Thursday, August 31, 2006

txt blessings as passionate Christian practices

We are passionate (about connecting with each other using our cell phones). God is passionate about connecting with us. Passionate practices connect our passions with God’s passions.

cellphone.jpg And so the passionate practice for the month of August at Digestion (Sunday evening church) has been using cell phones to text blessings. We have used Sunday evenings to run text challenges and explore how God blesses us. We have used Wednesday evenings in our youth small groups to experience blessing prayers, translate Bible benedictions into txt language, and come up with their own txt blessings.

Sunday evening was our celebration service that ended the passionate practice for the month. A lot of work went into from Opawa Youth Group.

obysunday.jpg Photos from Jas’s blog.

At the celebration service we plan some way for people to share what they have learnt from using the passionate practice during the month. How has God been at work in us as we have lived Christianity passionately, in our daily practices, (in this case, of texting blessings), during our Monday to Friday lives?

So these were shared, the txt blessings, produced by our young people during the month, and shared with us on Sunday.


May God bless you through people u r connected with
& may he bless the people ur connected with thru u

Go, grow, sprout and shout out the glory of the BIG JC!

We are all unique. Treat everyone equal, as you are all equal in the family of Christ. Love everyone for their talents and abilities that come from God. May the Lord bless you in the week ahead. Be thankful for everything and help us to worship you in all that we do.

Written by our young people. Aren’t they great! We will use them for a few months and then perhaps settle on one as a OBY/Digestion blessing for ever.

For an introduction:
and more on texting as a passionate practice go here; to passionate practices go here; for a passionate practice of discernment go here; for a passionate practices of pilgrimage go here.

For book resources:
Practicing Passion: Youth and the Quest for a Passionate Church gave an initial theological framework and opened my eyes to passion as a way to affirm youth spirituality; God bearing life:The Art of Soul Tending for Youth Ministry, which has excellent reflection on passion and passion in youth ministry; and Soul Tending which is stacked with actual practices.

Posted by steve at 08:07 PM

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