So I'm at it again. I'm speaking tomorrow to a group of 40-50 junior highers and high schoolers from two churches. Talk about Daniel facing the lions. Subject? Romans 12, Community, more or less. I could also easily revamp and respeak my will of God talk, which I may do yet. It would fit for the high schoolers but I'm not so sure about the junior highers. Finding the will of God for their lives isn't exactly what I think is on their minds.
I'm not sure what to say. The church I go to has a high value on acceptance no matter who you are. I got teased a lot when I was in junior high and high school so that is something I also value. Todd, the pastor, told me questions work well. I like the idea of making this more into a discussion than a talk, a guided forum if you will. So the trick is finding questions junior highers and high schoolers will respond to instead of looking at me with a blank face. My preaching professor taught me to find the one point you want them to take away and then build on that.
The point I want them to take away is unity in diversity, that our differences is what can make us a community.
My wallpaper on my laptop is a great example. It's a photo of ten people, including me at Haw River State Park in North Carolina. What you can't easily tell from the photo is we come from five different countries, four continents and nearly all of us had never met before. But there we were, flown in from all over the world to start work on a project that would unite us for several years. How well the project comes out depends partly on well we got along together, then and in the future. Besides country, we also had differences of culture, language, gender, family, and personalities. Though we all spoke English, we often had to stop and explain the meaning of a word or phrase we were used to using in one country that someone else didn't understand. I and many of the other members of this group were also a little nervous about meeting as we later confessed to one another for we were a little intimidated by each others bio's. But that soon disapeared as we laughed, enjoying each others company, and found a common passion for writing and encouraging the voices of young adults all around the world. Our gifts and talents complimented each other, we each were a piece of the larger picture and we came to appreciate our unity in diversity. I am hoping the book we're producing will be an expression of what we found together, that voices seas apart can be different, perhaps in agreement, perhaps with opposing views, but that they can come together and find strength in their diversity to speak to those who need to hear and be encouraged.
My own church is based on the idea of unity in diversity, that diversity can be a gift to build up and be a light of God's love beautifully illustrated here on earth including all our faults and gifts. We as a group, are about as different as the editorial board. We span the spectrum of culture, economic status, education, gender, background, health, sexuality, age, and theology. By all reckoning and most people's judgement, this should not work. We should not be able to sit down Sunday after Sunday together and worship God. But I have learned through this group that our difference don't have to divide us but can instead bring us what we're missing in our need to live a fuller life. Our Faith and Practice, what we believe and what we do, is what we call our campfire, as individuals, we don't all agree on it but we do agree to sit around it, some people sit farther away, some people sit closer, and certainly we are on all sides. I think the thing that does unite is our belief that whatever theological hairs we split doesn't really matter. We can no sooner have a perfect theology than we can count the stars in the sky. So what does it really matter? We may not all be walking the exact same path but we are walking together.
More when I get bacl from tap class...Labels: Community, Freedom Friends Church, Quaker Youth Book Project