Month: March 2007

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Youth Ministry: Tim’s Take on Terrigal Teenagers

I caught up with Tim Baldwin yesterday afternoon for a coffee and too many Krispy Kremes! Tim is a great encouragement and I enjoy talking with him about Jesus, ministry and culture. We were talking about the dominant culture on the Central Coast. His reflection is that there is an idolatry of the lifestyle. Coasties LOVE the lifestyle. Coasties boast in the lifestyle. Coasties scorn Sydney-siders who must deal with traffic, pollution and people. One idea that Tim had was to tap into that culture by acknowledging how good a place the Central Coast truly is. But to help move people on from that and see that what matters is not where you live, but Jesus.

We then talked about the teenagers on the Central Coast. He came up with 2 things:

  • Teenagers want to fit in
  • Teenagers want to be where the action is

1) TEENAGERS WANT TO FIT IN
This is one of the most fundamental desires of a typical teenager. The desire to fit in with the crowd. Teenagers want to be cool. Teenagers want to be accepted. One of the ways to tap into this desire to be accepted is to acknowledge that the teenagers you are ministering to are thinking like that… “I know that you’re desire in life is to be accepted and to fit in at school…” (in the context of a talk) One way to challenge this would be to encourage teenagers to actually stand out for Jesus. Stand out and be different from their classmates… because of Jesus. This doesn’t mean they have to tuck their shirt into their undies or wear socks with sandals etc… but to live radically different from their peers when it comes to what they value, what they believe and how they live.

2) TEENAGERS WANT TO BE WHERE THE ACTION IS
This 2nd point goes hand in hand with the first one. Teenagers want to fit in… and be at the right place doing the right things. The right parties. The right beach. The right shopping centre. We need to show teenagers that JESUS is where the action is at! Meeting with Jesus’ people around Jesus’ word for Jesus’ glory on a Friday night is far more profound than hanging out at Erina Fair! Ephesians 3 helps to show us just how BIG the gathering of church is in the cosmos. We need to show teenagers that if they want to truly be where the action is at – they need to be with Jesus.

I really like these two points.

What do you think?
Is that true in your context?
How do we tap into this culture?

Would love to hear your comments…

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I’ll pay for my own lunch thanks…

Chatted to a guy at a 21st last night for about an hour and a half. I’d been praying that I’d be bold and take the opportunity to chat to him… one of the speeches was gold! It really lead well into a discussion. It was tragic to chat to this guy. The last thing he said was that even if I could 100% convince of the truth of the claims that Jesus makes about himself, he’d rather just stand before God and take his own punishment. Tragic. Row found this quote from John Stott (The Cross of Christ) today. The last sentence (in bold) pretty much summarises this chap. Pray for him that God would give him ears to hear.

The doctrine of substitution affirms not only a fact (God in Christ substituted himself for us) but its necessity (there was no other way by which God’s holy love could be satisfied and rebellious human beings could be saved). Therefore, as we stand before the cross, we begin to gain a clear view both of God and of ourselves, especially in relation to each other. Instead of inflicting upon us the judgment we deserved, God in Christ endured it in our place. Hell is the only alternative. This is the ‘scandal’, the stumbling-block, of the cross. For our proud hearts rebel against it. We cannot bear to acknowledge either the seriousness of our sin and guilt or our utter indebtedness to the cross. Surely, we say, there must be something we can do, or at least contribute, in order to make amends? If not, we often give the impression that we would rather suffer our own punishment than the humiliation of seeing God through Christ bear it in our place.

Yesterday I got my mobile phone back from 3 months using a loan phone. This photo was taken last night. 7 warm fuzzies to the first person or reptile to correctly identify the car I was driving…

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Youth Ministry: J-Walk has landed

Our brand new monthly magazine for CCECYOUTH has just landed!! We launched it last night. There has been some good feedback already… Shout out to Alex, Jackson, Josh and Nicole – they are part of team J-walk – and have done a fantastic job! Thanks also to Aaron, Andrew, Andrew and Kelly for their contributions.

Go check it out here

What do you think? Would love to hear your feedback…

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Monergism.com

Busy finishing what I blogged about yesterday.  No time for longer than 30 second post.  Here it is: Monergism.com has a new design.  This is good.  Check it out – it's got great content.