New Middle School Lesson Review Site for Easter Series

This is our new site for our Easter series. This website is part of a process of us going digital - taking our weekly lessons and making them available to parents and students online. It's more interactive than an email or letter, and also more accessible. Our thoughts are that if we continue to see that people are going to the site, then we will take it to the next level. Check it our and make suggestions or comments.

Continuing the Multiracial coversation...

There is not a biblical mandate explicitly stated in scripture, but certainly implicitly. I would relate it to the teaching about the Trinity. The whole of the New Testament is filled with people interacting together of way different ethnic and racial backgrounds. Jesus and the woman at the well, Phillip and the Eunuch, Peter and Cornelius, just to name a few of the more popular stories.

The problem is that we only get to read the words and not see them. I know this is weird, but what if we could visually see those previously mentioned stories. That would change a lot of what we think and perceive. Most of what we read gets sent through the little goggles in our brains. So, my Caucasian lenses tend to color those stories and make them not nearly as revolutionary as they really were. Plus, since we in America relate racial issues to primarily black/white, we miss what Jesus and the other writers were trying to say. For example, Jesus and the Samaritan Woman does not come across as utterly and completely revolutionary until you read into the context - something I will not explain here. Just as revolutionary is Peter going to Cornelius' house. A Jew and a Roman soldier. But the point is that time and time again stories and events from the New Testament are told in the context of great racial tension and hatred. Just because it does not say somewhere that every church should be as racially diverse as it's immediate surrounding community, does not mean that it is not at least implied that it should be. That's enough for now... any thoughts folks?

Is there a Biblical Mandate for Multi-Racial Youth Ministry

I say yes!!! One of the biggest influences in my christian life over the last few years has been the introduction of the idea of a multi-racial church. My question though, is there a Biblical mandate clearly stated in scripture that encourages local churches to be multi-ethnic, multi-economic, and multi-racial. I think there is. But I want to know what you think.

Right now, especially if you are in urban or suburban ministry, your students are growing up in a much more diverse community than we have ever imagined. They walk through the doors of their schools and learn in the context of great cultural and racial diversity. Then, they walk through the doors of our churches and they are ushered straight back to the 60's. Yeah, you're right, it's not that bad. But I guarantee that there is much, much less diversity in your church than there is in the community where your church is located.

Do this if you have some free time and about $80. Find out the exact government stats for the 1 mile and 5 mile radius of your church. Being a local church, isn't it at least reasonable to think that your church demographic should be at least similar to the surrounding area? Is it? Not mine, not most of yours. Of course, this isn't true of every church in America... there's always the exception. But, it is by far the majority.

In conclusion to today's rant... The church should be setting the tone of the racial issues in America, not fueling them. Wake up folks, we have a black President. Like him or not, this man clearly defines multi-culturalism. The world is changing and becoming more and more diverse and I'm afraid we in the church will do what comes naturally to us... dig our feet in the sand and worry about it in twenty years or so. Yeah, that's been working out great for us so far! Oh and by the way, Christian music isn't cool anymore either.