Traditioning, Conditioning and Youth Ministry
How are we traditioning students? What do we teach them by always meeting at the church and then making special trips out of service? Shouldn’t the church condition us to be servants, not self-serving? What type of balance issue is at stake if we take away the 100% stability of “always meeting at the same place, same time, same format?” What if we introduced a balance service and study, of giving and receiving, of doing and understanding, of formation and transformation?
posted by Levi at
8:30 AM
1 Comments:
The disciplines of regular communal worship and service to others must co-exist.
Without worship, we lose sight of our purpose for service. Without service, we fail to fulfill our purpose.
When we worship together, we not only grow stronger in our faith, we grow closer together as a community.
When we serve we recognize our need for continued worship.
If we practice these disciplines, God will provide the balance.
Now, how does this apply to our students?
As a young child, you were probably told to not touch the oven because it was hot. Your parents were teaching you a discipline. They understood that if you touched it you would be burned. In much the same way, we take our students to church, and by so doing we teach them a discipline. As adults, we know that regular communal worship has many benefits.
At some point, you may have touched that hot oven, and you learned the reasoning behind that discipline. In much the same way that your parents warned you that if you touched the hot oven, you would be burned, we teach our students that service to others is an outpouring of the worship experience. They personally experience this when they choose the path to service.
That the oven burns skin and worship leads to service are both disciplines that are best learned through instruction to the young, and by practical experience as the young mature. (I'm not suggesting that anyone teach their child about the hot oven by intentionally burning them here-but let's face it-most everyone eventually at least gets close to that hot oven and learns in a practical way)
I'm a bit concerned with your question about the church conditioning us to be servants, not self-serving. The church does have a responsibility to teach/show servanthood--but the choice to follow this path is up to the student/individual. We can plan trips, and take students, but that doesn't make it personal to the students. Until there is death to self, all worship and service continue to be self-serving. This is a difficult thing to watch---but an even more amazing thing to witness when the change occurs.
I'll keep pondering on this one....
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