**Warning!! Politically-INcorrect Youth Group
March 15, 2004
I picked the lesson topic for tonight at 6.30pm (for a youth group that starts at 7pm). Talking about the Bible, why it’s important, what it is, does it matter how we view it (literal, inerrant, metaphors…), etc. The discussion was going pretty lame until I mentioned something about the two creation narratives and someone asked, “Well, if God created everything, then who created God?” Good question…so that just opened the floodgates of questions for kids who typically do not give a rip about anything I’m talking about.
Who created God?
What was before God?
How could there be “nothing” - was God just floating around in space?
How could there not be darkness before God created?
What’s nothing?
How can we believe all of this?
Do you really think that a dude got swallowed up by a whale? Well, big fish? Whatever.
What about Noah?
How can we believe this?
I want to know the answers!
The conversation was actually really good. But here is where Wendell is politically-INcorrect. Someone was trying to explain God and how God is not really like a person, and a girl asked, “So, he was just like a floating brain up there?” And the reply was, “Well, God doesn’t have a brain.”
Then my favorite freshman guy said, “GREAT! SO WE’RE FOLLOWING A RETARD!”
Needless to say, the conversation was great, they were asking good questions and were actually engaged. We didn’t leave having many, if any, questions answered. They didn’t leave necessarily more sure if there was a God or not. But they left having wrestled with God (whether they knew it or not), and that is pretty good for a night of youth group…
Tags: Funny-Youth-Ministry-Stories, Humor, Stories, Youth Ministry
Posted in 
Adam Walker Cleaveland: 
March 16th, 2004 at 10:25 am
It’s funny…After being in seminary for almost two years I still haven’t answered most of those questions. Better yet, more have been added to the list!
March 16th, 2004 at 11:50 am
Lame! I thought I was paying good money for all the answers!!!
March 16th, 2004 at 12:23 pm
Sounds like a great youth group! And of course you’ll probably ALSO get in trouble with the parents who wanted you to have all the answers, not to generate more questions :)
March 18th, 2004 at 11:18 pm
My biggest questions have always been as follows:
1. Why do men have nipples? If you think about the actual functioning purpose of nipples, it’s strange that men would have them.
2. the classic- Did Adam and Eve have belly buttons? They had no umbilical cord, you know.
March 19th, 2004 at 10:01 am
These are the “hard” questions that the ec is asking?? GOD help us.
March 19th, 2004 at 1:35 pm
Just to clarify my comment above. I am in no way
making light of the questions the youth group was asking,as a matter of fact they are quite valid. It’s the questions posed by those who call themselves “emergent” that I find to be beyond comprehension, even when done toungue in cheek. By the way ,there are answers to the youth groups questions, to be found in the Word. The existence of a question implies the existence of an answer.There are no answerless questions, otherwise the Father wasted HIS time in sending HIS Son.Simply responding “I don’t know” to every question asked is neither honest or helpful.
March 19th, 2004 at 2:27 pm
chris, i’m going to have to disagree. “the existence of a question implies the existence of an answer?” i’d like you to tell me if adam and eve had belly buttons or not, the answer must exist then, right?
but seriously. okay, sure, there may be an answer, but i don’t think we’re going to know the answer. since you’re a big fan of scripture, what about deut 29.29: “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever.”
this verse tells me that there are going to be secret things, things that i may even have questions about, that i’m not going to find the answer for, not through prayer, not in the word, nowhere. because they are some of the “secret things” - that do not belong to me, but that belong to the lord.
i want people asking questions - even ones that seem to be beyond comprehension. i want people to leave church asking more questions. i want people to walk out of church this sunday after my sermon with less answers and more questions - pondering them and god throughout their week.
March 19th, 2004 at 6:16 pm
Funny that I was quoting Deut 29:29 to some folks at church this past week. I agree that there are are some things that are the LORD’s secrets,at least for now. Psalm 25 says:
Psalm 25:14-15 :: English Standard Version (ESV)
14The “friendship[1]” of the LORD is for those who fear him,
and he makes known to them his covenant.
15My eyes are ever toward the LORD,
for he will pluck my feet out of the net.
Footnotes
1. Or The secret counsel
This verse, and others, like 1 Cor 13:7-13 and 1 John 3:2 tell me that all will be made known in the end. I never said that we would know everything here in this current existence,but based on HIS promises HE will reveal all to us in eternity, and who could claim to know how that will be. I also find nothing wrong in the asking of questions, but we do sometimes seem to confuse the issues more often than not.
Based on the above scriptures, including Deut 29,
we should respond with the revelation we currently
posess, and as for the questions we can’t answer ourselves, we point them to the ones who know.(i.e. those whose maturity and knowledge exceed our own) My main objection is this penchant for answering questions with more questions, or with replies of ignorance. (1 Peter 3:15)
We as the Body of Christ should stand out above all other “isms” and “anities”, and all other philosophies and religions, as having an answer, for we serve a GOD who is the “answer”! I don’t believe that we can get away with saying that it’s all just a mystery. ( a hallmark of apophatic theology)We now know the unknowable GOD who revealed Himself in the flesh not as perfectly human ,but as a human who is perfect. Mystery implies revelation. John 14:5-11 and 1 John4:1-3.
March 19th, 2004 at 6:56 pm
cleave, be careful not to impose your form of faith practice on everyone else. that is to say, not everyone wants to experience their faith through they eyes of an intellectual (a questioner, an academic, etc.). some are satisfied with the cathartic experience of confessing their sins to their accountability partner. others still get that ‘i love Jesus so much’ feeling after they sing [insert the most recent, over-used/abused 'worship' song here] for the billionth time. others find great significance in blogging through faith’s tough issues, others prayers, others…you name the spiritual discipline.
there, i said it, now i’m going to take it all back. the most significant times of spritual growth for me have been listening to wonderful professors lecture and discuss the ’secret’ things, the mysteries, ahh the belly button. i love to ask the questions, i love to struggle with the answer (or more oft than not, the lack of answers), i love to challenge others not to accept the rote “Jesus, God, the Bible, 12″ Sunday school answers that make us feel better because we got 100% on the final exam. i feel most worshipful when i am learning and struggling to understand God.
i’ve long since given up trying to find any spiritual satisfaction in group prayer times. these times just piss me off, and what’s more 40 minutes is spent in gossip, and 10 minutes is spent in actual prayer…why did i say this…oh, ya…some people get off on these prayer times, i loathe them. the long and short of it, i can’t expect them to enjoy studies; just as they can’t expect me to like group prayer. i have to believe that God accepts both as genuine expressions of worship (provided, of course, that whole broken and contrite heart thing is in play). just because i find no meaning in their faith expression, doesn’t mean that God doesn’t find meaning in it.
March 19th, 2004 at 8:02 pm
okay gus..time to get your own blog. i want to hear more of what goes on in your head…
you’re getting very tired now…you’re relaxing…typepad…you’re getting very tired…30 day free trial period…you’re asleep…typepad…
March 19th, 2004 at 9:23 pm
Chris, I’d be okay if all I had was apophatic theology - any of you who are Orthodox could speak on the importance of this.
I’d rather error on the side of mystery, than on excluding others because of “Truths” I was solid on. There are many things I’d rather error on the side of: mystery, love, humility…
March 30th, 2004 at 1:40 am
I’m late I guess, but what a wonderful discussion. Chris I understand your context but Cleave I am in full agreement with your last comment. I feel we must error on the side of humility, love, and mystery (intriguing, don’t really dwell on His mystery enough). Well, I know that I long to error on the side that will allow His love to permeate my being where said individual or individuals see Him through my increasingly humility void state.
And Adam, I have found that to be key for the last X amount of years. Get them to ask the questions, understanding that delving into Christ and not understanding everything is OK. It is all apart of the journey. Questions rule. Kierkegaard rejoices with you when in “Fear and Trembling,” he states that those who doubt seek no less the daily bread or the sustenance of the Spirit, but it is through a humble spirit that the doubt is removed. This process is difficult but worth it to see Christ work in our lives.