A New Post?

I am back - for those who might actually still check by here and see what's new (I don't know if any of those folks are left!)

I just wanted to post something about the youth study we are doing:

We are going through the Bible and talking about the life of a Christian. The first week I started by talking about the (sad) stats that show the evangelical community looking much like the secular world in the areas of abuse, divorce, crime etc. I asked why there is such a great disparity between the words we say, as evangelicals, and our lives.

Then we talked about what the Bible had to say about some of these areas, and discussed what that meant in the lives of a Christian. The next week we actually looked at how the Gospel is presented, oftentimes, in the modern western church; focusing on the fact that we are MOST concerned with 'fire insurance' as opposed to understanding the fact that we are a NEW creation! Unfortunately, sanctification is often left on teh table, and the 'salvation' experience is focused on to the exclusion of everything else.

So this week we discussed this questions: What should our lives look like as Christians?

So far, this has been an interesting study, with some lively discussion. I am using Ron Sider's book as a basic framework. While I may not agree with everything Mr. Sider says, overall the book is a good skeleton upon which I can lay some thoughts.

A final thought -- We have tagged our young people with names such as 'narcissistic', 'materialistic', and 'relativistic'. Now, they are all of these, but no more so than their parents! What I have found as we study is that the young folks are very idealistic, and want to live lives that reflect Christ -- they have just never been confronted with that reality!

Will continue this line of thought in upcoming posts.