So often Christian youth work can be
about teaching young people what they should believe – a diet of ‘do’s and don’ts’ which is far from grace, high on information and low on application.
But at our last youth group event of 2012 we decided to let the food do the talking and after grace there was only one ‘do’ – you could not serve yourself. In front of a hungry youth group were all the constituent parts for a feast of beef burgers. There was no Bible study, no sermon, just a bunch of young people struggling to unlearn all the consumerist, get-it-and-grab-it conditioning of their short lives – to follow the Servant King and put themselves last and others first. As they listened to each other, made burgers to give away and served one another we had a laugh and the food of learning was sweet and satisfying. What is more they did it and they got it,
And the parting challenge, as we started to clear away, was to be the same on Christmas Day.
smouldering wick 