Thoughts From Chris

We are handing over the entire Sunday morning service to our teens the next two Sundays.  Every aspect of the service will be lead by a teenager. 

Often, people talk about training our teens and giving them opportunities to lead so that it will better prepare them for future leadership in the church.  I would beg to differ when it comes to this philosophy.

I believe teens are leaders in the church today.  The last time I checked following Jesus in the church was not an 18 and over kind of thing (although you would not know that in most of our churches today).

I love to be lead, inspired, and motivated by seeing teens follow Jesus in their context of life. Teenagers often have a sense authenticity that is not as easliy marked by the skepticism experienced in adults. 

They also usually are not as graceful as seasoned adults and can come across more raw.  I love that about them. 

What will our teens teach us these next two Sundays?  What are they teaching us as we engage with them in our day to day lives?  Instead of adults trying to teach and lead teens, let’s let these teens teach and lead us adults. 

To our teenagers: we have much to learn from your faith and example. 

This past Sunday we addressed the three most controversial spiritual gifts in the church at large today: divine healing, speaking in tongues, and prophecy.  It was not the easiest message to give, I was more nervous than usual, but it was a message that became very personal for me. 

 

I think there was a divine collision between very personal things God has been teaching me and the reality that I have come to the passage in the book of Corinthians that is the most controversial and potentially divisive passage in the letter:  three full chapters on the role of spiritual gifts in the church. 

 

That divine collision came out this past Sunday as I shared some personal ways God has been stretching me in the area of living by his Spirit.   It was a humbling experience as I shared, but it was extremely encouraging. 

 

I have also made it known publicly on a few occasions that God has given me a vision for my family in the arena of living by the Spirit that I have never had before (it is a major part of what God is doing in me personally).  I did share a personal story of something we did as a family this past Saturday.  Many people since then have asked me very practical questions about that experience, so I have decided to give the details here so that others who wondered can here some of the answers as well.

 

Our family has spent the last couple months seeking God in prayer like never before.  Two or three times a week we come together in our living room, talk about how God has been prompting us and teaching us by his Spirit, and then getting prostrate on the ground we spend time praising God and praying to him.   It has been catalytic in many ways. 

 

As we have read and talked about Scripture together, we have noticed that Jesus and his disciples often laid hands on people and prayed for them.  From those observations I decided that we would begin doing this as a family for other people, and last Saturday was our first tangible experience. 

 

I talked to our kids ahead of time (their ages are 5, 7, and 8), and coached them on how to pray for people when they give a specific prayer request.  On Saturday afternoon, we went to downtown Fort Wayne and hung out at the bus station on the corner of Clinton and Superior (by Frieman Square and Headwaters Park). 

 

We had a big cooler of bottled waters.  We handed out the waters to people for free and often we would ask people as we gave it to them if they would like prayer for anything (probably about half said yes and half said no).   For those who said, yes, we asked what we could pray for, and then we laid hands on them and prayed for them.  Sometimes I would ask one of my kids to pray and sometimes I would ask two or three of them to pray. 

 

After we hung out at the bus station for a while, we then went to Headwaters Park and gave away the water there and prayed for people.  Toward the end my kids were starting to feel a little more comfortable, and they were able to walk up to people on their own.  At one point my oldest went to a group of 8-10 adults who were having a picnic and ended up leading a prayer with all of them. 

 

Before we started we all spent time as family praying silently and asking God to give us impressions of situations or people we might encounter while we were downtown, and all three of my kids shared impressions they had.  We did not see any of them specifically come to pass, but we will continue to develop that potentially prophetic gift.

 

It was an amazing experience both for myself and our family.  We were all nervous, we had never done anything like this before, we did not really know what to expect, but it was incredible.   We plan on doing this kind of thing on a more regular basis as we try to step out in faith and learn what it means to be led by God’s Spirit and be a blessing to others.

 

The last practical thing I will say is that my kids really didn’t want to go at first, but we went anyway.  In fact, I had to break up an argument on the way there (after all they are kids).  As we were leaving at the end, however, all three of them were chiming in that they really liked helping people and they were glad we went.  I think the ice cream treat on the way home was the icing on the cake as well!

 

I would love to hear from you regarding this idea, something pertaining to that difficult sermon from Sunday, or an idea you and your family have experienced along these lines.  Most of you receive this letter via e-mail, but if you click on my blog itself at www.thoughtsfromchris.com  you can post a response or thought yourself that everyone else can read to any individual post I send.  Just click the word “comment” at the end of the post.  I would appreciate hearing from you.

 

Lastly, Scott Jester will bring the message this Sunday, and then the following two Sundays will be completely lead by our teens.  We will then move back into chapter 13 and look at what is commonly called the love chapter of the Bible.

 

May God teach us to live by his Spirit and express the gifts of his Spirit with all humility and love!