The youth group is in transition (again). As happens in transitions, leaderless, people question which way to go and everyone has an opinion, debates, complaints, recommendations, concerns happen. Some are growing tired of building beds, some do not favor building beds.
In the meantime, another woman has just transitioned from homelessness to permenant housing. She has nothing, no bed to sleep in at night. She heard about a group that provides beds to people just like her. She calls. But, unfortunately for her, the group is in transition.
Some in the larger youth group are tired of building beds, some of them never got involved because they did not favor building beds (I don't get this? How can you not favor giving a bed to a poor kid?), some of them were too busy to get involved, some of them just want to be teenagers and didn't want to get that serious yet, they will do that later in their life.
Contrast this with those youth who emptied their bank accounts to fund the beds and showed up each week to build. They see the rightness in what they are doing and, whatever else happens next year, they want to continue becoming the kind of person that willingly build beds for those that don't have any.
While we transition, this woman who came across our path is still sleeping on the floor.
9 comments:
So, why not continue with those that are interested? Church politics stopping you?
Hey Wayne:
If I were a dictator and everybody did what I said, we would continue what we did this year, only do it better with the additional resources of a full time youth pastor (starts Tuesday) and an actual budget.
But the new guy doesn't know much about what we did last year. It is different and non-traditional enough that it will require him to listen in order to get it. I worry that the pressure (church politics) will be to fall back on traditional youth activities (been called a "holding tank with pizza").
Why not continue with a coalition of the willing? Great question. It is still an open question whether we will continue it as the youth program.
If we regress (IMHO) to traditional youth program, then we will have to consider continuing with a coaliton of the willing.
It is just that uncomfortable place of transition. Meanwhile, she is still sleeping on the floor.
So, are you saying that th need is not the call?
Now your just playing with me, but I will humor you.
No, the need is not the call.
For one, God does not call programs, he calls people. The program is currently bogged down in transition so it will not be responsive.
What will probably happen (most likely tomorrow). Me and a few youth I can scrounge together will go give her a mattress and linen. We have three more beds in the works. When we get one more done, we will deliver it to her.
We will get the remaining beds done no matter what the church decides to do. Why? Because it came across our path (we purposely put ourself in a position to come across these sorts of things), it is the right thing to do and we can. Is that a call? Yes.
As i understand it...this idea of building bunkbeds for the youth program this past year was mainly your idea right mark?...i personally think it is a great idea...but...to me it seems like you are maybe getting a bit grumpy about the whole transition thing becuase it might take away your idea...your not using the youth group as a way to accomplish something you want to do are you?...i mean it is a good thing...i am glad we did it...but im wondering if we are making to big of a deal about this...and another thing that has kind of been bothering me latly is it seems like we have been glorifing ourselves a whole lot...by saying "yep...we built that bed...supplied the money...took the time to bring it to the family"...i thought we were suppose to be honoring God through all this...now i am not saying that i dont want to continue the bunkbeds...cuase i do...if anything it is a great way to spend my time...i get something from it...though like i said latly it hasnt been as much...not sure if any of that made sense or not...just saying what i was thinking...
Grumpy!?!? I am grumpy for your enjoyment! It makes for better blogging.
To be honest with you, Aaron, I struggled earlier this week with this whole thing. Part of it definitely is ego. I have struggled with letting it go. It certainly was a spiritual excersize that required the use of several spiritual disciplines to get a better perspective on it. In addition to the ego stuff, God "spoke" to me and basically said something like: It is good that you care.
I still feel strongly that we need to do something less traditional. Does it have to be building beds? No it doesn't. Building beds was never the main point. Although, I think we would be hard pressed to find something more meaningful.
Time will tell which direction the youth will go. One thing will be certain, I will decrease and others will increase! This will be good for all of us.
In the meantime, she is still sleeping on the floor. That is the point of this post. Distractions like this transition can get our focus off of the kingdom.
i agree with you that we should still do something like the bunk beds...it was good...i enjoyed it...
and as far as her sleeping on the floor...like you said...why not go give her a matress and some linens and then do a few good work day to finish up the bed?...i would be up for that...
About your glorifying point, Aaron.
You are illustrating the reason why I feel so strongly about the model we used this past year. It is the "primary" purpose of the model that you all were trying to figure out a couple of Sunday nights ago, which no one seemed to get.
It is the beauty of the model we are using. But it is missed by most, which may be the reason why it does not have more support.
You are raising a very important discipleship issue. You raised it not in the abstract, but because you experienced it. In the course of doing what we do, you came head on to the issue. It was concrete. You saw it, you experienced it, you struggled with it.
Contrast this with being preached at (traditional youth model), where things are in the abstract and not tied to things you have actually experienced or confronted.
The later is a less effective way of learning and changing than the former.
Let me restate it since it is critically important.
As a result of you participating in the bunk bed project, you experienced this issue of how we talk about what we have done. You question whether pride may be involved. You question how we should respond in a way that give God his due glory, not in the abstract, but in your real life context.
Here is the discipleship issue. Having the right attitude about doing good works is like walking on a ridge with sharp drop offs on either side. On the one side is pride and works righteousness. On the other side is false humility, where you do not rejoice in the good that is being done, which can lead to lots of not good things like inaction and boredom. Both of these are not good. The "ridge" is recognizing that an awesome thing that has been done. God has moved in the hearts of some in the youth group and the youth responded. As a result, justice was brought where there was injustice. That is something to rejoice over. How do you do that without falling off the ridge? Ah....that is the beauty of the model we have...you practice! In doing so, you make mistakes and God through his Spirit does what it does best - teaches us and gives us insight into our hearts. That is what is happening to you in your comments. Do you see it? This is huge.
Do you see how doing something like the bunk beds is not really about bunk beds, but about spiritual formation and discipleship? That was the primary purpose of the model. Building beds was secondary, important and good, but secondary.
How many of these types of object lessons came up this year? Lots, more than we were able to address. These issues can come up in traditional youth activities, just not as frequently, as practically, as relevantly, and as effectively.
Do you get it? I worry that most don't get it.
in that comment i think you answered more questions than you ever have in your life...wtg...
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