Opawa Baptist Church :: a resting place

Digestion in 2006

We are passionate; God is passionate; The task of being Christian is to connect our passions with the passions of God - these are the words which are forming and re-forming Digestion, our evening service.

We've been on a journey for the last 2 years. First we went interactive with sermons and giving a variety of ways to respond. We would often conclude with something to digest; something to take home and do. A good start, but we were moving too quickly and in a busy week, you'd often lose the practise. So this year we are making these take-homes the focus, rather than the extra.

Week one we tell the stories of some passionate people and introduce a passionate practice; Week two we explore the theology behind the practice, and encourage them to keep practising; Week three we explore a Biblical story that speaks to the practice and encourage them to keep practising; Week four we celebrate by inviting people to share what practising the practice has meant for them. Four weeks to let the practices shape our lives. Four weeks to practice and in doing so, to let our passions connect with God's passion.

We spent the last 2 weeks laying foundations. We explored how we are passionate (green cards) and how God is passionate (yellow cards). We finished by invited people to paint their hands and commit themselves to a year of practising the passions.

Tonight we introduced the first practice - discernment (here's the take home practises handout). The passion was music; the passionate stories were of Bono and Brooke Fraser and the point was to explore how we discern God in our music.

Helpful resources I have been reading and playing with over the last 6 months while shaping this up have included; Practicing Passion: Youth and the Quest for a Passionate Church which gave the initial theological framework and opened my eyes to passion as a way to affirm youth spirituality; God bearing life:The Art of Soul Tending for Youth Ministry, which has excellent reflection on passion and passion in youth ministry; and Soul Tending which is stacked with actual practices.

My only critique is that most of the practices do not focus on pop culture. Hence we have started by introducing discernment as the first practice, and we are inviting people to practice discernment in relation to their favourite music. I mean how theological yet practical is that; sourced in God's passion, really practical tools for living that are earthed in one's music world.

Posted by opawa at February 19, 2006 08:12 PM