After spending the first portion of the evening tonight helping run a carnival-type setup for the Kid’s Club portion of our church’s Wednesday Night Live program, I corralled our teens into the youth room for the remaining portion of our WNL program. For the first few minutes I fought the tide of continual chatter throughout the announcements, but after that and a couple of games, we moved onto the main portion of the evening. Our discussion and teaching.
Tonight we looked over 1 Kings 19.9-18. We used this as a springboard into discussion on our need to slow down, rest, and really listen for God. He didn’t speak to Elijah through the storm. He didn’t speak to Elijah through the wind. He didn’t speak to Elijah through the fire. God spoke to Elijah in the whisper. And I don’t know about you, but I never really hear God during my busy times. He speaks to me in times of rest, pause and reflection. Our teens are so busy between school, sports, band, extracurriculars, boyfriends or girlfriends, video games, Internet, texting, and whatnot that fills their days. They leave so little time to actually read Scripture, much less reflect on it, meditate on it and truly listen for God’s voice. Truly it is a lesson that we all need to remember.
All in all it was a good evening. I neglected to grab the Nooma video I wanted to use, but had found a video put together by Corey yesterday that had an incredibly similar message to it that worked beautifully. So thanks Corey!
Filed under: Church Life, H20, Ministry, Wednesday Night Live, Youth Ministry | Tagged: pause, reflection, Rest, Silence, youth group
Thisd is a rip of a commerically available video.
Hey god read, I taught on the same thing a few moths ago and I keep coming back to it. Teens need to realize that in the week they spend near 80 hours in front of some type of screen, some type of media. Being still and listening to God is huge! They like us, get caught up in the “busy” of life and never take the time to slow down and just be.
zach – i did not know that it was available commercially. thanks for correcting me. surf on over to corey’s blog if you so desire, for it was him that put it together.
Dan – Amen. I know it is a lesson that I myself need to continue coming back to.
I think when you come back to it you stress importance. I picked up a service idea from the youth guy at the church my wife and I volunteered at in Florida. He called it eXalt and did it about every 6 weeks or so. I have taken the idea with me and have been working on incorporating it into what we do here. It’s simply a service of reflection and prayer. No games, no buzz, just simple worship and reflection. I have used the projector and music at times and others not. I try to light the room only by candle light. I ask the students to sit in silence, take off their shoes at the door, leave their cell phones, sometimes we share scripture, a song, a prayer. The structure changes, but the atmosphere stays the same. I never tell them when I am going to do it either.