ALiVE 2017

“ordinary” curriculum: overview & background

overview & scriptural references:

To understand the actual title of this year’s curriculum, you need to appreciate the differences between a Bible that is translated, and one that is interpreted. Translations of the Bible include the “King James” version, “New Revised Standard” Version or NRSV, the version commonly used by the ELCA, and the “Contemporary English” Version, the version we commonly use at our youth events.

Translations strive to take the original texts, in their original languages, and translate them into words that closely reflect the meaning of the original authors. Since the Bible is the inspired Word of God, many theologians believe that it is important to preserve these words, especially since we all know that words have weight and power and can be helpful or hurtful, depending upon how they are used and in what context.

An interpretation of the Bible is just that, an author’s interpretation of what they believe the original author intended. You won’t often hear an “interpretation” of scriptural text used in worship, again because of the value placed on the original words. However, in American culture, as we work with less and less people who are familiar with the stories of the Bible, hearing them interpreted in a way that they can relate to, is often a helpful first step in getting them comfortable with scripture.

I share this with you because our theme “word” comes from an interpretation of scripture. The Biblical interpretation known as The Message, has become one of the more respected interpretations of the Bible in the last century. Authored by Eugene Peterson, a theologian himself, who once wrote:

“I tell stories to create readiness, to nudge people

toward receptive insight”

Peterson’s “Message” is a narrative telling of scripture in some places referred to as a paraphrase of the Bible. But it does seem to invite or nudge people into a more receptive reading of the text.

From the Book of Romans, Paul’s letter to the emerging church in Rome, in the years following Jesus’ death & Resurrection, in Romans 12, verses 1 & 2, Peterson writes…

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Romans 12: 1-2, The Message

Peterson interprets Paul’s words from this translation of the text…

Dear friends, God is good. So I beg you to offer your bodies to him as a living sacrifice, pure and pleasing. That’s the most sensible way to serve God.2Don’t be like the people of this world, but let God change the way you think. Then you will know how to do everything that is good and pleasing to him.

Romans 12: 1-2, CEV

In Peterson’s understanding, taking your “everyday, ordinary life,…and plac(ing) it before God,” seems the best way to describe “offering ourselves as a living sacrifice,” to use Paul’s words. Both Peterson and Paul go on to talk about the ways we will be changed when we live this way, instead of giving in to the culture that tempts us, and that is all around us. In one other translation of this passage, it is described as being “transformed” by God.

This idea of living our “everyday, ordinary lives” in a way that reflects Christ’s love to the world, is what formed the foundation for this curriculum. And whether you read Paul’s words in translation, or Peterson’s interpretation, it is obvious the authors agree that by giving ourselves over to a life of discipleship, we are transformed by God and the way we think and act will change.

There are a number of other scriptures that appear within this curriculum to help reinforce our theme, and they are collected into a handout we call the “Scripture Bank.” There are copies for each of you that are attached to this curriculum, and that will be available in your small group boxes that you will receive when you arrive at ALiVE.

However, the Gospel text(s) that always seems to lend itself to this theme for me, can be found in both Matthew and Luke’s Gospels. For the purposes of this event, I have chosen Matthew’s text:

“Teacher, what is the most important commandment in the Law?”

Jesus answered:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind.This is the first and most important commandment.The second most important commandment is like this one. And it is, “Love others as much as you love yourself.”All the Law of Moses and the Books of the Prophetsare based on these two commandments.

Matthew 22:36-40, CEV

To give over our “everyday, ordinary lives” to God, in my humble estimation starts with loving God “with all your heart, soul, and mind,” as Matthew suggests. But it continues with a desire to “love others as much as you love yourself,” because that is the obvious action that grows out of loving God. It is the way we “live” that reflects who we are as disciples of Jesus that really matters. To take a step beyond Sunday worship into Monday living, includes a willingness to live in a way that reflects Christ’s loving sacrifice towards others.

background and insight into the theme and curriculum:

Our curriculum team approached this idea of “ordinary” from two angles:

  1. Despite believing we are “ordinary,” or sometimes even inadequate, God views us as extra-ordinary, and uses us and our gifts to help spread the Gospel message of love and forgiveness to the world.
  2. That our relationship with God should extend beyond Sunday morning, and be lived out through our everyday, ordinary lives.

The curriculum sessions reflect these two ideas. The first half of the weekend, we will explore participants own view of themselves and their gifts, held up alongside God’s extraordinary view of us as God’s Creation. The second half of the weekend, we will talk about how we can carry our faith out into the world, and reflect Christ’s love to all.

Here’s a quick overview of the small group sessions:

Session #1:

A look at ourselves, using a simple gifts inventory, and thinking about our gifts as if they were the powers of a superhero. How would we use them in service to God and others?

Session #2:

Overcoming any inadequacies, by seeing ourselves the way God sees us. We will use examples of the way God uses us even with all our cracks and brokenness.

Session #3:

What are the temptations of our world or of our culture that tempt you to leave God behind on Monday-Saturday, only to go back and visit God and your faith on Sundays? How do you use your gifts to make your “ordinary” life reflect God’s love?

Session #4:

A sending, with a reminder that Christ goes with you into the everyday and the ordinary, helping you to live a life that is extraordinary to God.

One of the tactile ways we will express this theme is through the use of a candle in a broken container, that will be lit and used in all of your sessions. The broken container signifies the brokenness of our lives. The fact that we are ordinary, and not perfect, but that God uses us anyway. Participants will see that the light of Christ that is within us, shines through even the brokenness, the cracks, and the imperfections of the container, and likewise the cracks and imperfections of our lives.

Like many of our curriculums, we try to personalize this theme in an effort to help participants to own it for themselves, and then to think about the ways that it translates into their own lives. If we can help them begin to believe that God is actually using them and their gifts in God’s ongoing work in the world, some participants will be moved to actually make the kinds of changes in their lives that are transformative personally, and in the communities of which they are a part.

As has been our tradition with our curriculums, there will be a few instances where we will reference large group presentations within small group. In this case we will use a combination of videos, and live stories to share the ways that God is using the ordinary gifts of people to do extraordinary things.

One of the videos we are using is Rob Bell’s “Rhythm.” In Rhythm, Bell reminds us that God is not a God at a distance, but one who encounters us daily, in tune and in step with our lives. Through Jesus, God is woven into our lives like music that has been there eternally, a song playing in tune with ours.

At some large group sessions you will hear from people like Chuck Bissell, a youth worker who recently left his full-time career to work full-time for a church as a youth director. You’ll also hear from a young adult named Adrienne, who is taking a semester off from school to live in Africa, to serve with God’s people in a unique way. We will reference these stories and videos at times in the curriculum, but you might opt to take these conversations deeper, depending upon the kind of group you have. Some will like talking about these things, while some may need more active teaching/interaction. All of these things are simply tools to help you as you meet with the participants to think through the theme.

In addition, we will have an opportunity to do some group building on Friday evening. In recent years, we have gone away from traditional small group meetings on Friday evening,and we will not have any curriculum that you need to plan for Friday. However, we have planned an activity for Friday that will require you to accompany your small group, along with one other small group, for a group building activity that the staff will manage.

While we have not named the activity as of this writing, it is an activity that requires two small groups to travel together from one “station” to another, and to work together at each station to complete a task. Some stations are thoughtful, while some are active. It challenges the groups to work together and to get to know the gifts of the people in their groups. At each station, the two small groups will be introduced to an ALiVE staff member, who will explain to them what they must do. The activity is timed, so that whether or not they complete it will not matter, as they will be asked to move along to the next station at the end of the time frame. All stations are in Lower Camp, to allow the activity to keep moving. We are asking you to travel with your group, so that you and one other small group leader will be working together with your combined groups, and your primary responsibility will be to help keep order, and keep the group on track from one station to the next. We hope that this Friday evening group-builder will help your group be more familiar with each other, and help break the ice before you meet the next morning for your first session.

A majority of the curriculum teaching happens on Saturday, during the three small group sessions planned for that day. Sunday morning’s session will primarily be given over to evaluation and a sending of sorts.

A couple final thoughts about the importance of this theme in today’s culture.

  1. What we are suggesting is countercultural. We live in a culture that challenges us to put ourselves and our own needs and beliefs first, and not to live for God. Most people either see Christians as selfish and judgmental, or feeble and phony. Living confidently but gracefully, is a different kind of expression of Christianity than most in our culture are accustomed to seeing.
  2. Living Monday-Saturday the same way we talk about on Sunday at church or at youth group is hard. It’s not easy, but Jesus is with us in that process. We believe that God gifts us with the Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and when we surround ourselves with brothers and sisters in Christ who live similarly, we also can grow in confidence from our relationship with them. The world will try to beat us. Our friends in Christ, and our connection to God, will help keep us strong.
  3. Living a life worthy of Christ means acting, speaking, and living the same when people aren’t watching as when they are.
  4. Showing love to others, in the manner of Jesus, means loving others even when we disagree. In today’s culture we take disagreements to extremes. Hatred grows out of an unwillingness to love and care for one another even when we don’t agree. We can be respectful and caring of a friend or even a stranger, whether we agree with them or not. Loving one another through our disagreements is one way we can exhibit God’s love, starting right away.

As always, a number of our Youth Ministry Team, that help envision these themes and events will be available throughout the weekend to assist you. We will provide you with a brief overview on Friday evening, and will be happy to talk with you between now and the event, plus throughout the event, about questions or concerns you may have about any of the curriculum.

Each of you represent this theme! By serving, you are indeed using your everyday, ordinary lives in service to God and others. Plus, you are using the gifts God has given you, that you may consider ordinary, to do God’s extraordinary work in the world. In this case, with the young people who have gathered this weekend. Thanks be to God for that…and for you!

ALiVE 2017

“ordinary” curriculum: session 1 & 2

Carry-Out:

That no matter how ordinary we feel our lives might be, God is using us and the gifts God’s given us, to do extraordinary things

Scripture:

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Roman 12: 1-2, The Message

Background:

We want to take youth on a journey of discovering their gifts and how they can use them to serve God and others, in spite of any insecurities. What they may view as ordinary, God may view as extraordinary. Session 1 & 2 were written together, and really are designed for you as the Small Group Leader, to choose how much to do before the morning break, based on the pulse of your group. Do you need an extra group-builder, a round of Comfy Chair, or is the discussion on the Six-Word Story going longer than expected? Do you need more time to unpack scripture? Are their questions about the gifts survey that you might want to take a little longer to answer, etc.

Some resources we have given you may work better than others, so go with the flow of your group. Again, the idea is to help them begin to see themselves as extraordinary, as a result of their gifts and the gift of the Holy Spirit that dwells within them. But it is also to help them realize that their life of faith is not something reserved for Sundays. Instead, when they start celebrating their gifts, they reflect Jesus to the world in some of their most “ordinary” interactions.

Supplies:

+ Candle & bag + grill lighter

+ Story in Six Words Handouts

+ Gifts Analysis

+ Superhero Handout

+ Pens, markers, newsprint

Session:

+ Gather youth and let them know you will be starting all small groups this weekend by lighting a candle and having a brief prayer.

(IMPORTANT: Each group has a small candle in a glass container, a brown bag that has been cut and shredded, and a grill lighter. You will want to be VERY cautious when lighting the candle which should be placed inside the bag while lit. The candle and bag should sit somewhere where it cannot be kicked or bumped during the session. Do NOT mention the brokenness, cracks, or light that shines through the holes in your bag. We want to see if over the course of this session or at the beginning of the next, if any participants take notice of this dynamic)