Here is a recap of last night's Youth Group meeting and lesson for anyone who missed it.
Announcements:
The church is moving into a new building soon. As it stands right now, the Youth Group and Front Line Ministries will be sharing a space in the new building. I presented the Youth with my vision of a living room/social room type setting for the shared space. I'd like to see couches, chairs, coffee tables, bean bag chairs, area rugs and other items that would make the space feel more inviting and comfortable. I asked the Youth to think of any additional items or ideas to make the area more comfortable, and we'll have on-going discussions about this every week.
As we gear up for the new school year, autumn is quickly closing in on us. I challenged the Youth Group to think of Community Service ideas to help out fellow church members. Right now, I'm limiting the ideas to just helping church members instead of out-reach, as I am concerned about the safety of the Youth. I will continue to ask the Youth Group for ideas as we get closer to autumn.
Youth Group starts its Sunday meeting starting on September 9th. We are having a party on that day to serve as a mixer/welcome to Youth Group Party. Please bring $3 per person attending as we are going to order pizza and soda and such. Please see me (Michael) if the $3 is an issue. I never want someone to miss out on a Youth Group event because of the cost.
Lesson for the Evening:
So last night, we got into a side discussion about our Elder Board. There were questions like, who is on the Elder Board? (Ryan Gager and Ted Webster) Why are they meeting tonight (last night)? (To talk about the future building).
And then the question was asked "What is an elder?" After pausing a second to think about it, I asked the Youth Group, "What do you think is an elder?" The overwhelming answer was "someone old." (Gotta love the Youth Group.) While that may be the public persona, that is not quite the Biblical definition of an Elder. So, we went diving into 1 Timothy 5:17 to find out the Biblical definition of the word "elder."
1 Timothy 5:17-21 (NIV)
17 The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching.
(http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Timothy%205&version=NIV)
I then asked the Youth, what does that verse mean? After some answers, we picked the verse apart word by word. There is a lot of information within that verse, and in the interest of time and typing, here are the highlights.
First off, the word elders is plural, as in there should be more than one elder. Secondly, the elders are to direct affairs within the church at a "well" level of competence. That means that they have authority to manage roles within the church, and they are to be skilled in how those roles are managed. The word "worthy" can mean deserved or earned. A synonym of honor is respect. Preaching and teaching are roles that are sometimes thought of solely as the responsibility of the Pastor, but here in Timothy, we see that the elders can be tasked with preaching and teaching.
So, to paraphrase 1 Timothy 5:17, The people who are authorized and skilled at managing within the church are deserving of respect upon respect, especially those that assist in preaching and teaching, (roles that are traditionally assigned to the pastor.)
That is a lot of responsibility for a group of people. At the advise of Val and Walt, we then turned to 1 Timothy 3:1-7 to see what kind of qualifications a person should have to become an elder. (Yes, I realize that Timothy 3 is talking about Overseers and Timothy 5:17 is talking about Elders. For this study, I'm holding both groups of people to the same standard.)
1 Timothy 3:1-7
3 Here is a trustworthy saying: Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task. 2 Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4 He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full[a] respect. 5 (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?) 6 He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. 7 He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap.
We picked these attributes apart. I asked the Youth what the more difficult words meant. Such as, what does the word reproach mean? Reproach means correctable. It doesn't mean that the Overseers don't make mistakes, it means that Overseers should not have known habits that would be considered questionable. For example, constantly using using foul language would be a negative trait, so Overseers should not constantly use foul language.
What does the word temperate mean? Youth Group's response, something that is tempered. OK, while that is true, let's not use the word to describe the word in question. Hannah Hoffecker gave the best definition as someone who does not get angry quickly, and someone who doesn't show disinterest in things. To paraphrase Hannah's answer, temperate means you are slow to anger and you show you care.
What does hospitable mean? One of the kids answered, to be hospitalized. (not quite, though it does make me wonder about the word hospital...) Hannah Hoffecker gave the best answer again by saying you take people into your house or help people that need a place to stay.
Another discussion we had was the word "conceited". Conceited can mean arrogant, boastful, prideful, "it's all about me" attitude. The fall of the devil was because the devil thought he deserved the praise and honor and glory that was for God.
I told the Youth Group that being conceited is one of the flaws that I always watch out for in myself. I told the Youth that Youth Group is not about me teaching, it's about God. My goal for teaching Youth Group is to show the kids God's love and to teach them how to live a Godly life. I said that I can't protect them from the world, but by coming to Youth Group they can see how Godly people treat each other.
They can see God's love by how Walt and Val treat each other as husband and wife. They can see God's love by how Ron, Walt, Val, and I interact with each other. We don't always agree on things, and sometimes one of us (ok, mostly me) goes off in the wrong direction, and it's by the open, honest, and loving conversations that the four of us have, that we are able to correct and encourage one another.
The last topic of conversation is tied to verse 7. The question was, should Christians have non-Christian friends? This one was hotly discussed, and I told them that I would go in the Book of Acts and show them how we are to conduct ourselves when we hang out with non-Christians. (The answer, by the way, is yes. We should have non-Christian friends, but they should not be the only friends we have).
Last night's lesson was spur of the moment, but I think it went very well. The night was filled with lots of good discussion that I can't accurately describe. I encourage all Youth Group aged people to come out, and to become part of the conversations we have.
Kind regards,
Michael
