The Rare Jesus

A few nights ago before the senior high bible study that I lead started I followed my normal routine of walking to the main office and checking my mail box, nothing out of the ordinary. I looked at the mail and just the typical junk mail from various ministry organizations advertising their ministry. Stuff like this I usually look through then I discard them to file thirteen, but this time I saw something that caught my attention. It was a flyer from Lifetree Adventures advertising their summer mission’s trips to Peru and Haiti. I have always had the idea in the back of my mind that I would like it for the Grace LB youth group to go on a mission’s trip during the summer of 2012. But I have never even considered going overseas or to another country. I can’t tell you what about that flyer that caught my attention and why I didn’t initially throw it in the trash and go on my way but I tucked it under my arm and proceeded to the youth office to make the final preparations for the bible study that night (when I say preparation I mean blow up a bunch of balloons with Hunter and then pop them).

I was in the middle of intently “preparing” for bible study and then Hunter, one of the students in the youth group, all of the sudden said to me “we should go on a mission’s trip to Peru.” I didn’t show him the brochure I kept and was going to look at later. I didn’t tell him this but I was surprised by him saying that because I was thinking the exact same thing. I then eventually showed him the brochure that I had and he looked at it intently and said “yup, we need to take a missions trip to Peru.”

What a radical almost seemingly impossible thing! If somebody was to look at the youth group from the outside they might come to the conclusion that it is dying, a weak group that averages only five to fifteen kids a week, two youth workers who are also fulltime college students who do youth work in the little spare time that they have and all in a small church that in the midst of the possibility of hiring a new pastor. The future is muddy. It’s easy to just give up and tell God that you are going to move on to something else and the idea of a big and possibly expensive mission’s trip ($999 per participant, not including airfare) is impossible.

This past weekend I went to the Simply Youth Ministry’s Conference in Chicago, Doug Fields spoke for the opening session Friday night and one of the things he talked about is how teens today are looking for something radical to follow and as a youth worker our primary job is to point and expose teenagers to the radical Jesus. I asked myself if I thought that the church that I work in exposes teens to the radical and unpredictable Jesus or to a safe Jesus that fits in our own little predictable box. Doug finished with the point that Jesus is RARE, meaning that Jesus desires to have a Relationship with those he loves (EVERBODY!), Jesus is Amazing, Jesus is Radical (not safe), and Jesus is Empathetic (understands our hurts because he lived with us).  Also I thought about how I present Jesus to the teens that I work with and I was convicted that I have failed to expose teens to the radical Jesus and tried to make him safe and “family friendly”.

The next morning those of us at the Simply Youth Ministry Conference had the incredible blessing to have Louie Giglio bring God’s Word to us. Louie kind of continued on what Doug was saying about showing teens the Radical Jesus by using John of Patmos’s example in Revelation 1:

I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance

(Revelation 1:12-16 NIV)

The main point that Louie hit home was that we don’t have to try to sugar coat Jesus and try to make him Amazing, HE IS AMAZING!! Jesus doesn’t need us to make him amazing and to make him into something he is not. The following verses John of Patmos continue:

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

(Revelation 1:17-18)

Jesus doesn’t care where I have failed in my life, or in school, or in my relationship and he doesn’t even care where I have failed in my ministry at the church. He still, even in all of his glory and awesomeness, kneels down, places his hand on my back and in a quiet, peaceful voice says “Do not be afraid”. What a comforting thought.

In conclusion, I don’t know what the summer of 2012 holds for the youth group at Grace LB in Bismarck, ND. But one thing I know is that Jesus will be shown for who he really is, not a safe, comfortable, and family-friendly Jesus. But a Relational, Amazing, Radical, and Empathetic Jesus who doesn’t need us to sugar coat him because He is Amazing just the way he is. A Jesus that might call you to leave your world of comfort behind and bring you to the ends of the earth, amen.