Tonight we had our first WyldLife Club. As you may know, this is the ministry I work with. Basically, we hang out with middle school kids. It's pretty fun.
I was at this place this last week where the only thing I knew to do was literally get on my knees and pray. I'm the type of person that has a tendency to worry about other people than myself. I don't mean that in a toot-my-own-horn sort of way but as a curse. My situation in life is such that I get to spend lots of time observing these kids in a way that most people don't get to see. For their teachers they are always trying to not get in trouble. For their parents, they are always trying to be who their parents want them to be. For their friends, they are trying to be something that they aren't. With me, in the various ways that I hang out with them, I get to see all of these different aspects, then see what's really going on with them. I don't know why, but kids (and adults sometimes) let me see sides to them that most other people probably don't get to see.
I call it a curse because I can't help but to take the weight of their problems and think about it and lament about it. It wears me out sometimes.
One of my favorite things is to provide an atmosphere where kids can get away from all that bull shit and just be kids. Care-free, happy, relaxed, and loved. Tonight was a good night in that way.
We're only having 'club' once a month, so we are making program pretty intense. The leaders did a great job at keeping things going and interesting so that the kids could just sit back and enjoy. I was excited about that. It was awesome to see them take control and do the best they could.
The most important thing in all of this for me is relationships - with God as the center. Though the kids don't necessarily know that God is in on these relationships.
At the end of each night we give a talk. This year, since we only have nine clubs I'm going to give all of the talks. Another reason is that I'm developing (with the help of my pastor) a new way of presenting the Gospel than the traditional 'look at Jesus. He did cool things...crazy things. You should like Jesus. Now, you are a sinner. You ruined your relationship with God. For that you are supposed to die. Well, remember that Jesus guys? He built a bridge in the form of a cross so that you can hang out with God again.'
Though it may be true, I think it's fucked that that's how we let kids know the story of God and his pursuit of us. It misses a bunch of stuff. It shows them something they should be ashamed of...it doesn't give them something that they might want to be a part of. Whether they know/feel it or not, kids are alienated and only live in the sins of their parents and our society. The last thing they need is to be ashamed of one more thing. They need to belong in a world where they don't currently belong.
I started tonight with creation. in a nutshell, I dismissed the importance of the 7 day creation and other shit we're taught and focused on why the story was told in the first place. One thing I focused on was that his first commandmen, as such, was "take it all!" NOT "don't eat from that tree". I also made sure that I communicated was that God put us here so that we could be his little helpers on earth. So that we could be in community with him. And that when we were created he said that we are VERY GOOD, not just good like everything else...VERY GOOD. Why? Because we are the keystone. He has entrusted us with the rest of his creation...to take it all freely and enjoy it. With that, I focused on "freely". The idea that we have absolute freedom to do what we want.
Next week I'm going to reiterate all of that a bit and focus a little more on the fun stuff. This week was basically "what life is supposed to be like". Next week is that, but with a little bit of "what life really is."
If you have any pointers they are appreciated. I want to try to find some themes like love, trust, community, and so on to tie back into the story later in the year. Any suggestions?
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3 comments:
I like the direction you're taking it. I tend to focus way more on what God really meant for life to be like, what "full life" looks like, rather than dwell too much on the look how we screwed this up part.
although I do think sin as a problem that we all have is an important idea for kids to get (not so much on the middle school level necessarily). I think it explains a lot, and really helps to make sense of why this world is messed up. some kids are more in touch with the brokenness in their world that needs to be put to rights, others haven't ever really looked at it. it's important to know where your kids are, and not just assume that they're in the same place you are.
some ideas that I have drawn club series around are brokenness vs healing, self centered vs. god centered, and the idea that things are missing vs. being complete.
awesome! I don't know if this is material you would want to get into with them, but it may be perfect with their age group. I've been reading Song of Solomon and trying to see it as a love letter from God to me and the religious in me got all offended- like I can't think of Him that way. If I read it thinking about my husband, it seems normal, but much too provocative/fleshy/passionate... to be a God thing. So why is it in the Bible if He didn't mean it for our relationship with Him? I mean invented sex in the first place (not media) and yeah, it is good and He is the one who calls himself the groom, the husband and us his lover, his wife, his pursued one. Don't know if that helps any.
Full life...I like that. There are several things that I'm going to constantly repeat and I think that will be one of them...with the idea of "how life is supposed to be".
Agent Wife...good to hear from you! I'm going to read song of Solomon this week and see how I can maybe turn that into a talk of God's love.
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