Kevin Murray,
Director of Youth Ministry
There is a little secret among Biblical scholars, church clergy, and Christian educators – the secret is the answer to the question: “Why do you do the things you do?” Sing in your head that familiar song …. ‘”the Bible tells me so.”
I will never forget as a religion major in college during one of the lower-level classes, one student struggling with taking a critical approach to reading the Bible, the same way you might take a critical approach to a classic piece of literature. He asked the professor: “How do you know the Gospels were just a gathering of second-hand stories about Jesus? I went to church every Sunday and never heard that before!”
To which the professor told him to please look up and read Luke 1:1-4. Sure enough the student, who had been to church every Sunday of his life, began reading Luke. If you do not remember exactly the first verses of Luke, the author literally spells out that he has gathered a bunch of second-hand stories and carefully put together a composite for someone else to read. So why do we approach the Gospels with a literary-critical lens assuming that these are a collection of second-hands stories? Well … “the Bible tells me so.”
The same is true for our small group model in Spiritual Formation. Where did we get the idea that how we are supposed to act in Christian community is gather together in groups of at least two or three? It so happens, in Matthew chapter 18, Jesus outlines for his listeners how to behave in a community of believers. In verses 15-20 Jesus outlines how to act in a church setting, and how to hold each other accountable in such as setting. He concludes with what probably sounds familiar in v.18-20:
Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.
There it is, we did not even have to think too hard about it, Jesus literally tells us how to channel his spirit among us in the present day. Small groups are about the work of Jesus because Jesus told us so. Getting these small groups together and running programmatically is a little trickier to be sure, and that is where we need help.
We need mature, Christian adults who answer the call to the church and to Christ by providing leadership for our youth. Our youth need small group leaders, confirmation mentors, trip chaperones, and a team behind the scenes in the Youth Committee thinking about how to make all our programs happen. We do this work because we believe this is what Jesus called us to do and we are being faithful with how Jesus wants us to do it. Please pray and consider that you are being called to be a leader for our youth, so that they may come to know Jesus and his calling in all our lives.
