Hey guys... well I finally got a chance to work on my outline this evening. My head has cleared a bit, and I feel a little more coherent. So hopefully this makes sense... if not, blame the flu.
My main point is to draw the distinction between community in the world and community in church. My sense is that most junior highers and high schoolers feel pretty alone these days. Even with lots of people around them, they don't feel heard or known in a meaningful way.
Intro: Real world community. I'm not 100% sure what I'm going to do with this section yet. Probably some sort of illustration demonstrating the loneliness and isolation of the world. I don't want to spend a lot of time here, but it's pretty important. If the kids don't identify with this, the rest of the message is pretty pointless. So suggestions would be much appreciated.
Body: Church community.
a. Preconceptions about the church - probably a lot of kids think they know what church is...
b. What the church really is: community
c. Text: 1 John 3. The main point from this passage is that because God loves us, we are to love one another. That if we are really to be the church, we must look to one anothers' needs and care for each other in a way that the world does not. Part of what makes the church life changing is experiencing God's love through other people.
Conclusion: I want to be honest here about our intentions. I don't want to trick anyone. I want for everyone who comes to the outreach night to know that God loves them, but perhaps the best way for them to experience that is simply by us loving them, by us caring about their needs and their lives, by us listening to them and then praying for them.
From there, I'll explain everything and we'll go right into the small group time.
It's pretty simple and to the point, but I want to keep it that way. I definitely want it to be short. My one worry though is that it's too "lovey." Like, we're gonna creep people out by talking about loving them. Do I need to tone that language down or is that something kids really need to hear? Part of me thinks kids are really cynical and will think this is weird, but part of me thinks that the kind of kids we attract tend to be those who need to hear these things?
Thoughts?
I hope this makes sense. I'm tired.
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yo fellow sick person
ReplyDeletethe flow is simple and effective so that makes sense.
In terms of the world's community, I would say the whole social networking thing stems out of a desire to connect. We all have this desire to be with people. "It is not good that man should be alone" (And thank God for women too!). So you could angle it that way. Cause I mean, community outside the church isn't necessarily a bad thing, in fact it could be good, but then, how could church community offer "better" community? (authenticity, honesty, grace...)
I think its a risk yeah when we are honest about wanting to love. You could alter the language a bit by using welcoming or "a home" or "safe place" or something like that. And its more than meeting needs too... I dunno, I guess its a risk you have to take, in that for some it works and for some it won't. Hopefully they'll judge by our actions in loving
For some reason when you wrote real world community I thought of that show on MTV - the real world. In some ways it does fit with the idea of isolation. Even though people are on a team they're still competing with each other and therefore alone. I may have the show all wrong though, it's been awhile since I've seen it.
ReplyDeleteMaybe to tie in with the feelings of being alone or not being heard would be feeling misunderstood.
I don't think that the kids would be too weirded out that it is too lovey. Maybe you could go back to our name--straightforward and hitting the aspects of grace and truth. Because we're sinners grace abounds so much more. We're a community of sinners but are called to love because God first loved us Most evidently through Christ.
Hope you continue too feel better. I'll be praying for you and the night.