My mum came home from school today with a huge smile on her face. She started to tell me about the success of a workshop her school had hosted for the year 9 students run by Jim Stynes (an ex-Aussie Rules footballer) and his organization called ‘Reach’ (www.reach.com.au).
Starting her description of the day with “I have never seen 500 Year 9 students cry…and I was crying too”, I was thinking…sounds really fun! But then she described what sounded like an extraordinary, interactive, fun but liberating day where the kids were asked on a ‘call to adventure’, exploring who they are, their ‘ordinary lives’, the challenges they face, and ‘slaying the dragons’ to achieve their dreams.
One of the most amazing reflections of the day has got me thinking quite a bit tonight...so I thought I would share...
In one of the sessions, they asked the group of students from the 4 schools to nominate a person that is very loud, vocal and enjoys putting people down. The nominated kids came forward, and then based on the strongest cheer (ie support for ‘yes’ this kid is in fact the biggest bully), one of the kids was selected (already amazed?). But then they did a trust exercise where he climbed a ladder and the other kids nominated to catch him…asked how he felt, his response was…scared…perhaps like the kids that he bullies. Asked why he likes to bully the other kids and his response was to shrug his shoulders and smile simply saying it was fun. And I’m sure this doesn’t surprise you.
But then, he was asked ‘what is something that has moved you this year, really touched you’…and he started to tell about the loss of both his grandparents in a car accident this year and how he’d been very close to them.
After he shared his story, the audience was asked to put their hands up if they’d seen the boy tease or put down other kids - nearly all from his school raised their hand. Asked if they’d seen this ‘other’ softer side, and barely anyone moved.
So often I think we see the behavior and react before asking why?
The Reach team used the analogy of us all having an inner core, where the spirit of whom we are comes from, not in any religious sense, but it is where we feel our true selves. As life hits us with different challenges, we start to wrap layers around it to protect ourselves… Bullying and gang violence is a big issue here in Australia and it is very destructive. Similarly, youth around the region are facing similar struggles such as the loss of family due to HIV, domestic abuse, depression, suicide…and the list goes on.
If our sole response to the concerns of the youth is to organize events where we can wrap them up and protect them in our church walls…I think we are failing them. We are in denial if we think they don’t see the brokenness in the world or are too young to understand. We need to engage with the youth on what they are facing, strengthening them to make choices that are healthy for them and their future today…If today is a demonstration, the students expressed grief associated with loss of family members, in car accidents, to cancer, family break ups, bullying….so much about relationships. It will therefore be through relationship, we need to engage with them on the same issues they face at home, at school, on the streets…..
The challenge remains to us all...how do we 'engage' with the youth, or our peers, on these issues in our local community....any thoughts??
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Sounds like a pretty powerful day for those young people! It's so true that youth ministry has become about taking young people out of the 'dangerous world' and placing them into our 'safe church.' Once these young people turn 18 they become the leaders of the 'safe church world' we have created. We tell these young people that they should be out doing 'mission' and scratch our heads wondering why they don't seem to be listening.
Problem is we've taken them out of the mission field and put them in a bubble. How can we expect our young people to know how to do 'mission' or to have a passion for it if we've never shown them the way?
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