July 18, 2010

• RYM Wrapup

  Though we’ve been at NCC for almost 9 years now, this summer we set foot on the RYM Youth Conference for the first time. Last week we spent 5 days in Panama City, FL (Laguna Beach) with 27 of our senior high kids and youth leaders.

  Our involvement with the youth group has grown in the past couple years. We stayed away back in the early days because we thought there was too much overlap between school and church. (We didn’t want to be overwhelmingly present in the lives of some kids.)  Since then our thinking has changed (yay) and our school & church communities overlap much less.

  So when the opportunity arose this summer to assist with RYM as chaperons, we put our names on the list for the beach adventure. Overall, it was a good week.  As Coart says, “It’s funny to see the PCA sense of decorum stretched over the top of 1500 teens at a beach.”  The conference is well-planned and -executed.  The preaching was outstanding and refreshing and Grace-centered.  The weather was nearly unbearable. If I never return to that part of Florida, it will be too soon.

  I really enjoyed spending longer stretches of time around the teens in our church. They’re great people — a lot of fun, and sometimes more in tune with the heart of the Gospel than many adults. Those who are broken understand their need for help. Those who are “healthy” don’t need the Physician, Jesus said.

  I especially valued the speakers we heard — Richie Sessions, Brian Habig, and Joey Stewart.  Richie took a dry topic (“sovereignty”) and breathed the life of true experience into it. His evening talks were short but powerful — he didn’t need to fill them with irrelevant stories or cutsie outlines. He got up, spoke the Truth, and sat down. I appreciate that in a speaker. 

  Brian Habig brings a winsomeness to hard things — that’s a strange sentence, but true. He was teaching a class on dating/marriage/sex (a high-interest topic for anyone between the ages of 12 and 102) to a packed-out room, but instead of resorting to the usual list of do’s/don’ts, he focused his thoughts on the way our understanding of Creation, Fall, and Redemption changes everything about how we live. <<We are created in the image of an “us.”>> – my favorite quote from him.  Our passion for relationships lets us “bump against the goodness of God” in daily living. Our fallen nature screws it all up and twists our desire for relationship into a passion for idolatry.  These “counterfeit gods” (to quote Tim Keller) possess our hearts, and “anything I can’t live without” begins to displace the role of the Savior in healing, fulfilling, and satisfying the infinite hole built into our hearts. Great stuff.

  Joey Stewart directs RYM and has been working with the ministry for 20 years — pretty amazing. His class essentially covered justification and sanctification, and it was incredible. So many people are trapped in a “hamster wheel” religion! Doesn’t matter whether you name the right theology; we live as if our actions after salvation make God happy (or upset) with us. It’s a deadly, destructive mistake. Props to Joey for clearly and boldly saying what people don’t want to believe: Grace. Grace. Grace. The Gospel is enough. Our 10-step plans for righteousness are crap.

  The NCC youth group excels in abusing other youth groups (in a semi-friendly way, of course). Water balloons appear out of nowhere when our boys are around, hitting their targets efficiently. Our guys working tray return at lunch one day harassed people who didn’t eat their food. “Take another bite!” Kelsey or Timothy would command. It was pretty funny.  The truest “conflict” came during the mega-rec game time in the afternoons, of course. Nothing excites our sense of “fair” like competition … and the NCC kids were incensed that we were consistently cheated against by a particular youth group the entire time. Pinewood Church (maybe they’re from Mississippi? not sure) became the arch-enemy of Mark and the guys, who would bellow “CHEATERS!!!” across public spaces whenever they recognized any Pinewood people. *coughs*   But we had many good moments too. Several teens stopped by the vans to say goodbye to us when we were loading up to leave.

  I don’t know whether the other youth groups are much like ours.   And I kinda like that…. 

  Next year, maybe we’ll eschew the oven-hot purgatory of FL (seriously… it was stupidly humid) for the conference that’s held in Colorado. Mark is leaving us to pastor a youth group out there (suburb of Denver). Makes sense that we could head West next summer to visit Mark and enjoy some cooler air in the middle of summer.

  I’ve got a couple photos on Facebook from our adventures — they’re in the Mobile Uploads album. Don’t miss the pink velvet Jesus!! lol

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