Misconceptions

Last Friday night was interesting for me as a youth leader. For three weeks my team had planned to have a Valentine's Party with our youth group, we put up sign up sheets, made announcements, and repeatedly told the kids about it. The response was good, but the one question I kept getting asked was "if our Christian school doesn't approve of relationships, why are we having a Valentine's Party?"

During the party, we wanted to play musical chairs (I don't get it but the kids love it, so we play it) and I needed to come up with some music on the fly. The most appropriate song I had on my phone was Faithfully by Journey. I know, it's still not appropriate, but it was the most appropriate. It's a classic. Anyway, at a certain point I overheard two of our girls talking:

"Ugh, what is this music?"

"I dunno, probably some Christian song."

Laughter between the two of them. 

In my time working with youth I have heard this stuff over and over. Christianity to them (especially the ones who are not raised in it) is boring. It's wishy washy music with repetitive choruses; it's some person telling you the stuff you like to do is bad; good Lord, to get to know God you have to be quiet and read? I totally understand the unappealing aspects of it and I'm with the kids on this. I too, have said these things growing up, and I was raised as a Christian.

Christianity in these forms IS boring. I'm bored with it. I think God is bored with it. Where is the excitement? Where is the motivation to move forward in Christ? Jesus did miracles, healed people, and told super cool stories all for the purpose of blowing up people's misconceptions about religion. He related to people on their level. He worked with their likes and dislikes but injected those things with truth. What are we doing? We can't bash kids over the head with rules, we give them a list of don'ts, and we tell them the things they want to do are sinnnnnnnnnful.

We need to find a way to blow up their misconceptions like Christ did.

Two weeks ago I had the privilege of doing a Friday morning chapel service with the entire high school. I haven't spoken in front of all of them at one time before. I was pretty nervous to be honest; I don't get stage fright but I do worry about getting up and sounding like that person that says everything they like to do is bad or wrong.

I chose an easy topic- love. When I got up to speak and said that, I could feel the entire room lurch as all 85 pairs of eyes collectively rolled. They expected me to tell them that their secret relationships, that they think all of us teachers disapprove of, are wrong. Luckily I only spoke about God's love, not relationships... it was easier on all of us. One thing I did mention, though, was music. I told them to ask the person next to them what their favorite song was. They all talked, I don't know what they said, they refused to tell me.

"John, what's your favorite song?"

"I dunno."

"Steve, what did John say his favorite song was?

"Ummmmm."

"Oh, are you scared to say it because it's not Christian?"

"Kinda..."

What the heck? Can a Christian have a favorite song that is not worship music? I do. I listen to music all the time and 90% of it is not Christian. Does that mean that I have less of a relationship with God? No, I just worship God in other ways. I like to walk and pray. These are the times when I find myself worshiping God the most. If I forced myself to try to fit into a mould of a good Christian and only listened to Christian music, would I be better off? I don't know, I don't think I would be. How would I relate to the sullen teenage girl in my class who went ballistic when she found out that I like Twenty One Pilots? There would be no connection there. 

I'm by no means saying that Christians should bend the truth in order to reach people. God forbid! I am saying, though, that we need to stand up for truth and stand against things that are wrong according the the truth while infusing this ideology into our young people in a way that encourages them to live a practical, real Christian life, not in a way that drives them from having one.

Relationships are not wrong. Relationships based outside of truth are wrong. Music is not bad. Music that distorts my view of truth is bad.

How can I get my students to understand this? I want them to know that I am fighting with them, not against them. I too am pushing back against Christianity, but I'm fighting a twisted version of Christianity. An uptight version. A version that says you need to act a certain way, dress a certain way, live a certain way, listen to certain things, so that you become... boring. I don't want to live like that. I don't want my youth group kids to live like that. I want them to know Jesus and in knowing Jesus, John 17:17, they will be sanctified by truth with conviction enough to stand up for it when ideas come along that go against what they know about truth.

That's living a real Christian life. It's not boring, students!