rhythm

In my practical issues in youth ministry my professor (Jason Lief) said something that has been making me want to jump out of my shoes! Background: We are learning the best way to get across the gospel is through story telling. Stories help you to relate, stick longer in your mind, and can communicate things that a 3 point sermon simply cannot no matter how hard you try. Stories communicate our history as the people of God - a community that has its origins dating to the beginning of time. When we learn our story we find our identity and place in the story. Our identity allows us to stand against peer pressure, cultural pressure and even temptations. When we understand who we are and why God wants us to follow His example we find motivation and purpose, dominating many of the enemies schemes. In a postmodern world that is seeking experience and guarding its heart and mind with the "dragons of cynicism and skepticism" we must connect in an intimate way to the heart of the person, sneaking past the guards through story telling. Thus a youth pastor must be an artist of story telling, stretching the imaginations of an inarticulate generation.

So in this context we look at what is our story and how we tell it. In Sarah Arthur's The God Hungry Imagination she tells about how C.S. Lewis and J.R Tolkein are Christians who desire to tell the story of God under the radar, challenging the imagination of youth and adults alike without being explicit as to turn them off. The thing that has driven me crazy since Monday is the way that Lewis and Tolkein tell the story of creation. In the Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia series we see both Middle Earth and Narnia being created by song. In Narnia Asian, the Christ figure, sings Narnia into existence. In Lord of the Rings there is a communal sense of creating Middle Earth (Correct me if I am wrong for I have not read either series and am doing this without the book present). And that is how I read Genesis 1; it is written as poetry, a story told through poetic rhetoric. We see God hovering over the chaotic waters and speaking things into existence. This is not a monotone voice in which God says, "land". Rather it is a symphony. Here we see God dancing with His creation and constantly singing over what He has made "good". Now we are to fit into this song, this dance of life. Every person, plant and created being is a part of this song. Sometimes we are out of tune, as Rob Bell would say. But we are still a part of the great composure that is God's "good" creation. It is this beautiful melody that our life is a part of. We become loyal co-creators by living our lives in sync with God's original masterpiece. It is His composition that we live in. Such a beautifully festive, emotional and joyful noise it is! The world is constantly writing its choruses. Our decisions strike the chords of its verses. Creation unites as one in the beat of its rhythm.