What Emmaus Road Could Offer

Sarah GC had some really good follow-up thoughts following our meeting last Sunday.

Hi All,

Thanks again, Christina and everyone, for the great meeting last Sunday. I've been thinking since then about our efforts to support [one of our teen-agers], and then yesterday I got my magazine from Fuller Seminary, and this month every article is talking about youth ministry. I'm going to share some of what they had to say that I think is very relevant to our team's efforts, so read on if you're interested :-)...

Apparently youth ministry experts have recommended a 1:5 ratio of adults to kids for several decades now. But the current thinking is to turn that upside down and "mobilize five adults to invest themselves into every teenager. That doesn't mean each teenager gets five new Bible study or small group leaders. Rather it urges all adults to survey their neighborhoods and churches and prayerfully discern how to encourage the teenagers that are in their daily paths. Maybe it's asking teenagers how they can be praying for them, and then following up the next week to see how the Lord is working. Or maybe it's paying for a teenager to go to camp or helping a kid learn how to change a tire. Simply knowing a teenager's name has been shown to positively influence the student (not to mention that adult and his or her church)." This model seems to fit our church very well!

Researchers are also looking at how spiritually minded high schoolers are losing their faith and church participation as they move into college age. It looks like parental support is a huge factor here. I wonder what we can be doing to support parents (and helping parents support each other) in this heavy job?

The authors also discussed the church's concerns about ministering to the poor and needy, and involving youth in this work. The challenge is how to get kids beyond random acts of service, and begin to build a lifestyle of doing what they call "deep justice" in an otherwise shallow world. Ron Sider writes about the church and poverty and says "The church should consist of communities of loving defiance. Instead it consists largely of comfortable clubs of conformity." Ouch! The authors of this article give an example of injustice by pointing out that Americans spend $20 billion each year on ice cream; meanwhile, if the world would spend $11 billion each year for the next ten years, we could provide clean water, basic sanitation, and basic health care that would prevent the deaths of 3 million infants each year. These authors want us to go beyond band-aid responses (i.e. a free turkey on thanksgiving) by asking these questions: How did these wrongs come to exist in the first place? How can we help the poor and marginalized fix their own problems? What does God want us to do that will make a difference beyond today? I could see us deepening our connection to Pauline & Wycliffe and Asabe as an example of this. An example of service vs. justice would be that service focuses on what our own ministry can accomplish while justice focuses on how we can work with other ministries to accomplish even more. These authors encourage us that "you can dig deeper, into the injustices in your community and your world to unearth the hope and freedom of the gospel."

The last article I'll share about (if you're still reading, I'm very impressed :-) talks about the oppression of individualism, materialism, and consumerism that our kids are growing up with. It's hard to even recognize the power of these forces and the pressure they put on kids, especially teens, to pursue the "American Dream." We're being oppressed any time we're induced to pursue a dream other than God's. Consumerism is the cultural force that tells us our identity is based on consuming goods and services, preferably more and better so we can climb the social ladder. Teens are especially vulnerable to finding their identity in brands, styles, and stores. Kids need us at church to point out the enormous contrast between this way of life and the kingdom of God (as Jesus demonstrated through his life). If we're not actively and persistently speaking about this, then we're allowing the culture to have its way with us and our kids. We need to pay attention to the material dimension of spiritual formation and show kids the freedom they could know in practicing the simpler way of Jesus. And then there's individualism. Jesus' life, teachings, and ministry were relational but we live in a "have it your way" world. We need to model for youth God's communal way to understand life and salvation. So what can we do about all this? First, talk about it and get kids talking about it themselves. We can actually engage in some anti-consumerist practices and actions together as a way to learn about it experientially. Probably the most challenging thing, but essential, is to model a life of freedom ourselves.

Alright, I hope that is inspiring for us and gives us some good food for thought as we continue to dream together about how to really reach and empower the kids and teens in our church!

Thanks,
Sarah