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Thursday, 18 January 2007
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Engaging Young People Through 'Resistance Thinking'
We live in an unprecedented time of global change. The past one-hundred years have seen countless wars, famines, natural disasters and many more horrendous acts committed for various causes, with each cause being founded on a distinct set of ideas. The two World Wars of the twentieth century paved the way for technological innovation that has fuelled the process of globalisation, and whilst the free-market forges ahead in establishing a new global system, it leaves little time for humanity to think of the moral and ethical implications of our choices. More recently we have seen a shift from the modern to the post-modern, where old ways of thinking are being usurped by new ones and where tried and true methods are no longer working. With the world now at our finger-tips, the internet has changed the way we live Ideas from all over the world are now competing for the hearts and minds of our young people. In response to all of this 'change'; how do followers of Jesus respond? And how do we be faithful to our mandate to pass the baton on to the new generations?
The church has a particularly poor track-record in responding to all of this change. Have you noticed the lack of young people in your church? Have you noticed that young adults are sliding away from faith in Jesus in their droves? Young people today are faced with an enormous array of choice: Should I go to church? Which religion should I follow? Which sexual orientation should I adopt? What career path should I take? What 'thing' am I going to buy next? How can I get my next high? Marriage is no longer accepted as a normal pathway and abstinence outside of marriage is now considered a miracle. Consumerism is informing our choices in the Western world - what can I buy next to make me feel better about my life? What's in it for me? The Christian worldview is quickly losing the battle for the hearts and minds of our young people and something has to be done.
It is in response to this that Salt-Shakers are now embarking upon a very exciting journey to resource and train young people with a Christian worldview. I feel extremely privileged to join the SS team and we are excited to announce the commencement of the 'Resistance Thinking' project. In his book, Prophetic Untimeliness, Os Guinness, inspired by CS Lewis, outlines an approach for the church to respond to the changes in our world. "Resistance thinking" outlines a way to balance the pursuit of relevance with the disturbing and uncompromising truths of the gospel. He suggests that only by 'prophetic untimeliness' can we be faithful to Christ and speak with integrity and wisdom in a world that is hungry for some truly good news. To reach young people we must be culturally accessible yet we must be so careful that we do not bow to the idol of relevance and compromise everything that our faith means. What a perfect name: Satlshaker's 'Resistance Thinking' project!
The Resistance Thinking project is designed to empower young people to effectively respond to our world as Christ's representatives here on this earth. To do this we have four main objectives:
- Raising Support:
- people who are committed to praying for the Resistance Thinking project
- people who will financially support the ongoing work of the project
- people who will help in other ways to bring the impossible to life!
- Developing Resources:
- articles, book-reviews, movie-reviews, opinion pieces, highlighting what's happening across our nation and world
- an interactive website - articles, polls, videos, podcasts, forums
- educational resources on certain hot topics - DVDs, short courses
- posters, banners, t-shirts, email polls
- Building Teams and Growing a Network
- a team of young people who will pioneer the development of the project
- a team of young writers who will contribute to the resistance thinking
- a network of people who take resistance thinking to their spheres of influence and who act on strategic issues happening in our world
- Getting the Message Out:
- presentations in schools, universities, and churches - where groups can look at our articles and choose what would be an appropriate topic for presentation
- running conferences and other events
- distributing resources in creative ways - like through a 'resistance thinking' band
To do all of this will take time and we need your help! If you can help or know of anyone else that could help in bringing the above areas and the dream of resistance thinking to life then we would love to hear from you. Please don't hesitate to get in touch as we partner together to see God's will outworked here on the earth.
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