Somewhat disassociated with the previous post (kind of, kind of not) was that on Sunday evening we had a guy come speak to the youth/young adults at our church.
To be honest, I wasn’t really very impressed. Yes he said some good stuff, but I don’t understand and it disturbs me when what someone is saying in regards to Christianity starts sounding like a bit of motivational guru. And although I know the intentions are good when you’re talking about being more expectant of how God can use you, but it’s such a fraying rope between explaining God’s role in this and our role, and when our role seems to wear the boots it’s just plain wrong. Just how highly can you think of yourself? There were also some other small things that made me frown…
Yes humans are fallible and I as much as any, but when you’re ‘teaching’ there surely must be some kind of extra care when choosing words? God forbid I ever have to be in such an influential role – it’d scare the pants off me.
Church at the moment frustrates me. The one I am in is growing and although that’s very positive, it comes with challenges, both organisational and personal. It was interesting to condense one very big community into a smaller demographic, I think on the whole I deal better with a smaller community. Yet I’m still trying to evaluate where youth fit in with some of those ‘smaller communities’ that I’d probably jump at otherwise. I still really, really love my youth kids.
One of the topics of the evening was prophesy (we split off into smaller groups). Anyway God gave me a good old, needed kick up the bum with something and encouragement in another area (that is also thought matter). Thanks Ruth and Kerrie!
I had a good old chat with Susannah post-prophecy-stuff about what we thought, what was good, what we didn’t really get/agree with etc. The whole evening my brain did not stay still, sifting and sorting information into take it or leave it.
Someone once gave me this helpful metaphor of eating fish. None of this battered stuff that comes with chips, but the real deal -meat and bones. Sometimes it’s like eating fish. There’s meat there, but you have to pick out the bones leave them to one side. Take the good, ignore the crap. There must come a point though when there just becomes too many bones to bother with eating in the first place…
Interesting to read your thoughts on the evening Bec. Unfortunately I found myself so busy evaluating what I thought of his preaching/influencing style that I over-intellectualised it all and struggled to hear that small soft voice amidst the clouds in my head.
The point he made over and over about how we should expect God to come really bothered me to the point that at the end I felt guilty that I hadn’t expected enough.
It wasn’t all bad, but it certainly left me feeling a bit disheartened. I wonder how cultural differences played a role between the ‘expectations’ of the preacher and the group of people. Just a thought.