Under estimating Gods word

When people talk about growth in a church, we often mean numbers rather than individual maturity. This is the ladder leading to the slippery-dip of disaster.

Youth group is an excellent example if this slippery-dip of disaster. What happens is there are a few teens at a church so somebody begins a youth group in there lounge room. It is a bible study group with questions aimed at a teenage level (which is not all that different from a grown up level if we are honest) Then God blesses the group and it grows in numbers and spiritual maturity in its members. After a few years it is too big for a lounge room and anyway the original youth group leaders had a baby, so we move to the church hall. This opens up to many benefits like room to split age groups for bible study and room to run games attractive to teenage boys, lets face it, most girls. Then the group grows quickly as kids invite friends and they enjoy the games, more leaders are recruited and bible study and games is the thing. Then we realize that about 1/2 the time we have with the kids is game time so we should make the games reinforce the main point of the bible study. Then we notice that yr7 boys don't like sitting down for bible study so we make it easier and quicker with a little 5 minute bible talk at the beginning, but it is ok because of the useful games we are playing. Then we drop bible study all together and just have a short talk and a bible related game and other, more fun games. Then it is hard to think up bible related games so we drop them. All the older kids have left because it is too energetic and young, the group of kids has grown too big and out of control, the talk is a thing to be endured before the real stuff begins and the leaders all lose momentum and purpose and don't want to do it any more.

Did you see where the top of the slippery dip was? It was when we moved to the church hall. Suddenly more mature and less mature kids are separated for the bible study, this means that, like in school, older kids can't teach younger kids, and younger kids can't learn from older kids. Also there is suddenly a possibility for cool games, this is not a bad thing but it is the top of the slide that looks fun till you realize there is a puddle of pig muck at the bottom. Games are not bad until you confuse them with bible/learning and until you confuse numbers growth with spiritual growth.

The best youth group leader I ever learnt from as a leader was working with a group in a school hall. Every week he said bible study and God was why we were here and if the kids didn't respect that, they could leave. We did bible study and then we had food and then a game. God blessed this group and in spite of the best efforts of this leader to get rid of kids, it grew in numbers. He didn't mind that, he just wanted people to be there for the right reason. He didn't confuse growth in numbers with spiritual growth and he didn't confuse learning about God with games. He had bible time and game time separate.

I am sure that had we not had games at all, while the group may not have been as big, it would still have grown because God's word has a power of its own and if it is taught faithfully then God will do the rest.

Learning and Practicing

Like with anything, you need to practice Godliness. This is a term I have heard a lot (maybe due to Colin Buchannon). However like with playing the piano, it won't happen unless we practice. I think it is as simple as that. However because being Godly goes against our sinful nature, God's help is a must or we will fail in even the simplest task.

However when I say practice, I mean practice, theory only takes us so far. Practice serving for example. When I was in my late teen years, I wanted to be helpful to the people I cared about. My strength (in case you didn't know) is children. A friend of mine had 3 children (now 4) and she was also helping lead a large bible study group and dealing with depression. She is an amazingly Godly person who leans more and more on Gods strength in humility. She is a joy to be around and a pleasure to learn from and to serve. Unfortunately I did not know how. I am not a person who can easily barge into a persons house and do things for them. That would be counter productive anyway, they would probably get the wrong idea or you would do something they didn't find that helpful to do.

My friend allowed me to visit her often and would thank me for playing with her children while she did jobs or went shopping. This encouraged me to practice offering help, baby sitting or washing up or folding washing or whatever. She was humble enough to accept the offers from me and about half the other single women in the church.

As a result of practicing on my friend, now I have learnt to offer specific help, not generic help. For example, "would it be helpful for me to watch your children while you go to the shops and do the little annoying jobs" rather then "if you ever need help with anything, just ask". I have also learnt to see things that I can do, like the washing up.

For people being served, look on it as an opportunity for you to practice grace and thankfulness and for them to practice serving. Encouraging them by saying thankyou is also helpful. One thing I struggled with for a long time was being brave enough to offer. I wanted to help and serve, I was just shy about offending people, or being told no. My friend would present opportunities to serve, even just running the dishwater and handing a potential server a tea towel would help.

One thing my friend began to do was to actively include people is her life, when they came over she would plunk a basket of washing in front of them and then both would fold and chat. She would take people grocery shopping and have extra hands to hold children's hands. She would encourage people to take children to the park, to read to them, to help her at kindy gym, to wash, hang out, bring in, and fold washing, wash up, dry up, chop vegetables, anything she happened to be doing when they came over, they would do too. This must have taken a huge amount of humility to admit to needing help, but she was serving and training up other people at the same time.

Humility and serving are just two areas of Godliness that need regular practice. They are also practical things so theory doesn't cut it.

Bible Study 2

I have been to church twice here and tonight was my second bible study night. I would recommend bible study to EVERYONE. I love the time to open the bible and learn from God and each other. I love the time to get to know other Christians and to hear about their struggles and joys. I love the time to be out and not at home but to be around like minded people and being reminded I am not alone. I especially love the caring little community that bible studies are, they are the main strategy for people to be cared for in churches and it is brilliant since the role of carer falls to everyone in the group to care for everyone in the group.

Last year I was in a group of older ladies, they really liked me and they enjoyed the fact that "young people" are still Christians. They had been feeling like it was only the old people and I said they were looking in the wrong place. They looked after me like grandmothers do and I looked after them by visiting and eating their food and talking to the about life, the bible and gardens.

Here I am still the youngest but it is by 2 years not 40 yrs, I am loving the socialness, the diversity that the men bring to the group and the genuine love and care of the bible study leaders. I am really grateful to God that there is a bible based church where I can be fed and loved and grown.

Aliens and Strangers

What does it mean to be an alien or a stranger on the earth? 1 peter 2:11 says "Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul." When one travels to another country, one will stand out in looks, mannerisms, language, tone, likes and dislikes, habits, clothes, pretty much everything depending on which country one visits. As Christians, we are required to stand out just as much when we are among non Christians. We will talk, dress, look, like, and act differently to those around us. This is not to condemn but more to demonstrate, we demonstrate Gods way of life and also reflect God's love and purpose through our lives.

When we stand out, either by Godliness or merely international travel, we will be noticed, commented on and potentially even abused for being different.

It is interesting to note that in a way we are aliens in our own bodies, needing to fight against sinful desires that make war on our souls.

We should therefore, while being aliens in our bodies and in the world, expect attacks from others and from sinful desires and constantly remember to turn to God help us out.

I am not good at this, I try on my own for ridiculous lengths of time until Gods pulls me back, but only through Gods strength can we hope to not be sucked back into the world.

It is interesting that somebody receiving a racist comment made me think of this today

Confusing the bible message

There is a definite trend among youth groups to only play games that are biblically focused and, ideally, clearly demonstrating the point of the bible message taught during the evening. I admit that some people can do this and do it well, but unless we are one of these happy few I actually think this is a counter productive strategy.

The first and lesser problem of having bible related games is that instant lameness enters once we try to link it to the bible. Case in point is playing stuck in the mud and calling it stuck in sin. On mission in Maitland in the highschool program we played Stuck in the Mud every year in the Tuesday for the first 7 years. Also the kids never make the link themselves so it needs to be explained.

The second and greater problem is the slippery slope that comes from confusing games as teaching time. If the game time counts as teaching/bible time then we can have a shorter or non-existent bible study, then all we need is a 10 minute talk and the rest of the time can be games and supper. Then the games cease to be related to the bible and eventually the talk shrinks down to virtually nothing.

I think that having a good bible discussion and a deep bible study for a significant time, and THEN have games that are fun and unhindered by expectations of learning, youth group will grow both in numbers and personally. Keep games and bible time separate and have good times in both. Also keep the bible study time as the focus of the group and make it clear that this is why we are here.

Don't under estimate the power of the gospel to grow a church or a youth group or a mission or whatever. If the bible is being taught, God will bring people to learn.

Sneaky Pride

There are a lot of kinds of prides, there are the ones everybody knows about "I am too good to hang out with you" and there are the ones that are harder to spot and easier to pretend don't exist. These Sneaky Prides include "I am too sinful for God to be able to forgive me" and "Why should I do this job" and "She thinks she is so much better then me" and the sneakiest of all (in my opinion) the Humble Pride. This is not pride in Jesus, this is pride at how humble I am being and "look at this I am washing up after church without complaining, aren't I humble and helpful" This is one I struggle with a lot and I have noticed it more lately.

Jessica and I are beginning to learn Matthew chapter 6 which helpfully begins "Beware of doing your acts of righteousness before others that you may be seen by them, for then you will receive no reward from your father who is in heaven." This, I realized last night, means that the way to practice humility without pride is to do the unnoticed, thankless tasks without complaining or drawing attention to yourself. I have also found two other strategies to prevent prideful thoughts while I am serving, one is to sing to myself, the other is to share the job with another and make it an enjoyable and social occasion. Both of these strategies also prevent the "I am so hard done by" mentality.

Bible Study

I grew up in a bible family where mum taught me a lot about reading the bible and working out what it says. Later on, going to bible study at my local church in Maitland helped me to develop from basic comprehension to open discussion and a group of people working out together what a passage is saying. Now I am living in a comparative bible desert and I go to KYB every Tuesday and everyone has their answers written down before they get there and we just read them out. Some people just rewrite the bible text as their answer, others paraphrase and some try to work out what it means.

I went home last week and took the opportunity to go to bible study and was mildly surprised about how much I had forgotten about how it works, how to listen, how to build on other peoples answers, how to pray realistically and unselfishly. I am used to being one of the more knowledgeable people in the group and it was humbling to remember just how much I don't see and need to be pointed out.

I need to go to KYB now...