Jesus: liar, lunatic or lord?

Recently, myself and the team in the south Nottinghamshire villages have launched Youth Alpha; a forum to explore life and faith. Set in one of the areas finest cafes, Bryers, we hope the weekly event provides a space for questions to be asked, community to grow, and from our response, questions to be answered.

Facilitating and organizing Alpha has challenged me to step into the shoes of friends, family, team mates and those I have the privilege of working alongside, in asking what options do we have in the light of all the claims that Jesus makes?

Jesus divides opinion like no other. The conversation regarding who He is challenges all of us and considering the weight of Jesus' claims, we are in a position requiring a decision. Quoting author CS Lewis, Jesus is either "a lair, a lunatic, or Lord". Jesus claims' were so big and so influential to everyday life, He was either lying, unstable or speaking of universal truths.

The ball is very much in our court. Who is Jesus for you?

William Lee is Nottingham yfc key worker in Radcliffe and the south notts villages.

Are we happy to be told we are wrong?

A few months ago I was working in a school and supporting a R.E. teacher as she taught a group of year 9 young people. The class a few weeks before were asked to prepare small 10 minute presentations about a range of ethical and relevant topics from ‘abortion’ to ‘bullying’ and ‘the ivory trade’, and then argue their opinions on their individual topic. These presentations were then rated out of 30. In this lesson the young people were asked one-by-one to present their presentations to the rest of the class. It got to this boys turn who as he started his presentation suddenly got quite upset and said that he couldn’t do it. As a result I and another girl in his class were asked to assess the boy in the next room. As we did this and he started his presentation, the reason for why it was so upsetting for him become clear – he was talking about how a member of his family died as a result of the topic he was studying. When he finished myself and the girl in his class started to discuss what his mark should be. I without knowing too well the marking scheme (about it being out of 30 and not 20) said “why don’t we mark him 15?”.

What happened next I would never have predicted. The normally shy, well behaved, perfectly polite, quiet and content girl suddenly looked at me with disgust and said “Mike that is wrong! He has just shared a personal and difficult story, he deserves a higher grade than that!”….and she was right. Even though I was a member of staff, I had authority, I could have told this girl off and got her in trouble… she didn’t care because she was standing up for what was right.

It can be easy sometimes to feel that young people don’t really care about the things that we talk about as they can appear to just look bored and emotionless, but young people have a real deep sense of what is just and what isn’t, and they are massively prepared to fight for it. The girl in the story didn’t care that i was a member of staff who could have got her in trouble, she was fearless for justice; and we as Youth Workers just need to have faith in young people and to give them the opportunities to use these abilities to fight the injustices in the world.

Mike Harrison is key worker in Nuthall and Kimberley
He also works for NYfC in Radford and Bulwell

Thirsty?

Water; Most of us know how important it is for our survival, but did you know?  

·         The total amount of water in the body of an average adult is 37 litres

·         Human blood is 83% water

·         Human brains are 75% water

·         Human bones are 25% water

·         A person must consume 2 litres of water daily to live healthily.

Water is our core substance and we have to drink lots of it to ensure our body works to the best of its ability. It’s not surprising that our bodies have a safety mechanism in place when we need more. We feel thirsty. Amazingly though by the time a person feels thirsty, his or her body has only lost 1% of its total amount of water.

Psalm 42:1-2 in the Bible talks about a man whose soul pants (or thirsts) for God, just as a deer pants (or thirsts) for streams of water. Personally I don’t think I have every compared my desire for God as being like my thirst for water. I did however have an experience a few days ago which changed all that. You may or may not have experienced this yourself but, I woke up in the middle of the night, my mouth was soo dry (never before had it been this dry), I felt hot and all I could think of was WATER!!!! It really wasn’t a good experience.

It’s been my own challenge ever since to choose to thirst for God, just as I had thirst for water that night. I’m not sure how that works, as I know I don’t want to wait until I feel far off from him to feel spiritually thirsty. But just as our bodies need water so our souls need God.  For us to work for God effectively then he needs to be in every part of us. I’ve been wondering what would happen if we decided that we wanted God so much, that we had nothing else on our minds, if we could not be satisfied with anything other than him, if we chased after him with the same immediacy we would if we chased after water when we are thirsty.

It could only be good… how thirsty are you?

Simon Bentley is  on the MCYM course

His placement is with NYfC in  Chilwell and Beeston

Are you a Church Christian?

You’re a Christian and so you go to church on Sunday, but what happens the rest of the week? When you wake up on Monday morning does God get the same attention as he did on Sunday morning, or are you too busy trying to get through the daily routine of life that somehow God is  forgotten about?  Perhaps you can even get to the next Sunday morning without God ever crossing your mind. Ok, so that might be a little harsh, but let’s be honest how many of us really put God at the focus of everything we do. 

As a volunteer for Nottingham Youth for Christ, God is my focus, but he has to be in order for me to carry out my responsibilities towards the young people I work for. I guess my worry is: am I a Youth for Christ Christian?   Because if the only time I’m focused on God is when thinking about work; planning youth sessions, asking God to best guide me in my mission with young people, then I’m just as guilty of a Godless life style as every other church Christian, just because my daily routine is based on carrying out Gods mission it doesn't mean everything I do is built on his foundations.  

Luke 6:47-49 states “everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will tell you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”    This means that we must build our lives on God’s foundations, we need to spend time with God, asking him for help and guidance in every situation, listening to what he’s asking us to do and act upon it.   We need to call upon him when we are at work, when we’re resting, socialising etc.  This doesn't mean shutting out our normal life, but including God in it, perhaps reading the bible before we go to bed and listening to God speak through it or praying whilst driving to work. It isn't easy but as it says in Luke we need to dig deep, otherwise when those hard times hit us (and they will whether equipped by God or not) we will crumble.  So let’s stop being church Christians, blow the dust of our bibles and start building our lives on God’s foundations! 

Abby Clark is on  a yfcone internship with Nottingham YfC

working mainly in Radcliffe with radcliffe Methodist Church

Her specialty is drama

Why we do what we do : Grace

Grace. What does Grace really mean? And why are we trying to live in a way that pleases him?
I read the other day of a man who (in order to pass his degree) had to learn Basic German throughout the summer. 5 days a week he sat in a room struggling to find motivation to learn the language, his only motivation, to get the qualification. Now let’s say at the beginning of the term that the man is promised by the exam board that no matter how hard he works he will get an A. Do you think he would still continue to work as hard knowing he had already passed? Obviously not.
Is it not like this with us and God? Jesus has already paid the price we are already going to be with him and that’s nothing to do with what we have done, are doing or will do. So why should we bother doing any good work? Why should we bother trying to tell every young person in Nottingham about Christ?
But let’s change the story slightly; let’s say the man’s wife (who he loves more than anyone else on the planet) only speaks German! Would he not then try absolutely everything he could to learn that language as quickly as possible so he could show his love to the one he adores? Although she will still love him and be his wife even if he doesn’t? That’s exactly how it is with God!
He gave absolutely everything for us so why would we not want to give everything to him? He wants nothing out of duty, in fact I think that’s exactly why Jesus was so angry with the Pharisees because they were telling the Jews that they had to live for God where as God just wanted us to be filled with his LOVE and try our hardest to LOVE him back.
Make your lives a LoveSong to God! This is not a copout you still should work hard but because you absolutely love him and even more because he absolutely Loves you.
This is why we do what we do:
“We Love because he FIRST Loved us” (1 John 4:19)

Jake Oldrey is on the yfcone year out scheme
His specialist stream is drama

nervous about blogging: Jay Anderson

When I was first asked to write this blog I was quite nervous. The reason being I’m not much of a writer and I have never really enjoyed it, however after asking a few people who had contributed to the YFC blog page, I came to the conclusion that it would be a good way of sharing some of my experiences as a GAP year volunteer.

At the start of the year I was asked what I wanted to get out of this year. To this I replied, “I want to become a more patient person”. I have always been a person who likes to get things done and I hate to be waiting around for things, but I knew that if I was to go into Youth Ministry as a career that it would be an invaluable trait to have. Many things have already tested me to be patient this year from buses to my relationship with God and misbehaving kids to relationships with friends.

It’s definitely what I asked for and I only realised in the past few weeks that (to quote a friend), “it’s a dangerous request when asking God for patience”. This is because you will be tested in so many situations to be patient especially within the things you most love. I don’t particularly believe that God can give you happiness, peace or patience as a physical gift, but rather throws you into situations where you have the opportunity to be happy, feel peace and grow in patience. He almost molds situations around what you need and sometimes you do have to remember what you asked for or else you end up blaming God for tough times.

So many times I’ve run to God already this year questioning why he had done “such and such” and why it was so hard when I’m working towards what he wants, but every time he gives me a slap around the head (not physical) and shows me the bigger picture. So I challenge you to think about what you have asked God for that may be moulding your life but that you might also be resentful for because you didn’t fully understand the consequences of that prayer, also to possibly pray with your heart but really discuss it with God before diving in without any armbands. That’s right I still wear armbands…

Jay Anderson

Jay is a year out volunteer on the YfCone scheme

His focus is youthwork and sport

verse of the year 2013

Taste and see that The Lord is good. Psalm 34:8

At the start of each year we have our National Youth for Christ conference which is a great time of blessing, encouragement and challenge. Around ten years ago we were all sat in the evening meeting feeling encouraged and good about ourselves.  As a national organisation we were reaching tens of thousands of young people each week with the Gospel message.  In Nottingham we had been running for around two years and were slowly growing and impacting more and more young people through the work we did. 

As we move forward ten years to 2013 one of the biggest issues facing the Church is the lack of young adults that are around. Therefore I ask myself the question, were we doing that good a job? because if we were impacting all those young people why are we not seeing them ten years later?

Don't worry I am not saying YfC and in particular Nottingham YfC haven't been doing a great job, in fact I think that we have been and are continuing to be at the cutting edge of youth ministry,  but I do wonder  what our aims are. I have been personally challenged by a particular organisation I work with in terms of spirituality.  I think sometimes we seem to be content with getting people to a point where they are sympathetic to the Christian faith rather than followers of Jesus.  In a world where people no longer believe in right and wrong or one way is the right way we may have fallen into the trap of getting people to understand why we believe what we believe, rather than getting them to experience it themselves.

In schools RE is being more and more reduced and as a core subject seems to be being pushed to one side before it disappears, yet spirituality is gaining higher priority, do I think this is a bad thing? Not really as getting young people to explore Christian spirituality means they won't just hear about it they will experience it.

So how do we engage young people in experiencing the Gospel?     We already do it in some respects, our eq: missions and our missions to India are just a couple, but how do we engage young people in our day to day ministry?  Where do we get young people to engage with God and help them understand where God is?  Where did you last experience God?  We might say a church meeting, a small group maybe but we deny so much of His presence if that is what we limit Him to.

In Galations 5 it talks about the fruit of the Spirit and the things we see when the Spirit is around.  Are we showing these to young people and are we giving them opportunities to understand that they are experiencing God?

Our vision for 2013 is that the young people we come into contact with have a fresher understanding of God and get a chance to 'taste and see that The Lord is good' and therefore want to become a follower of Jesus.