By Paul Patterson
There were things I loved about this chapter and things I didn’t. I didn’t love the bit about different “Jesuses.” Of course, the author is right that we tend to personalize and individualize Jesus by focusing on this or that aspect of his person—‘tender’ Jesus, ‘radical’ Jesus, ‘teacher’ Jesus, ‘quiet time’ Jesus, etc. What’s wrong with all of these—what they all have in common—is that they tend to see Jesus as an example to be followed. And the author seems to fall into the same trap by saying that what we really need is to put all of these aspects of his person together and to follow that. Now, Christ certainly provides an excellent example for us to follow; but that isn’t primarily why he came, because in our sin we couldn’t follow him if we wanted to! He came as a savior—to transform us into the kind of people who can follow him. What we really need is to submit ourselves each day to Christ the Savior, and everything else will follow.
I did, however, appreciate the author’s emphasis on Jesus as the personal embodiment of the kingdom of God. This has serious implications for how we Christians look at the world: it means that the kingdom is already present, while at the same time it’s not yet. The kingdom is already present because Jesus (the kingdom personified) is present. He inaugurated the kingdom by reconciling people to God and to one another (which must include the poor, the broken and the marginalized—see Luke 4), and he is still engaged in this business of reconciliation. At the same time, the kingdom is not yet present because Jesus has not yet appeared in glory. Injustice persists, people are still marginalized, systems are still broken. To quote one of my favorite bands (Radiohead), “everything is wrong.” And only God Incarnate can make it right again—which he will do, at his appearing.
Why is Jesus able to make everything right again? Precisely because he is God Incarnate. In assuming flesh, the Second Person of the Trinity transformed (at least in principle) all matter. One day he’s going to fashion for us new bodies and a new earth, and he’s going to use the stuff of these bodies and of this earth to do it (at least that’s my reading of 1 Corinthians 15). William Pannell (in the interview) is therefore right to emphasize Jesus’ humanity. I think he’s also right that many Evangelicals haven’t made much room for it in their theology. But our present and future hope lies precisely in the fact that God became human!
Some Discussion Questions:
1) Are you (or your youth group) ever guilty of focusing primarily on the ‘example’ aspect of Jesus?
2) What version of Jesus do you usually find yourself striving to follow? How is that working for you?
3) Does your youth group lean more in the direction of Christ’s divinity or humanity? Why do you think that is?
4) Does your youth group lean more heavily in the direction of the “already” or the “not yet” of God’s kingdom? Again, why do you think that is?
5) What misconceptions do you think your youth may have concerning the second coming, the resurrection, and the afterlife?
Friday, April 24, 2009
Monday, April 6, 2009
Discussion and Questions from Chapter 3
Sorry for the delay in getting our blog updated…we were blessed with about 500 volunteers in March! It was a wonderful blessing! Right now we’re playing a little catch up. So… Some thoughts and questions from Chapter 3…
This chapter starts out with a helpful comparison of Kara Powell’s own story of how she has taught about injustice.
First, she tried to guilt youth into addressing injustice. This worked…for a short time. Guilt-based ministry leads to short-term commitment to God’s agenda and long-term bitterness towards God and the church..
Second, she emphasized God’s grace to the neglect of God’s commands. This cheap grace ministry seemed to make folks comfortable but neglected any outreach to the community.
Where do you fall in this pendulum?
Kara Powell argues that youth leaders need to stop telling stories in the Bible and start telling the story of the Bible. Kara goes on to make a summary of her understanding of the story of the Bible.
In a paragraph, what would you say is the story of the Bible? Does your story speak to the issues of individual’s hearts? How does the story challenge individuals? Does your story speak to the social injustices of our society? How does your story challenge individuals to enter the mess of society?
Kara argues that “students’ motivation to right wrongs is directly related to their view of themselves as participants in God’s story” (p.48). What do you think of Kara’s argument? How have you seen this in your students?
Two “Justice Traps”
Kara argues that there are two traps that keep youth leaders from leading their students into deep justice.
First, youth leaders can perpetuate an “us” “them” mentality where the poor are viewed with pity and without dignity. Physically poor people are objects of our compassion rather than our brothers and sisters.
Second, youth leaders can ignore the issue of deep justice because it’s too big to tackle. What impact can I/we have anyway?
How do we escape these “justice traps”? Kara argues that we need to get students to participate (p.54)…and specifically to ask and facilitate the role of and leadership of poor students. As poor students participate and traps of us/them and the immensity of the problem are tackled head on. Poor students who lead will stand up to the us/them polarization in our groups and they will show that issues of poverty can be addressed…by the poor!
Who are some poor students in your youth group? How do you and your youth team facilitate their participation and leadership? For the middle-class and wealthy students in your youth group how are you inviting them to participate in the story of God's Kingdom?
Sorry for the delay in getting our blog updated…we were blessed with about 500 volunteers in March! It was a wonderful blessing! Right now we’re playing a little catch up. So… Some thoughts and questions from Chapter 3…
This chapter starts out with a helpful comparison of Kara Powell’s own story of how she has taught about injustice.
First, she tried to guilt youth into addressing injustice. This worked…for a short time. Guilt-based ministry leads to short-term commitment to God’s agenda and long-term bitterness towards God and the church..
Second, she emphasized God’s grace to the neglect of God’s commands. This cheap grace ministry seemed to make folks comfortable but neglected any outreach to the community.
Where do you fall in this pendulum?
Kara Powell argues that youth leaders need to stop telling stories in the Bible and start telling the story of the Bible. Kara goes on to make a summary of her understanding of the story of the Bible.
In a paragraph, what would you say is the story of the Bible? Does your story speak to the issues of individual’s hearts? How does the story challenge individuals? Does your story speak to the social injustices of our society? How does your story challenge individuals to enter the mess of society?
Kara argues that “students’ motivation to right wrongs is directly related to their view of themselves as participants in God’s story” (p.48). What do you think of Kara’s argument? How have you seen this in your students?
Two “Justice Traps”
Kara argues that there are two traps that keep youth leaders from leading their students into deep justice.
First, youth leaders can perpetuate an “us” “them” mentality where the poor are viewed with pity and without dignity. Physically poor people are objects of our compassion rather than our brothers and sisters.
Second, youth leaders can ignore the issue of deep justice because it’s too big to tackle. What impact can I/we have anyway?
How do we escape these “justice traps”? Kara argues that we need to get students to participate (p.54)…and specifically to ask and facilitate the role of and leadership of poor students. As poor students participate and traps of us/them and the immensity of the problem are tackled head on. Poor students who lead will stand up to the us/them polarization in our groups and they will show that issues of poverty can be addressed…by the poor!
Who are some poor students in your youth group? How do you and your youth team facilitate their participation and leadership? For the middle-class and wealthy students in your youth group how are you inviting them to participate in the story of God's Kingdom?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
