Thursday, April 12, 2007

The Four Motions- Part Two

Invest Wholeheartedly

In Jeremiah, the people of God were taken to Babylon during the exile. The plan of their captors was to exterminate them by way of assimilation. Hopefully, with enough exposure to Babylonian culture, and given enough time, the Jewish people would become like them. The Jewish people would lose their identity. Sound familiar? Sound like what has happened to Christianity and the culture?

At any rate, the Jewish people were left with three options. Option one, give in to it. Let their identity be washed away by embracing the new customs, traditions and religion of their captors. Which is the option that most 'Christians' have chosen. They call themselves Christians but they really don't live like it. Our schools are full of these type of people.

Option two, move out. Simply live outside the city. Create a Jewish subculture that ignored the pagans in the city. Their idea, led by a false prophet, was that given enough time, the heathen culture would destroy itself (and rightly so, they are heathen after all!). This is the option that many Christians have chosen as well. They listen to their own music, shop at their own stores, hang out with only the Christians and the rest of the 'lost' people (who would probably be bad influences after all) are simply ignored.

God, in Jeremiah 29, chooses Option three. Option three: Invest Wholeheartedly. He tells them to move into the city, build houses, build businesses, build families and to pray and seek the welfare of the city- yeah, the city that was holding them captive. This is what must happen for our youth to take their schools for Christ. They must invest themselves in the actual institution of their school. Not to blend in to it, so that no one knows they are a Christian (the betrayal of Motion Four) or to separate themselves so that they don't really even know any non-Christians in any real way (the betrayal of Motion Three). They must seek to be influences of good, Christ-centered change. This means they seek positions in student government, clubs, sports and in their academics so that they might be strategic for Christ.

Big Idea: Teaching your youth to live in such a way as to not cause a scene at school.
Bigger Idea: Teaching your youth to live in such a way as to make their world a better place.

1 comment:

one proud dad said...

Jason,

Thought that this was an excellent post and whether it is youth ministry or small group ministry, this modus operandi should be the church's way of doing biblical ministry.