This Week's Lesson for the Youth

Photo Credit

We are helping with the youth at church by being "Life Guards" for those in 7th and 8th grade. The study we have just begun focuses on real life stories of people who are living out their faith in radical ways. The lessons start with a video showing a group of teens traveling around the country interviewing these  Christians and allowing them to observe their ministries, then we break into discussion groups.


This week, the group in the video traveled to Philadelphia and met Shane Claiborne. He had some very thought provoking things to say. I thought I would just throw a few of them out there to see what you think:


"We are going to stop complaining about the church that we've experienced and try to become the church that we dream of." 


"When people ask me, 'Why does God allow so much suffering, homelessness, sickness, etc., ' I tell them that I imagine the Lord turning that question around to me saying, "Why do you allow so much suffering, homelessness, sickness, etc.?" (If we are the hands and feet of Christ on earth, is it not our job to relieve much of the suffering we see?)


Claiborne spent a period of time in Calcutta with Mother Theresa and she told him, "There are Calcutta's everywhere, if you have the eyes to see."


I'm still chewing on these. Good food for thought.