Jesus endorses candidate for president!

At lunch today I decided to enter in to the dangerous arena of politics with some awesome sixth graders. I posed the question to them: If you could vote... who would you vote for? And why? I got a variety of answers and I was quite surprised at how perceptive and informed they were. They talk and think deeply about politics even in sixth grade!

If you are like me you are probably ready to move past this election season. But I see a great opportunity to teach something quite profound to youth. It isn't a certain political view or stance but instead it is something much deeper. Regardless of our political views we all teach our youth a way of communicating by our tone, our actions, our rhetoric especially when we talk about those on the other side of our political belief system.

I have discovered that there are three distinct ways we communicate with each other especially in the area of politics.

1. Opposing views are seen as obstacles. By far the most popular...others views are seen as illegitimate. It is usually a posture of belittling and putting one down. This puts the opposing person in a position of defensiveness. Maybe you have been on one side or the other of this scenario. I find in these conversations that nothing of substance ever takes place.

Whenever I have this experience I feel many times like I am talking to a wall. We say the same things yet never truly listening to each other.

2. Shut down. For some people politics makes their blood boil so much so a conversation can't even begin to take place because it is to stressful. The other side is seen as an enemy and one can't even begin to understand where another person comes from or that they are even worth their time.

3.  The way of compassion and empathy. Rarely do I meet folks that embrace this way. Some might call this the weak way. A dangerous place no doubt. It doesn't mean to "agree to disagree." Or to merely coexist. It is much deeper than that... two words that literally mean walking in another person's shoes. To feel what they feel.

This means that we have to take the uncomfortable posture of listening to words that we might think are illegitimate. The craziest part of living a life like this is that we have to be open to the reality that walking in other people's shoes could possibly change us. We might actually learn something about each other when our defenses aren't up.

So some pastor's out there want to tell their congregation which presidential candidate, political party or political views Jesus' endorses. I could never play in that arena. But what I can say is that Jesus endorses without a doubt the third way. All sorts of people were attracted to Jesus because they knew his compassion was real and true.

We have an incredible opportunity in this election season to teach not a narrative of divisiveness but of hope that we can live together in harmony. We can actually live together with a variety of belief systems without breaking each other down. We can live together in a community that embraces each other and learns from each other.

Not only can we engage in a conversation with youth about what they think about politics but we can also teach them deep character on how we treat others that see the world differently. How we are better people when we choose to walk in the way of compassion and empathy.

Why should I pray if God doesn't answer my prayers?

Last night our question was: is it possible to be a Christian and not go to church? And by church I mean actively meeting with a body of believers and worshiping together on a weekly basis. We took a vote at the beginning of youth and overwhelmingly everyone believed that you could be a Christian and not attend church. In a few words the church wasn't that integral. The importance was in as long as you believe in "Jesus" you are a Christian. This is a snap shot of Western Christianity. It is all about the "self" and not about the community. But if you read scripture the community is integral in the life of the Christian. Community is the playground of the Christian faith.

We need the community to be Christ for us. A community that encourages us. A community that prays for us. A community that embraces us for who we are. And so with that said it is hard to be a Christian without the presence of the community.

Coming up this week we will be talking about praying even when God doesn't answer the prayers we pray. I know for me there have been many moments in my life where I have prayed for people and God didn't answer my prayers. So we will work through this, this coming week.

Can I be a Christian and not go to church?

Youth are asking some great questions and I have been so enlightened by their curiosity. Curiosity for most of us was put on the shelf to collect dust a long time ago. We have become cynics to most of our questions. Who wrote the bible? People did. Enough said. But the more we dig the more I believe we find a richness that in someways was lost before. Who wrote the bible? People that cared. People that wanted to tell a story. People that wanted a story to give us substance, a God-breathed identity.

I encourage you to grab your youth and watch this video with them. A great, quirky video about how the bible came to be. If the bible is all that we say it is. If it is really "God breathed..." then it must be really good for us to read. Just like an ice cream cone on a hot summer day! Or a pumpkin spice latte on cool, rainy day like today!

I started reading the bible for the first time in my life in 10th grade. I started reading the book of John and it was life giving. In fact it changed my life. As we choose our next right step toward Jesus maybe it is good for us to find some time maybe once a week to sit down and read a chapter of the bible. Maybe to ask each other what we are reading and together explore what it means to follow Jesus.

So this week we are talking about being a Christian and what that means. In particular... Can you be a Christian and not go to church? You can imagine that there are probably a lot of different answers to this question... so we will explore it some this Sunday. Hope your youth and their friends join us!