Rumspringa
by Seth McCoy
I have recently been reading a book about Amish folks, after the Amish school shootings. I think for the first time I saw some one actually loving their enemy, instead of just not hating them. When they walked to the home of the man who had taken their children’s lives as well as his own, they offered forgiveness and comfort to his widow.
It made me wonder, how does a group of people like that view youth ministry?
The book I am reading, Rumspringa: To be or not to be Amish, is about the rite of passage Amish young people go through as they transition from children to young adults. For 3 years Amish youth are given permission to live outside the rule of Amish life and attempt to find life in the ways of our broken world. This makes the time leading up to this 3 year period critical in teaching and showing the ways of Amish life, knowing their adolescents will choose for themselves whether or not they want to follow.
In my church growing up it seemed like the job of my youth pastor was to help us have as much fun as possible in church, so we wouldn’t go looking for it elsewhere. I saw then, and still see, the fear in parents and youth workers of what will happen if our kids get a taste of the world. The Amish must have a lot of confidence in their way of life, allowing their young people to taste the other side. And it is working, over 90% choose to become Amish and get baptized into the Amish community.
All of this leaves me wondering.
What is my role as a shepherd and guide to people who are transitioning from children to young adults?
Am I motivated by the fear that I need to keep the students having more fun than they could have at the Burning Man Festival?
How inevitable is it that each of them will have to taste some of the ways of the world before they will actually be able to choose to lay their life down and follow Jesus?
I am very excited to be together in April at Willow with a group of leaders and thinkers who can help me ask these and other questions. I am praying that God will use that time to help me shift the ways I am guiding and shepherding students.
[Seth McCoy is the student & college ministries director at Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, MN. He will be facilitating a Cup of Coffee at Shift 2008.]
I have recently been reading a book about Amish folks, after the Amish school shootings. I think for the first time I saw some one actually loving their enemy, instead of just not hating them. When they walked to the home of the man who had taken their children’s lives as well as his own, they offered forgiveness and comfort to his widow.
It made me wonder, how does a group of people like that view youth ministry?
The book I am reading, Rumspringa: To be or not to be Amish, is about the rite of passage Amish young people go through as they transition from children to young adults. For 3 years Amish youth are given permission to live outside the rule of Amish life and attempt to find life in the ways of our broken world. This makes the time leading up to this 3 year period critical in teaching and showing the ways of Amish life, knowing their adolescents will choose for themselves whether or not they want to follow.
In my church growing up it seemed like the job of my youth pastor was to help us have as much fun as possible in church, so we wouldn’t go looking for it elsewhere. I saw then, and still see, the fear in parents and youth workers of what will happen if our kids get a taste of the world. The Amish must have a lot of confidence in their way of life, allowing their young people to taste the other side. And it is working, over 90% choose to become Amish and get baptized into the Amish community.
All of this leaves me wondering.
What is my role as a shepherd and guide to people who are transitioning from children to young adults?
Am I motivated by the fear that I need to keep the students having more fun than they could have at the Burning Man Festival?
How inevitable is it that each of them will have to taste some of the ways of the world before they will actually be able to choose to lay their life down and follow Jesus?
I am very excited to be together in April at Willow with a group of leaders and thinkers who can help me ask these and other questions. I am praying that God will use that time to help me shift the ways I am guiding and shepherding students.
[Seth McCoy is the student & college ministries director at Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, MN. He will be facilitating a Cup of Coffee at Shift 2008.]
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