Mystery into Magic

I'm in one of my reflective moods and so this blog will be reflecting that reflectiveness.... sort of like mirrors reflecting mirrors that are reflecting mirrors....

I just finished a 4 week study on evangelism for my local church. It was a dress rehearsal in many ways for the next performance this Thursday evening. We'll be launching YLC STL's 5 week volunteer training at our apartment this week and I'll be spending much of this week before then tweaking that training program. The awesome thing about dress rehearsals is that you see the flaws in the show before everyone takes their seats. So it is with this training program.... little tweaks; unexpected side-effects, awesome repercussions to using one illustration over another... all add up to a better constructed training unit in the future.
I was asked yesterday if I had a "take-away" handout that would cover the material of the 4 weeks so people could reflect privately on what we'd covered. The Cliff notes version as it were.
I'm sitting here wondering how to condense it into cliff notes and then realizing that I didn't really say anything new during the whole time I talked. I'm just rehashing a very well known set of ideas and propositional truths into something palatable for a 21st century palate. So that makes the cliff notes easier than I thought.... 5 steps to awesome self realization.

1. Be a decent human being - Respectful and Authentic
2. Know where the source of your empowerment is located.
3. Know where you stand and who/what is central in your life. What's the Divine in your life?
4. Know where and to whom/what your passion is directed towards.
5. Know what makes you uniquely you, what potential you have in that uniqueness and why that matters.

Yet again someone has managed to condense mystery into magic! 5 magic ways to be sure you are the best you!

"Hoc est corpus" the Latin phrase used by priests in Church became Hocus-pocus the favorite magic incantation of the 17th century english peasant.

That is my main concern with Christian Cliff Notes and informational distribution of ideas. They too easily become incantations. The recipients aren't fully aware of their meaning but understand that the words have power. So they take the words without the full meaning and incant them at others or themselves to magically change circumstances or people.

The word "Jesus Saves" is just such an incantation.... If said forcefully and loudly and with enough repetition it will magically change my reality to one that may seem more comfortable. It is considered so powerful even the written form of the incantation is seemingly all-powerful. I've lost count of "Jesus" bumper stickers in St. Louis. The suburban 21st century magician who is doing 85 in a 55 while crossing four lanes all in under 3 seconds while magically dispelling, or, converting "evil" in all its forms. Magical! Or, perhaps just a mystery?

So I'm sitting here this morning trying to figure out how to create a useful "take-away" that is at least somewhat proof against becoming the next magical incantation to destroy evil in St. Louis.

The irony is that the word Hocus-pocus is often used today to refer to something that is fake or unreal. When we take mysteries like the Transubstantiation and make them magic we too often merely create anoher word for fake.

So am I creating the next magical incantation for people to banter around or is it possible to enter a conversation where you leave with questions to chew on, rather than power words to spit out at the world?

Have an awesome week......

Team work

This is Ed Bowen, he is our new Volunteer Team Leader. At 39 he is ensuring that I'm not the only old person on the team. Along with the impressive fact that he has managed to live for 39 years he also brings some remarkable skills and experience to the team. Ed has a Masters in Apologetics. Below is the definition Google supplies.

apologeticsplural of a·pol·o·get·ics

Noun:

Reasoned arguments or writings in justification of something, typically a theory or religious doctrine. 

Having someone trained in reasoned arguments or writings in justification of Christianity is obviously a handy person to have around. Add to his academic inventory a passion that may exceed my own, a long history of leadership from his time served in the US Army as a staff Sergent, to his leadership in the local church and you have as well rounded a team player as anyone could wish for. We've been working together now for a few weeks and while it is awesome having a guy like me in leadership with me I know having two guys as passionate as us may mean we need some leavening of solid, sensible team-mates, but right now I'm just enjoying having a guy who is delighted to be as excited about life as I am.

 

Next Thursday Ed and I will launch "Core" the weekly YLC event that is for Christian students and those interested in being volunteers with YLC STL. It is the first of five "C's" that make up YLC STL's ministry. We have Core; Crust, Club, Camp and Church. Core is as I just said a Christian focused discussion group/Bible study. Crust is the time we devote to building authentic relationships with students. Club will be our weekly Spiritual discussion group that is for those students outside the Christian world-view or those who would say they have issues with that belief system.  Camp will be when we and our student friends go out for a week on a service project to help create something for those less blessed with material wealth. I'm hoping to go into rural Missouri and build playgrounds for economically depressed communities. It is something we did in Europe with great success. Taking western European students to eastern European countries to build playgrounds for kids who have almost nothing. Church is the last and also the first in many ways. The unending circle of YLC STL. Our members come out of the Church with a hope of being part of the larger world and creating safe places to have conversations about life, spirituality and humanity. As we actually believe in our chosen world-view we hope our friends would reach a point in their life where they too see it as the most compelling of the world-views on offer. If that happens we get to introduce them to the Church. That group of eclectic people who have usually only one thing in common. Jesus Christ!

 

So we're starting the cycle by taking Christians out of their safe, small world of "Church" and helping them join the rest of humanity in a discussion about how we should live together with respect, open-mindedness and tolerance.

I had a couple of awesome young men at my place for breakfast yesterday and the conversation turned to how we can believe we have found the "Truth" yet be authentically open minded about other world-views. I threw my usual mental hand grenade into the conversation by stating that I am completely open to one day hearing someone present a different world-view that is more compelling and logical than Christianity. Until then I'll hold fast to the belief that I actually have a compelling belief system that is both personally compelling and well thought out while remaining open to the fact that I might be completely wrong. Anything less than that would mean I would be asking everyone else in my life to be open to change their mind and embrace my world-view without having the courage to have the same open mindedness. I think that may well be one of the best parts of my job. I get to be exposed to a multitude of world-views and because of my proximity to university students I also get to hear some of the most erudite and compelling advocates of other view-points state their case. If there is a better way out there I'm in the perfect place to discover it. And if there isn't then I'm in the perfect place to reinforce the belief system I hold to now. I love my job!

 

Hope life is bringing interesting people into your sphere and changing how you see the world.