Fiercely Proclaiming the Good News ...

Did I mention I LOVE the season of Advent?! Using yesterday's lectionary reading of Mark 1:1-20, we were able to actually live it out in our 6:20pm worship. One of the things we did was have the youth prepare the room for worship as John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus! Basically, when the students arrived for worship, the room was not set up and they had to prepare it and the table for Holy Eucharist. Then following the flow of the Scriptrue reading, we then celebrated our baptisms by participating in Holy Communion (one of the wonderful benefits, so to speak, of Baptism). But not only did we share in communion, but we called each other by name in celebration! The idea was that Fr. Josh began by calling three student's names and then they each called three more, and so on until the entire group had received communion. It was quite powerful to experience!

Then, in my devotion time this morning, I read this:
"John the Baptist invited people to open their eyes and see what God was doing right in front of them. He was a messenger who fiercely proclaimed Good News at a time when it was desperately needed. John invited them to consider what it might mean to prepare for the coming of the Messiah."

I love this take on John the Baptist and his purpose. In fact, I feel lucky to be able to share in offering that same experience to our youth each week as we share in ministry together! Beacuse that's one of the primary reasons for youth ministry ... to make the Bible relateable and understandable for youth.

So in the spirit of living out Scripture and seeing what God is doing, I found this video on the nativity that will likely speak to today's youth! Oh, and in that same spirit ... you DO NOT want to miss our 6:20pm worship this coming Sunday! We have a few FUN and EXCITING and RELEVANT "moves" up our sleeve!