This Saturday (Oct. 13)is Yam Jam. For those of you who don’t know, Yam Jam is an event where we pick up the left-over yams from a farmer’s field and give them to the Society of St. Andrew for distribution to needy people. This year we’re meeting at the church at 7:30am on Saturday. We’ll travel together to the farm and work until about noon. After that we’ll stop somewhere for lunch before returning to the church.

This would be a great opportunity to hang out, do some good and have a good time. I would like to challenge you to invite some friends to help. Maybe even bring some friends who don’t go to church that often, since this won’t be a “churchy” thing.

Also, tomorrow (Wednesday), we’re having a Bible study at our house in Durham. We’re studying the Gospel of Luke. So if you’d like to learn more about God’s Word, consider coming to our weekly meetings. The time is from 7:00 to about 8:30.

Finally, let me say I had a great time bowling with you guys. I even got a few strikes! Hope you had fun too.

See you soon.

Chris

Maybe we could have a wall of “Simpsonized” youth displayed at the church!

See ya!
Brian alias Preacherman

We just got back from PA and we’re excited about sharing our experience with you guys…I mean “y’all.”  Camp was really great.  We all grew a little closer to God and to each other.  Philly was also a fantastic trip.  We visited some historic sites, had a cheese steak and spent two days with another youth group from a Baptist church.  So, check out the pictures section, an if you are one of the four youth who went on the trip, please comment this post with your impressions.

You should also check out the schedule for August.  I think we have some fun activities planned.  As usual, feel free to submit your ideas for YF.

I would like to specifically point out a term that Lenore used a few times: “The Works of Mercy.” We may not be familiar with this term, so I thought I should explain it a little. Basically, it refers to the kinds of activities Jesus asks Christians to do. Since the Middle Ages these activities were listed in two categories: physical or “corporal” works and spiritual works. Here’s a list:

The corporal works of mercy:
feeding the hungry
giving drink to the thirsty
clothing the naked
offering hospitality to the homeless
caring for the sick
visiting the imprisoned
burying the dead

The spiritual works of mercy:
admonishing the sinner
instructing the ignorant
counseling the doubtful
comforting the sorrowful
bearing wrongs patiently
forgiving all injuries
praying for the living and the dead

These “works” come from the Bible, so here’s a list of passages to check out.

Matthew 25:31-46
Isaiah 58:6-7
Hebrews 13:3
1 John 3:17
Tobit 4:5-11
Matthew 6:2-4
Luke 3:11, 11:41
James 2:15-16

If you would like more info about the CW movement, click on this logo:

Also, I’ve posted some new pictures.

Remember to check for ticks.

This is a pretty complicated question, but here are two things to think about.

First:

What does “being a Christian” mean? Does it just mean going to church or does it mean trying to live like Jesus? I think it means following Jesus.

But, we all have to admit that we don’t usually do a good job of following Jesus. In other words we do things that make Jesus sad. That’s called “sinning.” All of us are sinners. We all do bad stuff, and for some reason we can’t help it sometimes.

That doesn’t mean that God will punish us or throw us into hell. But our bad actions have consequences. When we pollute the earth we get cancer. When we eat too much we get fat and have heart attacks. When we take money and land from people, they might get angry and fight us. There are all kinds of things that happen when we don’t live like Jesus wants us to.

The Good News is that God forgives us. Jesus died so we could be forgiven. He also died so we could “die” to the bad things that we do. He rose so we could “rise” to “new life” as people who follow Jesus.

Second:

Why do you want to just get by with the minimum of commitment? Why are we even calling ourselves Christians if we don’t really want to be Christians with our whole lives? Jesus tells us that the most important thing that human beings can do is to love God with our whole heart and soul and mind and body, and to love other people as much as we love ourselves. That’s a big challenge. That’s what being a Christian means. It takes all of your life.

So I guess I’m asking you to think about this kind of commitment. You don’t have to accept it all at once. It takes time to grow into your faith. Nobody does it right away. I mess up all the time, and lots of times I don’t feel like following Jesus. But, we’ve got to wake up every morning and say, “Even if I don’t feel like it, I’m going to try to follow you, Lord. “

I don’t want to tell you which choices are “good” and which are “bad.”  I want you guys to think about your choices and to ask yourselves if those choices reflect the life of Jesus.  What I will tell you is that being a Christian is NOT easy.  But it is exciting, it is meaningful, it is something worth living for.

Please leave your comments. I’d be very interested in learning what you guys think about this.

By the way, we’re going to Rally Day in Rocky Mount next Sunday. It starts at 3:00 and it’s over at 6:00. We’ll leave right after church and get back around 7:30 or 8:00pm. There’s no cost, but we will be stopping for lunch and dinner, so bring some money.

The theme of Rally Day is “Get a Life: Follow Jesus,” which ties in nicely with what we’ve been talking about. But, don’t worry. There will be plenty of games and stuff. It won’t just be a boring lecture.

We might also want to think about the meaning of the word “boring.” Does “boring” mean that we have to sit still, to think about somewhat complicated ideas, to do something that doesn’t cater to our personal whims? If so, then the Christian church can’t avoid being boring. Life is “boring” by these standards. We all need times to sit and think, to listen to the stories of our faith, to celebrate our blessings and thank God for being good to us. We can’t really get out of that if we want to be Christians.

But, we can change the way we “do church.” We can make sure that we’re not talking over anybody’s head. We can use music that speaks to people. We can dance, we can clap hands, we can use art, we can put on plays, we can perform liturgies that involve the whole congregation. What else can we do?

Church can and should attempt to speak to everybody, not just the people who are comfortable with the way it has always been done. But, we can’t expect the worship committee to do everything. We’ve got to put our energy into it too. How late do we stay up on Saturday? Is that why we’re falling asleep in the pews? Are we actively trying to figure out what the pastor is talking about, or are we thinking about going to Bojangles? Are we listening to the words of the hymns or do we wish we could be listening to our iPods? And if church really stinks, why aren’t we joining the worship committee to share our ideas?

Let’s try to work together on making church more meaningful. Please respond to this post with your comments.

Christ is Risen! Indeed he is Risen! Alleluia! Alleluia!