A community that prays for our global neighbourhood, because we are family
…built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets…
-A community that gathers around the Word of the Lord like a campfire
-A community that learns from those who have gone before
…with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone…
-A community where the good news of Jesus is at the centre of who we are
Is this who we are? To a certain extent. But I’m not willing to settle for “sort of”. I’ve heard people say that you can’t experience true community in a ‘youth group’—that they will always be cliquey, always be exclusionary. I can’t believe that’s true, or I may as well pack it in right now. So Randy, James, and Ron, thank you for ruining my week, because the apple cart needed an upset.
posted by julia at 10:25 p.m.
2 Comments:
Julia - i'm "glad" the week was ruined! what a great contextualization for those verses. and cheers for naysaying the naysayers and discovering that beyond the surface cliques and divisivness of teenagedom there is the reality of unity and familial ties of the Spirit. Dig, uncover, celebrate!
Hi Julia, great thoughts...and in honesty we all should share in your struggle. Someone once told me that holiness can't happen outside of true, honest, authentic and transparent community. That reality, I think, intrigues us, we desire it, but at the same time scares us. In community we are shaped by others, as well as Christ.
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