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Last week was Bible Sunday and Jonathan spoke about the importance of the Bible as the inspired Word of God and as such he demonstrated how much we value it in our Christian walk. Jonathan also pointed out that the Word of God speaks into our lives in an inspired and incisive way if we approach it with the right attitude. A couple of weeks ago I was down to preach on the Bible story of Bartimaeus, the blind beggar. I wrote my sermon saying all the things I felt God was asking me to say on that day and in a sense felt that I had finished with that story for the time being. What I did not realise was that the story had not finished with me. It would speak into my ministry in a most persistent way in the days and weeks following. I simply couldn’t shake it from my consciousness. Phil, our current youth pastor had been sharing with me some of the issues he was having that related to the youth ministry. He shared with me that he was finding Friday nights difficult as many of the young people who were attending youth group seemed to have very little interest in hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The way the youth group programme currently works is that it alternates between an emphasis on studying the Scriptures one week and hanging out together playing games etc the next. It would appear that whenever Phil tries to do any activity connected with the Christian Faith and discipleship, there is a significant group of young people that becomes disruptive and behaves especially badly. So much so that it seems that the small number of young people who are interested in growing their Faith are unable to pursue that interest. Added to this is the issue of the growing numbers of young people who are finding their way down to HT on a Friday night who generally do not come from churched families and who are thus ignorant about and realistically disinterested in the Christian Faith. I went away from that conversation somewhat frustrated as this is not a new problem for this Parish. David, our previous youth pastor had pretty much the same issue. I believe that we are seeing the effects of growing secularization of our society and a generalised ignorance about God. What’s to be done? At about this time the word of God broke into my thinking via the story of Bartimaeus. In this story Jesus was on a journey with his disciples to Jerusalem to celebrate the high festival of the Passover. En route he reached the prosperous town of Jericho. Crowds were lining the streets. A blind man having heard the fuss cried out, “what is going on, what is happening?”. “Jesus is passing by” the crowd retorted. At this the blind man yelled all the louder and behaved badly despite every effort on the part of the crowd to discipline him. Eventually his noisy calls caught Jesus’ attention. Jesus interrupted his journey, halted his conversation and moved over to where the blind man was. “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked. “I want to see”, said the blind man. “Very well your faith has made you well” and the man was cured. The man’s need had been met and the result was that he praised God and followed Jesus. Now guess what happens next, the crowd started to praise God also on account of the miracle they had witnessed. Wow I thought, our youth ministry is a bit like this. Our youth pastor quite rightly wants to teach the young people who are keen to become the disciples of Jesus. He walks with them and talks to them about God as they go on their life journey. Those in the community have a sense that on a Sunday and on a Friday and of course on other days too, something big is happening here. Jesus in effect is passing by. “What’s going on” shout the noisy youth. “Be quiet and behave and then we will tell you” comes our reply. Instead of doing as they are told, they shout all the louder and despite our every effort to get them to do otherwise, behave badly. What happens when Jesus stops to ask them “what do you want me to do for you?” and how does Jesus stop for them? Surely it is through his church that he must ask the youth “what do you want me to do for you?” And how do they reply? “We want a safe place to hang out where we feel we belong they shout.” Looking at the order in which we have historically done things here, it would seem that we want them · to believe in the Gospel, · change their behaviour and · then we allow them to belong to our youth group. But I wonder what would happen if we changed the order? I wonder is it time to change the order? What about if we said: “okay you can belong, then you can learn to behave and then in time some of you may learn to believe in Jesus.” What would the youth ministry look like were we to change the priorities for Friday nights? Perhaps not every Friday night, just alternate Friday nights, the games and hang out nights? The sentence for today compares the kingdom of God to a mustard tree which starts small and then grows into a big tree on which the birds are able to perch and sing and hang out. At very least the parable teaches us that the kingdom of God is a place where communities are served, where their needs are met. Translate that into our youth ministry on a Friday night and we find that the challenge for us is to make Youth Group a place where young people can hang out with clear boundaries about how to behave. First they are given an opportunity to develop a sense of belonging, over time some of them will transition into believing the promises of Christ and embrace him as lord of their life and follow him as disciples. There is a problem on the North Shore and here in Devonport. Young teenagers do not have a safe place to hang out. A drug free, alcohol free place to make friends and gain acceptance. This is a need that we the church could help meet with unconditional love and care. The implications of this way of thinking started to seriously challenge me as I started to dream dreams. What if we became successful at it and more and more young people started to swarm down here? What if as a result of being down here we the church became part of the solution for our young people, keeping them from substance abuse and all the other dangers that lurk in their teenage world? What would Jesus do with the teenagers of Devonport and what would he want us to do as his church? What would we need to embrace the challenge? We would need extra leaders, security, finances, helpers. It could be huge. Youth ministry would grow from a one man youth pastor into a department which would tap the resources of the church. I was sharing this dream with Phil which though it excited me hugely, it also terrified me. Almost in the middle of my sentence Terrie our Parish Administrator came in with the post. “Look at this she said. Here is a cheque from a Deceased Estate for $17.000 made out to Holy Trinity Church!” In that moment I felt though God was saying : “you are on the right track, allow the young people to come to me and I will ensure that you are well resourced for the task.” Now I am not saying for one moment saying that the church alone can save the teenagers of our community from themselves! I believe the wider community needs to be challenged and invited to partner with us as we endeavour to address the problem of the youth. With this in mind, I approached the community Co-ordinator Maire Veith and have asked her to help us find financial and human resources to address the issue. The vision of this church is to be a church that impacts the community with the practical outworking of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. To do this we need to partner with the community and work with the wider community. Perhaps like the mustard tree we could become a place for young people to come and rest and hangout and be served unconditionally as Jesus serves us. So here’s the plan which I am proposing we try for the next 4 months i.e. August - November: · We ask the wider community to meet us half way with staffing and funding. · On Tuesday I will be attending a meeting with a community trust board for youth and I will be inviting them to partner with us as we try to meet the needs of our young people. By providing some funding and a youth worker to assist Phil on alternate Friday nights. · I am going to appeal to the adults in this faith community to offer to be on a roster that will provide adult support on Friday nights. The more people we have volunteering, the fewer times we will need to do it. Now as I have been talking about this some of you will have felt your hearts quicken and a sense of excitement and enthusiasm for what I am saying will have welled up in you. On the other hand others of you will be left stone cold. To the first group I wish to say that perhaps it is the Holy Spirit that is challenging you to come on board. There are a number of ways you could do so, it may be that you could do so financially or with your gifts and expertise or by giving some energy to this ministry or by sharing ideas or all of the above. Here’s a ministry which with some help and a team effort we can truly make a difference for good. I have shared the vision but we need the support of, all of us who have caught the vision, to make it a reality. To the first group I say the work of the church involves a whole lot more than youth ministry and it may just be that God is calling you to support a different ministry. Keep listening. To both groups I must say that the Bible tells us that “Unless the Lord builds the house those who labour do so in vain.” We need to pray for support and guidance. I invite you to pray intentionally for the guidance of the Holy Spirit in these matters and yes even to fast as you pray. The kingdom gains are enormous if we get it right. Just think of the gains for the whole community if the youth receive their sight, their faith sight I mean and find healing in belonging, believing and behaving in God honouring ways. Just think about Bartimaeus who once he received his sight followed Jesus, praising God. Just think of all the people who when they saw what had happened also praised God. What a revival could stem from such a ministry! |
