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Suggestions for Youthworkers 2012

by Cherice & Joel Bock

 

Many youth are searching for a faith that is real, that has some feet to it rather than just words. Friends throughout history have exemplified living out their faith in ways that are world-changing, and that show real moral gumption. Sharing stories of historical and contemporary Friends (and others) who grapple with living out Christian convictions can be powerful for youth as they think about their place within our denomination and within the world community. You are welcome to share your own stories, share stories of historical or contemporary Christians you know well, or invite a guest speaker to come share about each of the SPICE topics (Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality).

Make sure to utilize the essay at the end of this document that gives more information about each of the Friends testimonies. Also, to spice up your lessons (pun intended!), go to the NWYM website (www.nwfriends.org/peacemonth) and check out the music by Nate Macy and Bill Jolliff. You could play a song or two at the beginning of your lesson, or during the lesson to illustrate a point. You could also invite one of them to come share with your youth group about why they wrote these particular songs.

 

Week 1: Simplicity

 

  • Explain the topic for Peace Month this year: Peace is one of the Friends testimonies–a way that Friends have traditionally felt called by God to live as they read the Bible and as they listen to God in their own lives. But peace is not the only Friends testimony. In order to understand our denomination and our faith better, this month we’ll be focusing on each of the Friends testimonies for a week. To make it easier to remember, we use the acornym SPICE: Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality. These are not things that Friends have just decided they like so they live them out, but they are expressions of their intentional focus on God’s call on their lives individually and as a community, gleaned through reading scripture and attending to their own experiences.
  • Today, we’ll focus on simplicity. What does “simplicity” mean?
  • Dictionary definition:

1. the state, quality, or an instance of being simple.

2. freedom from complexity, intricacy, or division into parts:an organism of great simplicity.

3. absence of luxury, pretentiousness, ornament, etc.; plainness: a life of simplicity.

4. freedom from deceit or guile; sincerity; artlessness; naturalness: a simplicity of manner.

5. lack of mental acuteness or shrewdness: Politics is not a field for simplicity about human     nature.

  • Discuss whether they think simplicity is or is not important for Christians.
  • Read Luke 12:22-34 or Matthew 6:25-34 about not worrying about material possessions because God will provide for us.
    • What does this say to us about simplicity?
    • Is anything about this passage difficult for you?
  • Tell a story from your own experience about a way you try to live simply, or a struggle you have regarding simplicity.
  • Open it up for the youth to share their own thoughts, attempts at living simply or struggles with this concept.

Week 2: Peace

 

  • What are some different types of “peace” you can think of?
  • Choose an individual to highlight. Discuss that person’s work for peace, especially focusing on how they started working for peace on that issue. This could be a historic Friend, a contemporary person in your meeting, or a famous person you know about who did something important to work toward peace and social justice.
    • Many Friends who we know now as great proponents of peace or justice simply looked around at things in their lives and recognized an injustice was going on, and spoke out against it.
    • Friends saw the deplorable conditions of the prisons because they were sent to jail, and they started working to change laws. They had friends and relatives in mental asylums and realized those had horrible conditions as well, so they began to open up mental institutions that were healthy spaces.
    • Regarding war, Friends noticed scriptural rejection of Christian participation in war, but they also noticed that no one was taking care of those hurt by war, so many Friends have helped in rebuilding countries after war, served as medics, or done other things to help those who are injured due to war. The American Friends Service Committee won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1947 for its efforts to rebuild Europe and feed those who were starving after World War II.
    • You can use these examples or one (some) of your own choosing.
  • Peace isn’t about being against something, or about being passive. It’s about actively listening to God and noticing the places where people are hurting, and doing something, as led by God, to help heal that hurt.
  • Read Amos 5:21-24 and discuss what it truly means to be a follower of Christ. (You can also read Micah 6:8 and/or read and discuss what Jesus says when he’s asked about the greatest commandment,  Matthew 22:34-40.)
  • Give an example of a place in your life where you feel called to work for peace and justice. How did you decide which issue to focus on? What are you doing to make peace?
  • Have the youth think about places in their life where they notice injustice or lack of peace. Have they felt a nudge from God about this issue? Invite them to start brainstorming ways they could start standing against that injustice.
    • Talk about whether there is one of these issues the youth group feels called by God to focus on together.
    • Could they start working together to stand for peace? What would be the first step?

 

Week 3: Integrity

 

  • What is integrity?
    • Integrity has to do with moral character and honesty.
    • Integrity of an object: it is whole or sound.
    • Integrity in math: can be expressed as an integer (same root), or whole number.
    • Adjective “integral”: something that is necessary in order for completeness to occur, “an integral part.”
    • Integration has to do with bringing different parts together to make a more complete whole.
    • Antonym: dishonesty.
    • So, integrity has to do with living in a way that is moral and honest, that leads to wholeness.
  • After thinking about integrity in all these different ways, ask the youth what it means to them to live with integrity. What would it look like? What are areas in their lives or in the lives of most American teenagers where it is difficult to live with integrity?
  • Read Matthew 5:33-37 (let your “yes” be “yes”).
    • You can tie this in to your last lesson on peace: living with integrity means paying attention to the ways you notice injustice and lack of peace, and refusing to cooperate with situations and systems that uphold injustice.
    • When is it easy to let your “yes” be “yes” and your “no,” “no”? When is it difficult?
  • Give an example from your own life of a way you’re trying to live with more integrity, or a struggle you’ve had at living with integrity.
  • Ask the youth to think of places in their lives where they feel drawn to live with more integrity.
  • As a lead-in to next week, think about whether one can live with integrity alone. Is it possible? Is it harder or easier to do so in community?
    • Harder: peer pressure.
    • Easier: when more people are refusing to cooperate with injustice, it is easier to have the courage to take a stand for your principles. It is also more effective.

 

Week 4: Community

 

  • Ask the youth to share ways they see community in the Bible. Some examples might be:
    • The nation of Israel
    • Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego sticking together and giving each other courage to continue living out their faith while in exile in Babylon
    • Jesus chose an immediate community and welcomed an extended community that he taught, ate with and traveled with
    • The Body of Christ analogy
    • The church in Jerusalem in Acts: everyone shared all they had, they worked to feed everyone together
  • What was important about these communities?
  • Friends are a communal people, believing that we hear and follow God best when we listen and act together.
    • Open worship is an example of this, as well as consensus-based business meetings.
    • Friends formed a tight community early on, but it was not an exclusive community: the intent was to invite others in.
    • Friends also took care of each other. When someone felt called to be a traveling minister, others would help take care of the traveling minister’s children and crops. When Friends ended up in jail for speaking out about their faith and against injustice, other Friends likewise helped with children and crops, as well as taking meals to those in jail.
  • Give an example from your own life of what it’s like to be part of a true community, and how this strengthened your faith.
  • Invite the youth to share about their experiences of community.
    • Do you feel like you’re part of a true faith community? Why or why not?
    • When have you experienced true community?
    • What does it take, from you and from others, to form a true community?

 

Week 5: Equality

 

  • This is really the testimony on which all of the Friends testimonies hinge. Because we as Friends believe God values all people equally and desires us to do the same, we seek to live out true community that invites all to participate. This means we strive to live peaceably with everyone, to be honest and have the same level of integrity with all, and to “live simply so others can simply live.”
  • Themes and verses that point to equality of all people:
    • Jesus died for all people, while we were still sinners (Romans 5:6-8).
    • God wants us all to be part of God’s family, adopted as God’s children and heirs with Christ (Romans 8:14-17).
    • In Christ, we are all one–regardless of race or ethnicity (“Jew or Greek”), position in society (“slave or free”) gender or, by extension, other qualifications (“male or female”) (Galatians 3:28).
    • We’re invited to love others as ourselves, the second-greatest commandment (Matthew 22:34-40).
  • Ask the youth what ways they see inequality lived out in the world around them.
    • What ways do you contribute to these inequities?
    • What ways do you suffer from others treating you as less-than or more-than-equal?
  • Tell a story of inequality in your life and how you dealt with it. This could be a positive or a negative example. If it’s a negative example, perhaps give a suggestion of how you would deal with it now.
  • Brainstorm ways the youth can break down systems of inequality they see around them.
    • How can they refuse to cooperate with social hierarchies at school, for example?
    • How might they be able to give a voice to those who do not have a voice in our society?
    • How might they suffer for this refusal to cooperate with “the system”?
    • What benefits might come as they try to treat everyone equally?
  • Wrap up the series by reflecting on the ways they have noticed injustice and inequality, and their sense of calling to building peace and community through living simply and with integrity.
    • What have you learned during Peace Month?
    • How have you been challenged?
    • How do you plan to start living out these new challenges from God?