I want to continue considering the legacy of Youth Ministry - I am wondering in our current regime, “what are we passing on?” In the first post we looked at what we are leaving students in the area of content. I suggested maybe we need to revisit the tradition of the Catechism. (Read the post here)

In this post I would like to raise (or rant about) the question of: what are we passing on through our approach to youth ministry as it relates to ecclesiology?

How are students leaving our youth ministries thinking about, The Church? Are our youth ministries grounded in a healthy image and theology of The Church? I believe this question is vital in measuring or evaluating the health and value of our ministry to youth. The likelihood of a young person being a part of the Church in the future will be tied I think in large part to this question.

My observation is that in youth ministry we have not done a great job in helping teens be aware of the importance of participation with all the people who are part of the Body of Christ. Equally I don’t think we have helped students see their necessary and unique role in the local expression of The Church. I think we do great at getting kids to come to a church building and be active in the church building (via attraction-al activities; great programs; etc.) - but too often these are age specific experiences sequestered from the rest of what is taking place in that community. In my mind this doesn’t do the church (the priority of and purpose for) justice. This is a very truncated and impotent view of the church (the church as a building or a place to hang out with people like me).

Isn’t the church about being Christ’s body on earth? Isn’t the church mandated to continue the work of Christ in announcing and demonstrating His Kingdom on Earth? Isn’t the Church the gathered people of God - all His people a diverse group (of all races, shapes, ages, and gifts) of sinners in process of becoming saints? Isn’t the Church about gathering to communally demonstrate and celebrate the goodness, greatness and glory of God and then scattering to be the hands and feet of God in the midst of our community?

So what are we passing on to students about the church through our youth ministry? Are they getting it? My prayer is that we will pass on a vibrant picture and experience of the Church so they don’t decide to pass on it when they graduate.

Peace.

This prayer of St. Teresa of Avila kept going through my mind as I was writing so I add it here for all our benefit:

Christ has no body now on earth but yours,
no hands but yours,
no feet but yours,

Yours are the hands with which he is to bless men now.

I love this prayer from Phyllis Tickle’s The Divine Hours for the second week of Lent:

Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan: Come quickly to help us who are assaulted by many temptations; and, as you know the weaknesses of each of us, let each one find you mighty to save, through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen

I find the power in that prayer behind the fact that Jesus who was tested by temptation to go another way - instead chose willingly and obediently the walk to the Cross. I find hope that the one who chose the cross is mighty enough to empower and assist me in facing my temptations. I find great love underneath the phrase - as you know us.

A wonderful prayer to accompany us this second week of lent.

Lent is an anglo-saxon word which best defined means Spring. The Spring was greeted by another season of the Christian Year the time of Lent (just as Winter sees the beginning of Advent; Pentecost leads us into Summer and Autumn - Ordinary time). Lent is definitely the most solemn of the Christian seasons. A time for serious reflection, repentance and thus renewal. As I have reflected during this first week of Lent and journeyed with the Lenten Guide (Journey Into Wholeness by Christine Sine) it has pushed me to look at my self. It is never pretty.

I don’t often plan well. This lenten season though I had decided to observe an old lenten practice of praying The Litany at least once a week (The late Robert Webber suggested Saturday’s were the tradition in his book, The Prymer, so I said, “why not?”), and that was just what I needed this week.

The Litany is a L-o-n-g prayer. It is really a kind of prayer service. I used a protestant version (without the invoking of the Saints) from An English Prayer Book (published by Oxford as a potential Alternate Alternative Service Book!?). In this version of the Litany it is a seven-fold prayer moving from Inviting God to hear to repentance (personal) to petitions to intercessions to the Lord’s Prayer to corporate repentance and to benediction.

A wonderful prayer. A needed time this past Saturday. It helped me repent. To change my way of thinking. To see with new eyes. To feel like I found my position and place again. This Lenten practice, setting aside and taking time to reflect and repent is something I realize I don’t naturally move toward. I am more apt to “keep going” and put things behind… Lent calls us to put some of life aside and reflect on who I am becoming and how am I living. This is good. The Litany helped me in facing some of that. I look forward to this and it is good.

At the same time I feel strangely alone.

Lent is meant to happen in community and the Litany is written to be said in community (I guess I will be exploring this theme throughout my Lenten experience) but my current Christian community doesn’t observe Lent, so I am observing it solo.

Today officially begins the liturgical season of lent. This is a forty day season of preparation and repentance that precedes the Feast of the Resurrection of our Lord and God, Jesus Christ. Before we feast though, we are called to fast and before we celebrate newness of life and the power of God, we are called to let go, surrender and remember the humility of our Lord. This season of Lent I am going to attempt to enter into this walk of letting go, surrendering and remembering; I have been giving this a bit of thought and am ready for it to begin.

As I mentioned - I am going to be using Christine Sine’s Lenten Guide titled, A Journey Into Wholeness and I will be sharing some of how that is enhancing and informing my observance of Lent. I also will be:

Praying the Hours using - Phyllis Tickle’s The Divine Hours (Prayers for Springtime)
Praying The Litany from An English Prayer Book - each Saturday Evening

And praying this daily as my lenten prayer:

I beseech You, Jesus, Loving Saviour to show Yourself to all who seek You, so that we may know You and love You.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit our All in All, Amen. (From A Celtic Primer compiled by Brendan O’Malley)

To lent,
To less,
To laying down,
To letting go!
Unto the Lord.

Other Participants in the Christine Sine’s Lenten Synchroblog:

Julie Clawson
Rev Cheryl A Durham
Henriet Schapelhouman
Rebecca Gagne
Leena Prindle
Steve Lewis
Carol Collins
Tim
Michele Morgan
Barbara
Gilbert Purtee
Monica Paper-Bridges
Traci
Steve Fouch
Carolynn
Lyla Lindquist
Todd Hiestand
Joel Daniel
lfbatista
Joan Ball
Banu Moore
A J
Randy Siever
Mak
Maria
Bethany
Rose Swetman
Eric
Taeler Morgan
Thomas Turner
Chris Olson
JR Woodward
Tom Grosh
Karen B.
Kathy Escobar
John Chandler

Today is the second week of advent. The theme many recognize on this feast day is peace. We are reminded that the Holy and Anointed one of God was coming to bring peace - wholeness, reconciliation and well, peace. May we embrace this message of the coming of The Christ. May we find ways to be peace-makers and live in peace with ourselves, one another, our world and our God.

A Scripture for Advent - 2

For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the LORD Almighty
will accomplish this. Isaiah 9.6,7

A prayer for Advent 2:
Lord Jesus, Light of the world,
the prophets said you would bring peace
and save your people in trouble.
Give peace in our hearts at Christmas
and show all the world God’s love. Amen.

Wisdom from the ascetics in the desert from Thomas Merton’s The Wisdom of the Desert.

Some powerful truth(s) about our view of others from hermits!

“One of the elders said: A monk ought not to inquire how this one acts, or how that one lives. Questions like this take us away from prayer and draw us on to backbiting and chatter. There is nothing better than to keep silent.” (p. 74)

“Abbot Moses said: A man ought to be like a dead man with his companion, for to die to one’s friend is to cease to judge him in anything.” (p. 75)

“Once two brethren came to a certain elder whose custom it was not to eat every day. But when he saw the brethren he invited them with joy to dine with him, saying: Fasting has its reward, but he who eats out of charity fulfills two commandments, for he sets aside his own will and he refreshes his hungry brethren.” (p. 77)

The start of a new liturgical year begins today. So, Happy New Year. Advent is that season of repentance, reflection and anticipation in preparation for God’s coming. My hope is that I will enter into this time alert and attentive; looking and listening with greater awareness of God’s working among us.

On this first Sunday of Advent we remember:
As our nights grow longer and our days grow short, we look on these earthly signs–light and green branches–and remember God’s promise to our world: Christ, our Light and our Hope, will come.

Listen to the words of Isaiah the prophet:

The people that walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those who lived in a land as dark as death
a light has dawned.
You have increased their joy
and given them gladness;
They rejoice in your presence
as those who rejoice at harvest,
as warriors exult when dividing spoil. [Is. 9.1-2]

So we pray:

O God, rejoicing,
we remember the promise of your Son.
As the light from this candle,
may the blessing of Christ come upon us,
brightening our way
and guiding us by his truth.
May Christ our Savior bring life
into the darkness of our world,
and to us, as we wait for his coming.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen

I often remind myself as I serve in youth ministry that what seems ordinary and mundane (a simple prayer; a routine Bible study; a retreat; another gathering) is the very thing that God can use as a burning bush in someone’s life. I read a story this past weekend that once again encouraged and reminded me again - “with God any old shrub will do.” God doesn’t need intricate programming or precise and perfected presentations - God uses regular, routine and upright efforts to bring life altering change. Listen to this story:

It begins with a teenager going to a Christian camp to hang out with his girlfriend and “horse around” for a week. Sound like anyone you know? I am sure a few kids come to mind - kids you may have wished you had the foresight to leave at home! Keeping the motives of this young man in mind - listen to the rest of the story in his own words:

“But one morning, we were asked by our cabin leader to go spend a little time in prayer before breakfast. So I wandered out of our cabin, down a hill, alongside a basketball court, and through an open field, and then I walked over to the campfire area, climbed a short incline, and finally sat next to a tree, and prayed what my cabin leader told us to pray: “Lord, fill me with your Holy Spirit.” I wasn’t particularly open to spiritual things, but for some reason I said that prayer as our counselor advised. The Lord to whom I prayed that prayer caught me off guard. To quote the words of John Wesley, ‘My heart was strangely warmed.’ I don’t remember what I expected to happen (probably nothing), but what happened was surprising. That prayer, or should I say the answer to that prayer, changed my life. I didn’t speak in tongues, I didn’t ’see Jesus,’ and I didn’t ‘hear God.’ My eyes didn’t twitter, and I didn’t become catatonic. When I prayed, something powerful happened, and I went to breakfast a new person. Within hours I knew what I wanted to do for my life.”

The author goes on to explain his journey from being a regular kid attracted to girls and sports and “enjoying life” to becoming a young man with a voracious appetite to read, study and understand the Bible. This “hunger” to understand the Bible didn’t wane and prompted the author to dedicate his whole life to this pursuit. He is now considered a leading scholar in the area of the Synopic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) and is becoming a popular author. The subject of the story is Dr. (Yo) Scot McKnight, and he recounts this story in his new book, The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible.

Youth ministry is important work. It is God’s work. Yet, maybe it is not as “hard” or as “complex” as we make it? Let’s help others engage with God using ordinary (even simple) words and leave the extraordinary results up to God.

Today’s wisdom comes from Thomas Merton’s The Wisdom of the Desert. Two thoughts that seem to be rightly connected as they follow one another in Merton’s anthology.

Abbot Ammonas said that he had spent fourteen years in Scete praying to God day and night to be delivered from anger. (pg. 33)

Abbot Pastor said: The virtue of a monk is made manifest by temptations. (pg. 34)

Temptations by Michael D. O’Brien

I am sure this is making the rounds out there - but honestly haven’t seen it except here. I imagine this prayer penned by Shane Claiborne is one he imagined President-elect Obama reciting. It is a prayer I resonate with - and maybe you will too.

I will join in praying:

God of Abraham, Miriam, Hannah, Rizpah, and David…
God of Elijah, Amos, Ruth, Isaiah, Deborah…
God of Mary, John the Baptizer, Peter, Paul, Philemon and Onesimus…
God of Anthony, Ambrose, Dirk Willems, Teresa of Avila, and Francis of
Assisi,
God of Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, William
Wilberforce, and Oscar Romero
and God of love, grace, and hope…

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.