Friday, May 13, 2011

Youth Ministry, Boxes, and Wrath

Youth Ministry, Boxes, and Wrath

Greetings and salutations to our friends and family in ministry.  Often in my experience with youth ministry I walk away with serious questions of sanity.  Looking to most people for advice, they would say, "Yes, Jason, you are crazy!" I have been listening to God with the intention of following His desire for my life for over 15 years.  I'm just now experiencing  some of the deep truths of who He is to the fullest.  Why now?  Well, that is what Youth Ministry, Boxes, and Wrath is all about, experiencing God, knowing God, and enjoying God.  Read with an open mind and give me your thoughts on how you experience, know, and enjoy God.

Youth Ministry

        You do not wake up in the mornings and wish youth ministry on any one.  Youth in general are very confused, ego-centric, and vain.  Youth are confused, ego-centric, and vain largely due to the fact that they have no identity.  Identity in my opinion is the single greatest lesson that a youth can learn between the ages of 13-19.  The teenage years develops youth into what they will be for the rest of their lives.
        At the age of 13, I was a confused, overweight teenager with bad acne.  My body raged with the fury of a fire that is not easily extinguished.  I was searching for an identity but was not sure where to find it or how to follow it.  I begin to experience music and placed much of my identity in music.  The mixture of music and puberty was a strange brew, I learned a lot about my sexual nature through music.  Jon Bon Jovi is not exactly the model of sexuality in our society but for a young teenager who was discovering himself it was a place to experience the fury.
         What does it mean to experience something?  According to Webster's, experience in the verb form is to undergo through a period of time.  When do we experience something?  We experience something as we undergo it.  We may not fully understand it, but the reality is God is to be experienced.  I believe students have the ability to experience God, even in the midst of raging hormones.  Even in the midst of being ego-centric and vain, God is experienced.  We've done a great job as parents of painting a minimal picture of God for youth.  Youth have such a small picture of God because we have created a small God, its our fault.   Youth Ministers, Pastors, and Parents all play a roll in painting a picture of God.  
          The argument I experience largely in this area is that we are finite and cannot paint an accurate picture of God.  The answer to that argument is yes, we are finite, but we can experience God.  We have the faculties to experience God. 1 John 1:1 tells us that we can experience God, even now.  I ache over the condition of our students, because they believe in God yet, they believe that they can't experience God.  I experienced music through the sense of hearing.  This was just one use of the senses God created us with.  We can experience God through sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch.  Spiritually speaking, we can experience God to the fullest through a relationship in intimacy even as a youth.

Boxes

         As a youth, I had a point of view of God that fit my confused, ego-centric and vain values.  God was a mere spiritual Santa Claus, a mean drill sergeant who expected the me to go way and far above my ability.  How does a youth maintain such a picture of God in the midst of a hormonal rage fury in their teenage years?  Youth gain their prospective from their parents (or lack thereof), teachers, youth ministers, pastors, and secular society.  The finite argument plays into this point of view.
         Sadly, youth, as a result, create a God shaped box that fits what they have learned.  Youth take what little they know of God and begin forming their ideology based on what God is in their mind.  Most of the time, youth picture God based on relationships they have formed.  God can be really awesome, really nice, really mean, really huber cool, or really not even real.  Boxes are made to hold stuff.  Boxes are not fit to contain something that cannot be contained.  Try to over fill a box and see what happens, it completely falls apart.  Boxes can be decorative, plain, and bothersome.  We store in boxes the things we do not want to deal with on a daily basis and we place them in attics, garages, storing units, and closets by creating space for us to live.  
          Youth create God shaped boxes to make themselves feel better about God and His presence.  Youth create what they see and not what they know.  If you meet a youth who has a relationship with God, then you will see a youth who does not have a box.  Boxes are not for knowing, God is.  Jesus praying in the garden before his arrest is praying in John 17:3 "and this is eternal life, that they may know You..."  As current leaders of today's youth we must create a generation of knowers of God, not just rules and regulations, but a intimate knowing of and not just about God.
          My goal is to rid students of their God shaped boxes and live their lives out of the box with God as their life.  Many people are sad that today's church is fading.  My response to this line of thinking is that we have created this fade by not pointing our students to a relationship with God.  If you want students to worship God and glorify God, then point them to knowing God and you will see the results.  The results is that God will be their life.    Boxes hold memories and stuff we don't want, is that how we want a generation of students to see God?

Wrath

        Wrath defined is violent vengeful anger, retributory punishment for sin or crime.  The God of wrath, is wrath?  Is this really a part of who God is?  If you do not know about God's wrath, then you have not encountered His life.  Wrath to a youth is the scariest term they can associate with God and does not fill their God shaped box.  In the minds of youth, God is not wrath.  Show me a youth who has acknowledged God's wrath and I will show you a youth that is enjoying God and living life to the fullest.  
        We have been faced with this idea in the rising emergent church of a God who does not send anyone to hell, especially Ghandi.  We have been questioned on how we know these things about God, well scripture (you know that book that God revealed to man to write so that we may have a way of knowing and understanding Him) if you read it, tells us that hell is real and that God's violent vengeful anger and punishment for sin is wrath.  We deserve God's wrath because of sin.  Youth need to know that we are subject to vengeful anger and punishment of God.  Youth need to know that wrath is God's just punishment for their sin.  No one is left out of this wrath even Jesus.  
        How does wrath and enjoyment go together?  If a youth is faced with wrath, then he/she is faced with death.  Death, spiritually speaking brings life.  Death is a sign that you are at the end of self.  Sin equals death, we all deserve it.  When you are faced with death you are at the end of self, Paul made an outrageous claim in Galatians 2:20 by stating, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me..." This outrageous claim says that Paul was represented on the cross, thus facing God's wrath.  How?  Sin is not a singular concept when facing the masses, it is plural.  However, when talking about Sin as a whole it is singular.  God's wrath is poured out on Sin and that covers the masses.  Your sin and my sin is represented on that cross, thus we can claim with Paul this outrageous statement, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live..."
        The joy of wrath is knowing that you are not under it!  How are we considered not under wrath?  Youth need to know that they are not objects of wrath in Christ Jesus.  Why do we teach that they are subject to God's punishment when we teach that the cross was the punishment?  A youth who is identified in Christ knows that they are sons and daughters of The Father and live as such.  1 John 4:17,  "love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as He is, so are we in this world."  Romans 8:1, there is therefore now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. 2 Corinthians 5:21, He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.  Wow, youth need to know this, youth need to bite into that cookie and taste how good it is.  This is the cookie of wrath because in Christ Jesus we have been saved from God's wrath.
        Wrath is a precursor to enjoyment because when we realize that Jesus has taken our place and faced the wrath on our behalf, we will know that we have been shown mercy and live life experiencing, knowing, and enjoying God.

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