Contemplative Youth Ministry
A few months ago, my pastor and I attended a seminar at the Presbyterian Seminary called Contemplative Youth Ministry, based on the book by Mark Yaconelli. Mark Yaconelli was the one who actually taught the seminar, and it was awesome! His dad, Mike Yaconelli, was basically the founder of youth ministry in the U.S. It was a great seminar, and part of the cost of the seminar was getting his book. So, of course, I got him to autograph it for me, and I put it in the line of books I needed to read. Well, I finally started it this week. I just finished the third chapter, and WOW! To be honest, I think it's so far the best youth ministry book I've ever read! It pulls me in and gives me a whole new outlook on how to lead teenagers into deeper relationships with Jesus. It shows how Jesus is so much more than reading the Bible, studying doctrine, and getting rid of bad habits. It goes to actually experiencing God. It's so great, and it's even challenging me to try to experience God more instead of just studying Him. Often, I feel like I focus so much on my mind (which isn't bad), but not so much my heart (which is bad). Jesus said the greatest command is to love God with ALL your HEART, and with ALL your SOUL, and with ALL your MIND and with ALL your STRENGTH. Wow! It looks like God wants ALL of EVERY aspect of us.
Here's the hard part... Having just written a book on an attempt to prove God, of course, I had to write about other religions. I got to Buddhism. It involves a lot of meditation (like yoga), and it's all about keeping your mind as at-ease as possible so that you can reach the state of nirvana instead of being reincarnated. Sometimes, when I want to do these things to contemplate Jesus, I feel like I'm using Buddhist rituals to connect to a Christian God. I feel bad/guilty about it, so I just don't do it. As a result, I feel like I've gone into "typical Christian mode" where I read a chapter of the Bible every day (if that), I say my prayers before I go to bed, and I try to live a good life. What a TERRIBLE Christian life! I HATE it! I often preach that Christianity isn't a religion, but a relationship. But, when I want to talk to my friends, I don't meditate to talk to them. I just simply talk. 1 Corinthians 10 talks about how everything is permissible as long as it centers on the one true God. It gives the example that if you buy meat sacrificed to an idol, it's okay to eat, as long as it doesn't cause someone to stumble in their faith. So, I see that meditations, even practicing yoga, if it centers your mind on Christ, it's okay to do Biblically. (In fact, it's good if it leads you to Christ.) But, I feel like I'm that person who stumbles. I feel like if I were to do an eastern pagan ritual to focus on the one true God, I'd be worshiping a false god. I dunno. I guess this is a personal issue I need to work out myself. The Bible permits it, so I should feel free to do it. Maybe it's something I just need to take a leap of faith with and just do it.
Yeah, it's somewhat of a deep entry for not having written in here in a while. I tried to write in my website blog, but after changing servers, my website needs to be reset, so I'm going to do that tomorrow I hope. Now, on to do youth ministry! Peace, love, rock n roll!