After a three week hiatus from "normal" youth group, we're back in full force! I want to thank you guys again for helping out with the JAM Time mini-unit, and then again (again) for helping with the Advent decorating. I heard so many compliments about both JAM Time and the decorating, and how grateful our congregation is for how involved you are. You are very, very loved and appreciated!
So. December is our unit on Consumerism and Media. It's also a month that the Journey Jammers are performing for JAM Time! We'll spend a little time each day singing/playing/supporting before we spend the remaining time covering what promises to be an intense, but very worthwhile, topic.
But before we get to our summary of week 1, here's our 5 Minutes of God Time Song: The Well by Casting Crowns. It speaks of the story of Jesus offering the Samaritan woman living water, helping her to recognize that what the world offers will never satisfy her inner thirst. Plus, it's a really good song- the farm animals might even sing along with me one of these day! :)
We continued with two (very different) clips:
Fight Club Speech (please note, there are a couple of swear words in this clip)
The High Price of Materialism
Despite my use of them in youth group, neither of these clips have anything religious in them- they are strictly secular reactions to what is becoming a much more obvious problem. Namely, that we as humans and as a society are continually searching for our meaning and happiness in things- and things will never actually satisfy our thirst (ahem, see the song notes above). So if people who have no great spiritual imperative are figuring this out, where does that leave Christians?
Well, we should be ahead of the curve on this one. "Should" be. I gave you a packet of bible verses (7 pages, front and back) that deal with material goods- and then I made you write down two more that didn't make the initial list. There might be even more (in fact, there probably are). I can summarize it pretty succinctly, though- we aren't to put faith or importance into material goods, because we aren't made for this world. Our true world is in Heaven, and "things" distract us from that reality. A short message, but repeated over and over and over and over again in the Bible. Think it might just be important?
Several of those verses in the packet also talk about another facet of this- following through. This is where we Christians tend to fall out of the lead on avoiding the consumerism conundrum. If we have that many verses about not valuing things that can break down or be stolen, it should be instinctive to us to place our time, effort, money, and intellectual power into other goals. But do we? Do you?
So I gave you a crossword puzzle (albeit one with rather silly clues- blame the sugar from the many, many cookies I ate!) and gave you some homework on the back. The crossword puzzle is intended to get you thinking about the different areas in which you might consume things. Some of them are going to be obvious, others might get lost in the mix. And then on the back of the page, I asked you to write down everything you own.
Because you guys weren't all super-thrilled about this idea, you had some qualifying questions. Here are the answers (to refresh your memory): If you own it, you bought it, or you'd consider it yours for the purposes of sharing it with your siblings, it counts. If you didn't buy it, but have a special attachment to it (a special mug that you don't like others to use, etc.) count it. You do not need to write down the family things you use (i.e. your couch), though it would give you a better idea of what you truly "consume," and you don't need to write down every individual item ("20 books" or "10 t-shirts" works fine).
But I want to see it that you did it this next week- I don't care what or how much you own, but I want to know that you put more effort into it than writing down 5 items and calling it quits. You have more than that on just your bed. This is for your benefit, so you can have a more honest picture of where you stand while we discuss the rest of the unit. Just try it- I think it will surprise you.
And that was all we had time for. I'm not posting the crossword puzzle (if you didn't get one on Sunday and still need one, see me). But I WILL look forward to seeing you all on Sunday
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