At a local
Christian School, Senior High students were given a project to start their own church from scratch.
If money was not an issue what type of church would you build? Who would come? What would your church look like?
Students got together in groups of 4 or 5 and began to brainstorm with a month to complete this project. They had to come up with a mission statement, a vision statement, and a weekly schedule of events. Students needed to figure out what the worship service would look like, how they developed their church leadership, how they would handle the offerings, who will their church target, and students were to draw a floor plan of their building. What a project! Great concept right?
The students would then deliver a verbal presentation on their church in front of an adult panel made up of those who were involved in church, Para-church or youth ministry. That’s where I came in along with 8 others. There was a rep from the Salvation Army homeless shelter, a youth pastor from one of the local churches by the school, a young adult pastor who oversees a city wide interdenominational service, a missions outreach minister from a local church, a rep from Youth Unlimited, a dancer and author who started her own dance studio to reach the hip hop community. Incredible people were in the room! The panel was invited by the teacher in hopes that we would give valuable feedback to the students but as well to help us minister to youth by gaining valuable information from the students. I was eager to hear what students would say, and hear their voice of what they would like to see happen in the church. I was expecting to gain fresh ideas that I could implement and even pass on to my own church that would help us reach this generation. I viewed it like a teen focus group on church. That’s what I had in mind but instead I am now sounding the alarm, "Houston, we have a problem."
If money was not an issue what type of church would you build? Who would come? What would your church look like? Students got together in groups of 4 or 5 and began to brainstorm with a month to complete this project. They had to come up with a mission statement, a vision statement, and a weekly schedule of events. Students needed to figure out what the worship service would look like, how they developed their church leadership, how they would handle the offerings, who will their church target, and students were to draw a floor plan of their building. What a project! Great concept right?
The students would then deliver a verbal presentation on their church in front of an adult panel made up of those who were involved in church, Para-church or youth ministry. That’s where I came in along with 8 others. There was a rep from the Salvation Army homeless shelter, a youth pastor from one of the local churches by the school, a young adult pastor who oversees a city wide interdenominational service, a missions outreach minister from a local church, a rep from Youth Unlimited, a dancer and author who started her own dance studio to reach the hip hop community. Incredible people were in the room! The panel was invited by the teacher in hopes that we would give valuable feedback to the students but as well to help us minister to youth by gaining valuable information from the students. I was eager to hear what students would say, and hear their voice of what they would like to see happen in the church. I was expecting to gain fresh ideas that I could implement and even pass on to my own church that would help us reach this generation. I viewed it like a teen focus group on church. That’s what I had in mind but instead I am now sounding the alarm, "Houston, we have a problem."
After listening to the first presentation I was blindsided
by what I heard. I came in looking for a little insight, but instead Holy
Spirit gave us youth workers a snap shot of bigger problem, one that
we created. Have you seen Dave Brotherton’s Vlog The Old “Attraction Model” of Youth Ministry? He wonders if we are tricking
students into the gospel by “creating fabricated events… that are not related to
what we are about in order to attract people in so that students will bring
their friends.” How has this type of "green screen" ministry made an effect on our youth?
We have been making disciples who do what we do, but they lack the heart of Jesus which is reflected in why we do what we do.Youth workers, I believe that the majority of our students are not where we think they are. They are not actually with us in our faith. They have a form of godliness but deny the power. (2 Timothy 3:5) The New Living Translation says, "They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly." After witnessing these presentations a couple of weeks ago, this verse takes on new meaning, along with Jesus' call to “Go and make disciples.”
In short, our students know how to “Do Church” or “Play
Church” but they are lacking the authentic heart of the why we do what we do.
Since then Holy Spirit has been opening my eyes to see that it’s not just the
students that need revival, it is I.
As a result, I’m starting a new Blog series called Revive
us. I’ll be sharing about the
different churches students put together for their projects so you too can catch
a glimpse on whether the students under your care are picking up the same mixed
messages. I hope to have some of my colleagues who served on the panel to share
their experience along with a “Now What”
Personally, I am reexamining and evaluating all that my hands
have done as 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 weighs heavy on my heart.
Because of God’s
grace to me, I have laid the foundation like an expert builder. Now others are
building on it. But whoever is building on this foundation must be very
careful. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other
than the one we already have—Jesus Christ.
13 But on the judgment day, fire will reveal
what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work
has any value. 14 If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward.
What I’m sharing
I believe God is already speaking to many of us about. God is speaking to his
church about getting back to the basics, our First Love Jesus Christ. Revive Us
O God.
* The purpose of this blog series is not to tear down the students projects for they worked hard on them. This problem is not a reflection of a school or isolated to the specific city or an age demographic. The views and concerns addressed in this blog are bigger than our youth, I believe it is a reflection of how Christians young and old view the church and what we feel we need to do to make Jesus look cool.
The Founder of the Young Woman of Power (YWOP), Alison develops programs that are designed to build girls confidence such as the YWOP PivotFWD workshop which she delivers in Calgary’s Youth Judicial System and a citywide Conference. Alison’s heart for young women is to see the statistics of violence against women decrease and to see females become counter culture/culturally dangerous by growing in true confidence. For more info or to book Alison as a speaker visit www.ywop.ca
* The purpose of this blog series is not to tear down the students projects for they worked hard on them. This problem is not a reflection of a school or isolated to the specific city or an age demographic. The views and concerns addressed in this blog are bigger than our youth, I believe it is a reflection of how Christians young and old view the church and what we feel we need to do to make Jesus look cool.
The Founder of the Young Woman of Power (YWOP), Alison develops programs that are designed to build girls confidence such as the YWOP PivotFWD workshop which she delivers in Calgary’s Youth Judicial System and a citywide Conference. Alison’s heart for young women is to see the statistics of violence against women decrease and to see females become counter culture/culturally dangerous by growing in true confidence. For more info or to book Alison as a speaker visit www.ywop.ca
2 comments:
Preach it sister!!!
I totally see what you are saying, we have conveyed the wrong image of church to our youth but most often to our churches as a whole. And we do it all the time without even noticing. After all look at the criteria you talked about for creating these new "churches" they are mostly program focused questions, more interested in buildings than building lives. As the church we need to better model what church is so that we all remember who we are. I look forward to hearing what you and these students learned, and learning with you.
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