Every once in a while . . . you stumble on a thought provoker!
Our Sunday morrning adult Sunday School class was about to be cancelled. The teacher was stuck 3 1/2 hours away, needed to drive home an ailing van. As it happened, there were no mishaps, but he did not arrive back until after the class was over.
We could cancel, or I could stick in a DVD and see what discussion ensued. Early in the week the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada had sent a DVD to the church — an exploration of young adults and the church called Misplaced.
I asked a few young adults to show up in the class. The discussion was fruitful. At first, young and old showed appreciation for the comments made — most pointed out the difficulty young adults have associating with the institutional church. Then some questioned if the speakers were Christian. They were not involved in churches. Others pointed out that they were willing to be, but they were not connected with churches, or had not been welcomed into churches. Afterwards one person pointed out that this attitude can be the killer — when we don’t accept others on their journeys just because they don’t measure up.
I’m still processing some of the thoughts myself. Check out the streaming video — see what you think. Are we ready to rebuild the institutional church in order to welcome in some of these young adults? Are we already able to embrace them in our churches — and they just need to be invited in? Are we fooling ourselves as they leave our churches, thinking we aren’t the problem?
Interesting comments from watching the movie! Glad to see it being used for your group Ron! All the best.