A wonder-full weekend

Mission accomplished. We're safely back in St Hackett's after a bonzer weekend with our young people.

As I said earlier, this was a new departure for us, and we were more than a little nervous that everything would come together and the kids would enjoy it. As the one delegated to do the 'spiritual' bits, I felt a bit out of my zone because I've plenty of experience with primary children, but little with teenagers. But I needn't have worried.

"Where are your young people at?", you ask. Or at least, I make you ask, for the purposes of this discussion!

By and large they're delightful kids. Few, if any, would call themselves Christians, though almost all have been brought up in the church. Some are still accepting of that, others are beginning to feel the magnetic pull away to other things that seems to kick in at around the age of 13/14. They're media savvy (though we banned phones for the weekend, much to their horror!) and the girls, typically, are very image conscious. There's also a wide range of maturities as I found out when we did a session on the question of God's existence and discovered that two of the younger secondary kids still believed in Santa Claus. We are sheltered here, in St Hackett's.....!

So how do you hold all of that together?

Well on Friday night, as an epilogue after a late tea and some fun and games, I told them the story of Punchinello, by Max Lucado (http://members.aol.com/Crucible2/Punchinello.html) I've used that story in many different contexts from schools to Eventide Homes and it's always well received because issues of self-image and acceptance affect us all. Despite all the excitement, they listened really well.

Then on Saturday morning we did the session on God's existence. We split into three groups and each was given something/someone whose existence they had to deny and another thing/person whose existence they had to defend. Discovery - it can be just as hard to defend Nicole Kidman's existence as that of Santa Claus! Then we did the same about God, looking at evidence for and against. I got them to fill in (anonymously) a wee card saying what God was to them at that precise moment and that exercise was interesting enough to warrant another entry of its own.

After that we looked at the question of 'what is God like?' with video clips from Prince of Egypt, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Dogma, It's a Wonderful Life and Ice-Age 2. Using these clips we identified the attributes we thought God must surely have. I especially like Alanis Morrisette's turn as God in Dogma - a God who's (a) gorgeous (b) has a sense of humour and (c) can't do a handstand to save her life.

By the end of this session we began to touch on 'wonder' as one way in which God connects with us, and we explored that later in the afternoon after a visit to the Leisure Pool in Inverness. We thought about what wonder was, and when we'd experienced it our lives. And then I made the point that it can be very ordinary things that bring us wonder, using clips from Amelie (where she returns the box of childhood treasures to Bredoteau) and the inevitable plastic bag scene from American Beauty.

All of this set the scene for worship on Sunday. I knew they were a bit worried about it all ('there won't be any singing, will there?!) and so I deliberately made things a little more circumspect. As I've said in the last two posts, sometimes you see things more clearly when you don't look straight at them.

I started by telling them a story by Frederick Buechner called "Message in the Stars" (The Magnificent Defeat, Harper Collins). Basically, God shows his power unmistakeably by making the stars spell out messages in the sky. At first people are amazed and change their behaviour, but after months of this they get disaffected/bored. The point? That wonder itself isn't enough. We need to make a connection with God.

So we tried to make a connection - a Lectio Divina on Psalm 139, which again, they were remarkably still for. Next I showed them a range of a dozen thought-provoking images I'd gleaned from the net and printed onto postacrds, and invited them to choose one and think about it for a few moments to some meditative music. Then I led them in a reflection which helped them think about why they'd chosen that particular picture, and what God might be saying to them through that.

The next part of the service was the bit I was most unsure about. I'd given each of them a smooth black stone on their way in, and now I asked them to let that represent something that was holding them back from connecting with God. I asked them to come up, place it in the middle of the wee table in the centre, with candle and cross, and take away a square of chocolate to savour and 'taste and see the goodness of God'. Again, we filled the space with some ambient music and to my delight most of the young people made a response. I kept my eyes closed at this point so as not to make them feel at all pressured by me, but there was a big heap of stones and very little chocolate by the end, and I'm pretty sure they took it seriously. One of the most popular kids followed me up after I went first and that was a real answer to prayer. He kind of broke the ice for the others and gave them permission to act.

And finally (!) I'd prepared a card with each person's name on it and placed them around the room. While music was playing, we were to go and write something unconditionally positive about each person we'd shared the weekend with. Mine's presently pinned to my noticeboard for when I need reminding that at least some people in St Hackett's like/appreciate me!

So that was it. No huge decisions for Christ, but - I believe - lots of little ones. And these little things count. Fun was had, relationships strengthened and suppositions challenged. And we all enjoyed it so much - leaders included - that we'll definitely do it again.

But not for a while, ok.....?!