Last night at youth, we were suppose to have a Heaven or Hell night at youth. It Didnt happen (which in a way is good becuase then I didnt have to miss it due to math studing). Fire, food and hanging at a leaders place was good time though. It turns out that the reason for canceling it was due to theological reasons. See Nathan's blog at http://officehourthoughts.blogspot.com/ for more details and more in depth. Although I can understand the reasons for awarness, or caution against playing the "game", I must admit that I was disapointed. I may be in over my head here, not knowing the full story, but I do know that we did have a pretty good turn out as far as students go yesterday at youth, and there did seem to be a general disapointment as well.
Its kind of interesting actaully, our churches seem to have no problem with "drilling" the same bible stories into our (the youths) heads- such as Easter, CHristmas, passover, Communion etc etc, please dont get me wrong, those are all amazing and important stories, but does the church not realize that they are driving away youth as well? At the age of 5, most kids already know thsoe stories off by heart. A few people that i have talked to have said that that is why they Stopped going to church, it was the same thing over and over, it wasnt full filling and eventaully lead them further away from the truth then closer to it. That is the sad part.
I have had a few conversations with people, saying that although our community is close, we are almost too close. People who move in have a hard time adjusting and feeling like they belong. Even the people that I have talked too who were born and have grown up here, find it hard to live here. As long as you are mennonite, or have an anabaptist based faith,without any extreme ideas, you will be ok.
Personally, my faith is very important to me, and I credit lots of it to my morals taught by my family and to youth. Yet even with that, and my faith, I just need to get out of the area for a while. I feel like I am being overwhelmed by it at points. Through different experiences, I have come to find that we really do live in a bubble here. There are days when I feel like saying "screw church, its the same thing over and over" I hate that I feel that way, but its true. We are still so old fashioned that its driving people away. Take communion for example- it seems our church does it at least once every two months. I feel that the more we do communion, the further and further away i get from wanting to do it at all. The meaning and purpose is just totally gone for me. Baptism is another huge issue that I struggled with. I took Christian Growth class (aka Baptism class), but I didn't get baptized. I talked for hours with a numerous of different people about it and I came to a conclusion that I wanted to get baptized, but I didnt want to belong to a church, not yet anyways, and I didnt feel that my church gave me that option.
Like I said, I maybe looking at this totally wrong, or nieve, but none the less, I think it is ultimatly up to the child (or youth) and their parents to deciede whether or not to attend an event like Heaven or Hell. I just dont think you can deny that of the other youth who want to be there and who perhaps need something like that at that moment. God works his way through amazing circumstances beyond our imaginations, so with not having it last night, how many youth did we lose who had questions that that night would have helped? Would that night have been the start of an amazing relationship for a youth with christ? I guess we wont know. I'm not putting blame on anyone, but its something to think about, and its just my thoughts on it, so yeah, leave a comment if you have one.
Kutless- Passion
Within my mind's eye
Its kind of interesting actaully, our churches seem to have no problem with "drilling" the same bible stories into our (the youths) heads- such as Easter, CHristmas, passover, Communion etc etc, please dont get me wrong, those are all amazing and important stories, but does the church not realize that they are driving away youth as well? At the age of 5, most kids already know thsoe stories off by heart. A few people that i have talked to have said that that is why they Stopped going to church, it was the same thing over and over, it wasnt full filling and eventaully lead them further away from the truth then closer to it. That is the sad part.
I have had a few conversations with people, saying that although our community is close, we are almost too close. People who move in have a hard time adjusting and feeling like they belong. Even the people that I have talked too who were born and have grown up here, find it hard to live here. As long as you are mennonite, or have an anabaptist based faith,without any extreme ideas, you will be ok.
Personally, my faith is very important to me, and I credit lots of it to my morals taught by my family and to youth. Yet even with that, and my faith, I just need to get out of the area for a while. I feel like I am being overwhelmed by it at points. Through different experiences, I have come to find that we really do live in a bubble here. There are days when I feel like saying "screw church, its the same thing over and over" I hate that I feel that way, but its true. We are still so old fashioned that its driving people away. Take communion for example- it seems our church does it at least once every two months. I feel that the more we do communion, the further and further away i get from wanting to do it at all. The meaning and purpose is just totally gone for me. Baptism is another huge issue that I struggled with. I took Christian Growth class (aka Baptism class), but I didn't get baptized. I talked for hours with a numerous of different people about it and I came to a conclusion that I wanted to get baptized, but I didnt want to belong to a church, not yet anyways, and I didnt feel that my church gave me that option.
Like I said, I maybe looking at this totally wrong, or nieve, but none the less, I think it is ultimatly up to the child (or youth) and their parents to deciede whether or not to attend an event like Heaven or Hell. I just dont think you can deny that of the other youth who want to be there and who perhaps need something like that at that moment. God works his way through amazing circumstances beyond our imaginations, so with not having it last night, how many youth did we lose who had questions that that night would have helped? Would that night have been the start of an amazing relationship for a youth with christ? I guess we wont know. I'm not putting blame on anyone, but its something to think about, and its just my thoughts on it, so yeah, leave a comment if you have one.
Kutless- Passion
Within my mind's eye
Flickering from the past
Come images that terrify and calm
A paradox in me
Nail pierced hands they run with blood
A splitting brow forced by the thorns
His face is writhing with the pain yet it's comforting to me
He chose to give it all
Jesus endured the pain
Paying a debt I owed and created a paradox in me
Nail pierced hands they run with blood
A splitting brow forced by the thorns
His face is writhing with the pain yet it's comforting to me
And in my heart I know that you're the only one
Who could of came and died, a sacrifice
As your God's only son
Nail pierced hands they run with blood
A splitting brow forced by the thorns
His face is writhing with the pain yet it's comforting to me
No comments:
Post a Comment