reaching students day 2
13 March, 2009
Day two realized most of my hopes for the gathering, with lots of time to share best practices, have ideas, ask questions, and get into the nitty gritty of discipleship. Some highlights for me were:
- The story of the servant in Genesis 24. He makes the connection between the master’s son and his bride so well that we still don’t know his name. Spend some time meditating on him and I think you’ll make the connections. There are too many, too rich and deep, for you to miss them.
- A definition of wealth: having multiple options.
- The ways that differing cultures deal with sin. In Genesis 3 there were 3 consequences for sin: shame, guilt, and fear. The West has inherited the Greek tendency toward guilt/innocence as our primary motif, Middle Eastern and Asian cultures tend much more towards shame/honor, and many African cultures, especially rural African cultures, identify with power most. All three of these show up as motifs in the New Testament for Jesus’ death and resurrection, with Him taking our shame, proclaiming us innocent, and winning the victory over sin and death. There are a lot of students kicking around with very different backgrounds. Those of us who grew up in the west need to be able to address all three motifs. The scriptures themselves say more about shame/honor than guilt/innocence, for all we talk about the latter.
- Some new ideas for not just teaching the scriptures, or even teaching others to teach them, but for teaching others to teach others to teach the scriptures. Gotta love that.
- Salt’s stories of growing up on a Texas ranch from the van ride home. If you ever hang with Salt, make him tell you some. Half the experience is the way he tells them.
- The Donut Mill. That’s got to be where you go when you die if you’re good. Best cake donut ever.
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i like this a lot. you make a really useful point on the occidental bias in evangelistic emphasis. i love the power and shame motifs and your definition of wealth is a great one. i talk about being ‘armed’ and, in order to truly encounter the other, i have to recognise my weapons and lay them down as much as possible – being rich, white, married, heterosexual, educated, adult, western and, and, and……
anyway, i like what you’re doing here.
BIG smile!
There was a great bunch of people at the table, with some really good stuff to say. well worth the trip. I like your thought about laying down arms to connect with the other. I caught Tony Campolo recently, and he made a great distinction between power and authority. We set aside power/our arms so that, like Christ, we can gain the authority that comes from serving and blessing others, a la Philippians 2.