The weekly reflection from The Link... thought for the weak Obstacles block potential, but to inspire newness we need to agree a biblical theology for what we do… Newtownards has several roads that lead nowhere... They promise much with kerb stones and road markings, even traffic islands but then theres a dead end halting any further progress. On Friday Ryan and I had an interesting conversation with a few members of one of the local churches. Were just looking at possibilities but our talks were nearly derailed by the question of how we communicate the gospel to young people. It was the familiar clash of culture and the pivotal point was the use of an epilogue. For those unfamiliar with evangelicalism, the epilogue has been the primary means of communicating the gospel in church based outreach type youth clubs. Its a 5-10 minute presentation on a theme, Bible verse or a direct challenge to follow Jesus. Many of you reading this will have cut your teeth as youth leaders through this medium, indeed many may well have found faith through it. Personally I resolved to find another way to speak of faith after I found a wee lad hiding inside a pool table, such was his distaste for the enforced message from the leaders. Since then Ive been more influenced by St Francis of Assisi who challenged followers of Christ to preach the gospel, and if necessary use words. This is much harder; it requires me to live like Christ and to let my life be a visible sign of salvation - flaws and all. Preparing a talk did not require the same discipline of me. So on my way home on Friday I started connecting the road going nowhere with the conversation about evangelism. The dead end in my photograph is the potential entrance to a housing development that hasnt happened, but someone anticipated the need when the junction and roundabout were redesigned. While the new homes were never realised, the promise of connection remains in the infrastructure, and a digger or crane would make short work of opening up the way should the conditions permit the original vision to be fulfilled. As Christians potential ought to outweigh obstacle but sometimes whats in front of us is difficult to overcome; whether its an assertion that an epilogue is a pre-requisite for youth work to be Christian, or for us in The Link to be afraid to deviate from what we do or take on new projects or programmes because weve always done our work in a particular way. What is clear as I write is a need on our part to agree a biblical theology for our approach, so that others might understand us and see the potential in our approach. It might also be useful way for us as a faith based community development organisation to unlock our story and Christian calling as The Link. Lynda Gould 24/1/14
Posted on: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 07:08:11 +0000