Happy Tuesday! 

This past week in Sunday school we spent some time talking about intergenerational classes and the value that they have. As we approach the end of this calendar year, we will be joining a group of adults in the FLC for a class titled "Faith for Exiles." This class intends to capitalize on the momentum that we feel surrounding intergenerational relationships  and provides a concrete way for older and younger generations to interact. We have pushed back the "Grace and Truth 1.0" class to January, and still intend to engage with that material in early 2022.

During youth group we heard from Amanda McCleery as she shared about mental health from a Christian perspective. I couldn't be more proud of our students and the leadership qualities they possess, so as we move toward the end of this calendar year, we hope to give many more students the ability to exercise their gifts of leadership as well! 

We are officially departing from the Bible project curriculum, and hope to continue talking about practical, faith-based passions that our students have until Christmas break! Thanks as always for stopping by and feel free to reach out with any questions!! 

Good morning parents! 

This past week in Sunday school we kept pushing into the question "Is Jesus really the only way to heaven?" Obviously, scripture tells us that this is the case, but it can often feel like saying "Jesus is the only way to heaven" is a culturally insensitive statement. We spent the bulk of our time talking about how we live in a culture that tends to value acceptance more than objective truth. We discussed how using language like "my truth" and "your truth" isn't referring to objective truth at all, but a persons lived or felt experience. When we say that something is true, we are calling back to an irrefutable authority - the Bible. Obviously language is continually evolving and it can be hard to express the truth of Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life without people calling us bigots or judgmental. We leaned into a bit of practical application then, and talked about sharing the Gospel in effective ways. 

It has been my experience that the best way to share the good news of Jesus (and it IS good news, despite how the world around us might respond!) is to listen to Jesus when he commands us to love our neighbors. Something that transcends the negative stigma that people in the world today attach to words like "Christian" or "evangelical" is simple love. I am by no means an expert evangelizer, but every time I have had the pleasure of leading someone to Jesus, it was because that person knew I was invested in their life beyond the desire to convert them. I had worked long and hard to know them, the good and the bad, to the point that the negative assumptions about church or Christianity couldn't stand. Evangelism and discipleship so often go hand in hand, and I have grown to enjoy the process of discipling people who don't know Jesus as their savior, and waiting for God to work miracles. 

To summarize all of that, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Nobody comes to the Father except through Him. This is good news, and its news that is most effectively shared when we align our lives with Christ and love God first, and our neighbors as ourselves. 


Youth group was a bit of a surprise for all of us! 
I decided on my way to get snacks for the evening that I wanted to talk about something other than the Bible Project that had been weighing heavily on my heart. 

If you have had the opportunity to get to know "Noah the person" outside of "Noah the youth pastor," you would know that I am a pretty opinionated person. Dynelle might even say too opinionated ;) I love thinking and talking about theology, culture, the Church, effective ministry and how all of those things are woven together. You might also know that I grew up here in Zeeland, attending a church where I was one of 6 kids in the high school youth group! 

Those two things often come together in interesting ways for me. One of the reasons I felt like God was calling me back to west Michigan in 2016 when I took this position was because I felt like I knew this culture - the good and the ugly. I grew up in a church that did an incredible job of helping me memorize scripture, learn the catechism, and nail the basics of all the bible stories you would hear at a VBS. They were always willing to let me teach those things in places like children's Sunday school or VBS when I was older, and in doing so grew my confidence as a leader. 

There was one thing I somehow missed though, and that was a personal relationship with a risen Christ. I knew all those answers and it felt good to be someone who was seen as a "capable" teenager, but I don't think I regularly spent time in scripture, or time in silent prayer. 

Fast forward to today, and Josiah and I have the pleasure of preaching this week. As we have been preparing material for our sermon, I kept hearing the same message over and over in the back of my head asking, "How are you teaching our students to really love Jesus and grow in relationship with Him?"

I know this is a huge wall of text already, but there is one more piece of context I would like to share. I have never considered myself a particularly charismatic Christian. My personal experience with Jesus hasn't involved being slain in the Spirit or speaking in tongues or miraculous special revelation. When I pray or spend intentional time with God, I experience his presence in ways that I describe as "heart tugs." Often its like a silly disembodied thought or emotion just springs up and doesn't seem logical. On my way to youth group I was listening to a podcast about the world our students are finding their faith in and I had one of those "tugs." I felt like I should talk about that instead of angels and cherubim, because while its super interesting to hear about how rich scripture is and the characters at work within it, I'm not sure that it is teaching our students to own their faith or causing them to fall in love with the Word. 

So I bought snacks, went to church and scribbled on a notepad for a while. I asked our students a few questions to break the ice a bit. "What is the Church?" "What is a Disciple?" And, "Who is someone you look up to spiritually, and what characteristics do they have that cause you to look up to them?" 

All of these questions were leading us into a discussion about the world that they live in, the unique challenges I see for them, and how I hope the time we spend here on a Sunday isn't the richest part of their faith journey. 

Our students live in a post-pandemic, post-truth, hyper-connected-but-lonely world. The pandemic caused suffering for everyone, a post-truth world tells them that the Bible can't possibly be absolute truth, and their social structures serve them fake internet hearts or likes in place of deep interpersonal relationships. Without being dramatic, it's fair to say that they are living in a time where being a follower of Christ isn't exactly easy. 

But when we turn to scripture and think about the people who were the fathers and mothers of our faith, we see that often they came from places where it was hard to follow Jesus too. Deep and resilient faith is not formed in a spa, its formed in fire. The question we are left with then is simple. How are we shaping our students to live in the flame when they leave our homes, our churches, or even our circles of influence?

Josiah and I are going to try and answer that question more generally this Sunday in our sermon, but as far as youth group goes I simply encouraged our students to be people of prayer, who are steeped in God's word. One of my greatest fears as a leader is that I churn out high school students who believe and talk like me without giving them the tools and knowledge necessary to own their faith for themselves. 

As we keep pushing into that idea, I might switch up our teaching schedule a little bit to allow for some of our students and leaders to talk about some things that they are growing in or positively impacted by. I love the Bible Project, and maintain that an informed reading of scripture is an excellent thing to dive into, but I think we might need something different to hit the bullseye in this moment. 

If you made it this far, you're a legend. Thanks for reading my stream of consciousness, and I'd love to hear if your student brought any of this home to you!! 

​Have a great week! ​

Good morning parents!! 

This past Sunday morning we kept digging into the question "is Jesus really the only way to heaven?" It's been very interesting to hear what our youth think about other religions and the status of their salvation. In my own life, I have found that many of my peers are more prone to thinking that "all streams lead to the ocean" that is God. I'm happy to report that this does not seem to be the case with our youth! We spent some time talking about how Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Mormonism all view Jesus and his role in salvation, and how the Bible is really only compatible with the Christian view.

Speaking of the Bible... if you ever want to hear some fun stories, ask your kids about my soapboxes. In both youth group and Sunday school this past week I spent around 5 minutes trying to impress the importance of being in God's word on the students. I fear that we live in a world where the pinnacle of the average "Christian" experience is a Sunday morning. I don't want to contribute to a generation of Christians who only hear the Bible (the very Word of God Himself!) through the mouth of whoever is behind their pulpit that Sunday, and a huge part of what we are trying to do in both of our high school programs this year is instill the confidence that scripture is accessible, and meaningful. As Josiah and I are working through some other potential parent resources, we think that there is a gaping hole in the heart of the next generation that their personal interaction with scripture is supposed to fill. If you can find ways to keep fostering that love and desire at home, that would be amazing. I know that there are all sorts of unique challenges specific to your family and its not as simple as just forcing them to read the Bible, but I feel an incredible sense of urgency surrounding this topic. 

We spent some quality time together in the evening before spending some time talking about the original languages of the Bible and how we might read the Bible differently than the original audience would have. One of the key things that we miss out on when we read the OT is the presence and impact the authors of the Bible seem to give to spiritual beings in General. We see references to "the holy ones" and "the council of Yahweh" pretty often, but the western church doesn't have a great paradigm to interpret these things. We know that Paul says that our battle is not against flesh and blood, but we rarely have words to describe what that practically means for us as followers of Christ. 

It may be an interesting thought exercise for you too! What do you think about when you read Ephesians 6 and see the words "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms"? I often think about Jesus being tempted in the desert, or driving out demons into pigs, but rarely do I apply those words to myself. 

The authors of the Bible go so far as to imply that the crucifixion of Jesus was primarily the fault of the "rulers of this age," and not people! 1 Corinthians 2:6-8 explicitly states this two times! 

This is something I never grew up thinking about, and it seems to add a whole layer to the narrative arc of scripture that I just didn't have the perspective to see before! 

I ended our time of conversation by simply posing a rhetorical question - "What are the 'rulers of our age' and is it possible that some of our current struggles might have a spiritual component that we weren't even aware of?" (Your students identified some of the "rulers" we grapple with as technology, politics, money, and influence. Y'all have some smart kids!!)

The Bible Project is incredible, and if this kind of stuff is interesting to you, you can watch the same videos we do HERE and find the study material that I summarize and riff on HERE! 

Next week we plan to keep hammering away at both of these excellent pieces of curriculum!! Thanks for reading this giant wall of text, and please reach out if you have any questions or comments!!