Sin In The Body

The Church I grew in was very much unlike anyother church I have ever experienced.  For example:

At the beginning of the service, a young man and one of the teenage girls came up on the stage and explained how they now understood that decisions they had made - had brought sin into the body.  Yeah, it seems that the direct results of said activities was to be arriving in a few months.  Women were in tears while I quietly folded my bulletin and slid it into my pocket.  This Sunday was now going to be one of those "emotional" services I loath so much.  I caught Dutchman's eye and we slowly crept through the crowd and off to pizza.

But the thought stuck with me.  Could something I did, really have an impact on the Christian body either local or at large?  Certainly we can see evidence of this in the Old Testament and what may have been behind the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira.....  I have thought on this often through the years.

And so last week sin has struck yet again in my church's youth group.  Never seems to matter which church you go to, someone is going to derail and affect the body local - every year.  I know from decades of youth work that if you treat the youth as adults, with adult expectations, serious study - and some fun!, they pretty much seem to stay on track.  Luckily, it was not any of my kids whom failed - now that would have been a shocker!  But, I really feel for the Youth Pastor and the leaders of that group.  It is a hard one to meet with the kids and get them to understand and then their parents to get them to understand as well!

The youth rarely think 30 seconds into the future and repercussions are always a SURPRISE!  One of the reasons my classes are on a serious side and hence poorly attended.  Well, would you go where you have to read and think or where you can blow dope and er, etc?  No contest there.

So, next class is going to raise eyebrows, I named it "Really Bad Ideas".  I expect for the three adults to do some sharing and maybe even some of the youth.  I also know I have had many more of those "Really Bad Ideas" than others, so will have lots of material to draw from!

I will try to remember to update on how it all went.  I am expecting much laughter and some internal learning.  For now, we have a handful of kids and some parents with some trauma to deal with this Christmas Season.  You might want to remember them in your prayers for a few very rough weeks.