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What do you do when you and your church are not on the same page?

10/29/2006 7:55:41 PM

julieann

14 posts

What do you do when you and your church are not on the same page?
(N/A)

I have been at this church for years, been on staff and worked in lay ministry. God has so opened and changed my heart through embracing a more contemplative life. I am so excited to share the light yoke of Jesus with the teenagers I minister to, but I find myself so scared of what the kids will hear at church that sometimes seems so couteractive to what the Holy Spirit is doing in their lives. Is there a way I can nurture the work of the Spirit without undermining their youth pastor or other pastoral presences in their lives that are pushing the to strive strive strive?

11/21/2006 1:02:45 PM

anonymous

0 posts

Re: What do you do when you and your church are not on the same page?
(United States)

Hi, I hear your turmoil. May I gently ask, what is your church saying to youth that you feel is wrong? Are you involved with youth already? Is there some way you can simply be a presence to them at this point--get involved so they will simply see Christ in you? God bless you today!

11/22/2006 7:18:11 PM

julieann

14 posts

Re: What do you do when you and your church are not on the same page?
(United States) Modified By julieann on 11/22/2006 12:21:51 PM)

Test

11/22/2006 7:18:20 PM

julieann

14 posts

Re: What do you do when you and your church are not on the same page?
(United States)

I have to confess, I wrote this blog post in the early days of the site to get conversation going. This was my situation several years ago, but I am not personally in it now, however there are many many people who have come across my path that are in this situation, which is why I posted this as a conversation starter in the early days of metamorpha. But your question is a good one and I will answer it from the perspective of what I have observed over the years. In general, most Sunday morning services, youth groups and discipleship groups tend to have a emphasis on teaching about what is right Chrstian behavior. This is important and I do not want to diminish the need for people to be aware of God's desires for our conduct, but the general feeling I get from this heavily weighted emphasis is that there is a hyper concern for the outside of the cup being clean. I.E, If you are materiealistic, stop reading fashion magazines, then you won't be tempted to want the stuff. Stop listening to secular music. Memorize these scriptures that say that it is wrong to lust or engage in sexual immorality. These are by no means bad things, but unfortunatly many church teachings stop here, attempting to keep the outside of the cup squeeky clean, in some cases as a defence to not engage in introspection to expose the true state of the heart. Ultimately, what has happened is that Christianity has been reduced to a Christian virtue ethic that ends up being void of relationship with Christ. In the worst case, engaging in Christian virtues is equated to relationship with Jesus, and that is simply not so. The side effects of this emphasis on outward behavior is that we can miss really seeing our students in their entirety. Looking back, I know that I have outright missed that a student didn't have a realtionship with Jesus simply because she was a leader, and a good kid. This student ended up "rebeling" in her later high school years and in college and everyone wondered why. The instinctive response of the youth staff (including me) was to adress the behavior as the primary problem. I now see that she was not totally rebeling against God, but was rebeling against a pseudo-gospel. In her youth and immaturity, she did not know that. And in our youth and immaturity, neither did we. Praise God, since then she has come to know so deeply God's love for her and now has a real relationship with Christ. Thanks for your question.

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