Youth pastor progress
So last night was my first night teaching as the summer youth pastor. Some background, I was surprised and doubtful when I was first asked to be the summer youth pastor, but then I realized I was probably a good choice: I'm good at teaching, I like it, I'm a relatively good role model, I like working with teenagers (generally), I don't have summer commitments (since I still don't have a full-time job), I need work, I already have the requisite clearances to work with minors, I know a good bit about my religion, I already work with the youth group as a chaperone on the annual Missions Road Trip (MRT). So I accepted the job.
My first official day on the job was Monday, but Wednesday night we just had the end-of-school bash, so I didn't actually have to teach, and on Sunday morning we just had small-group discussions (on questions I formulated) during our monthly hot breakfast. But last night was actual teaching.
The Sunday night meeting is for Divers, which is for teens to dig deeper into Christianity. This summer, by popular demand from teens (and my own interest in the subject) I'm doing a series on world religions. So last night I started off with Christianity, focusing on the three major branches of the religion: Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant.
It was a lot of information to get through (the powerpoint is here, if you want to see!), and I know the two girls who came felt a little overwhelmed with info at the end, but I also feel like they got the general idea, and I managed to get through the whole thing in like 40 minutes (I talk fast).
The best part of the evening, though, was after the powerpoint, when we just started chatting about Christianity. Girl 1, whose dad is ordained, was telling me about this book that her dad read by a scientist who is also a Christian, arguing that science and Christianity aren't actually in conflict. I agreed with that position, and we talked about how you can take the 7-day creation story metaphorically rather than literally, how people in the Old Testament had a different understanding of the form of the universe, etc. Girl 2 suggested that more people might be interested in Christianity if they knew that it didn't necessarily contradict science.
Then Girl 2 was talking about Purgatory (which we had discussed during the Catholic section of the powerpoint) and was saying, What if Purgatory's real? Which quickly turned into, How do we know that Christianity is right? What if we die and find out the Muslims were right instead, or something?
I am an "input" person: I gather information, store it, and LOVE to find opportunities to share it with others. So I was immediately like, "I actually have an answer for that: a historically-based argument that Christianity is true." I used an argument from No God but One by nabeel qureshi (super recommend it if you haven't read it). Qureshi says that Christianity stands or falls on three facts: Christ lived, he died, he was raised from the dead. Qureshi points out that basically all good historians agree that Christ lived and was killed, and most of them agree that his closest followers definitely believed he had risen from the dead. I supported this last one with C. S. Lewis's trilemma: someone who says that something impossible has happened, like somebody has risen from the dead, is either crazy/deluded, lying, or telling the truth. Five hundred people claimed to have seen Christ after his resurrection. They were NOT expecting him to rise from the dead, and only understood later than this had been subtly foretold. So it's unlikely to be a temporary delusion. The disciples were intelligent people who made great theological arguments in their writings, so it's highly unlikely they were crazy. And Qureshi points out that liars make poor martyrs: who in their right mind would claim someone had risen from the dead if they knew they were going to get killed in HORRIBLE WAYS for saying so (as, in fact, tradition holds they all were). So it is most likely that they were telling the truth, and therefore, Christianity stands up to historical scrutiny.
I asked Girl 2 if that helped, and she was like, "Yes. I feel SO much better."
We ended up on other discussions too, like whether it was the Holy Spirit or another person of the Trinity who spoke to people in the Bible, what Biblical angels actually look like (answer: pretty freaky) (also the girls suggested we should make Valentines with REAL cherubs on them, with millions of eyes and tongues of flame, and I was like, PLEASE DO THAT'S AWESOME), etc. Girl 2 also asked what God was doing before He made the world, and while we agreed that we couldn't understand the answer, since God is eternal, I also pointed out that He could have hung out with the angels, and before that, He could have hung out with Himself, since God is three persons. She seemed to like that answer.
As we were leaving, Girl 2 was like, "I'm so glad i can ask you these things! The last summer youth pastor would just answer with all these big words and fire and brimstone, and one before that never knew the answers!" And I was like, "ASK ME ALL THE QUESTIONS I LOVE TO ANSWER THEM!"
So now I am really excited about what this summer's going to bring and what I can teach these kids!
PS: Girl 2's mom posted on Facebook this morning: "Ashley, I heard EXTREMELY positive feedback from [girl 2] tonight on the new Sunday evening "Diver's" study 😚👍🤛🙏🏻😇 Keep up the awesome work!!!!!!! #yourock 😘 "
Eeeeee!
My first official day on the job was Monday, but Wednesday night we just had the end-of-school bash, so I didn't actually have to teach, and on Sunday morning we just had small-group discussions (on questions I formulated) during our monthly hot breakfast. But last night was actual teaching.
The Sunday night meeting is for Divers, which is for teens to dig deeper into Christianity. This summer, by popular demand from teens (and my own interest in the subject) I'm doing a series on world religions. So last night I started off with Christianity, focusing on the three major branches of the religion: Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant.
It was a lot of information to get through (the powerpoint is here, if you want to see!), and I know the two girls who came felt a little overwhelmed with info at the end, but I also feel like they got the general idea, and I managed to get through the whole thing in like 40 minutes (I talk fast).
The best part of the evening, though, was after the powerpoint, when we just started chatting about Christianity. Girl 1, whose dad is ordained, was telling me about this book that her dad read by a scientist who is also a Christian, arguing that science and Christianity aren't actually in conflict. I agreed with that position, and we talked about how you can take the 7-day creation story metaphorically rather than literally, how people in the Old Testament had a different understanding of the form of the universe, etc. Girl 2 suggested that more people might be interested in Christianity if they knew that it didn't necessarily contradict science.
Then Girl 2 was talking about Purgatory (which we had discussed during the Catholic section of the powerpoint) and was saying, What if Purgatory's real? Which quickly turned into, How do we know that Christianity is right? What if we die and find out the Muslims were right instead, or something?
I am an "input" person: I gather information, store it, and LOVE to find opportunities to share it with others. So I was immediately like, "I actually have an answer for that: a historically-based argument that Christianity is true." I used an argument from No God but One by nabeel qureshi (super recommend it if you haven't read it). Qureshi says that Christianity stands or falls on three facts: Christ lived, he died, he was raised from the dead. Qureshi points out that basically all good historians agree that Christ lived and was killed, and most of them agree that his closest followers definitely believed he had risen from the dead. I supported this last one with C. S. Lewis's trilemma: someone who says that something impossible has happened, like somebody has risen from the dead, is either crazy/deluded, lying, or telling the truth. Five hundred people claimed to have seen Christ after his resurrection. They were NOT expecting him to rise from the dead, and only understood later than this had been subtly foretold. So it's unlikely to be a temporary delusion. The disciples were intelligent people who made great theological arguments in their writings, so it's highly unlikely they were crazy. And Qureshi points out that liars make poor martyrs: who in their right mind would claim someone had risen from the dead if they knew they were going to get killed in HORRIBLE WAYS for saying so (as, in fact, tradition holds they all were). So it is most likely that they were telling the truth, and therefore, Christianity stands up to historical scrutiny.
I asked Girl 2 if that helped, and she was like, "Yes. I feel SO much better."
We ended up on other discussions too, like whether it was the Holy Spirit or another person of the Trinity who spoke to people in the Bible, what Biblical angels actually look like (answer: pretty freaky) (also the girls suggested we should make Valentines with REAL cherubs on them, with millions of eyes and tongues of flame, and I was like, PLEASE DO THAT'S AWESOME), etc. Girl 2 also asked what God was doing before He made the world, and while we agreed that we couldn't understand the answer, since God is eternal, I also pointed out that He could have hung out with the angels, and before that, He could have hung out with Himself, since God is three persons. She seemed to like that answer.
As we were leaving, Girl 2 was like, "I'm so glad i can ask you these things! The last summer youth pastor would just answer with all these big words and fire and brimstone, and one before that never knew the answers!" And I was like, "ASK ME ALL THE QUESTIONS I LOVE TO ANSWER THEM!"
So now I am really excited about what this summer's going to bring and what I can teach these kids!
PS: Girl 2's mom posted on Facebook this morning: "Ashley, I heard EXTREMELY positive feedback from [girl 2] tonight on the new Sunday evening "Diver's" study 😚👍🤛🙏🏻😇 Keep up the awesome work!!!!!!! #yourock 😘 "
Eeeeee!