In case I haven't boasted about this yet. For a few months now I've been hosting a discussion group on Wednesday nights with ten guys from Zeal (the youth ministry I work for). It has been an amazing time. The idea of the forum was a free discussion where they feel they can chat things over as brutally and uncensored as they want. Here comes the boasting...
These kids are amazing! Often I walk in with some self-righteous agenda to 'impart wisdom to the youths' and instead often find my own views challenged and altered by how well thought out and articulate these guys are.
As part of last week's discussion we talk about creeds. I showed them the Nicene Creed and the American Creed and explained to them that these were the fundamental core beliefs of their people. From there the ten of us spent an hour and a half over dinner trying to form a creed we could all agree on. The transcript of the conversation is incredible to look through. What started as a shallow discussion about homophobia and defication soon led to an incredibly deep exploration of what was most important to each of them, what price they'd sell their beliefs for, and what they're willing to die for.
Incredibly, out of the ten (three of which are Christian) every person agreed that there is a soul, and that that soul goes somewhere after you die. One particularly brave participant even went as far as to say "I'm not a Christian, but I can't deny God is there, I know it." It was awesome.
Anyway, here's what we could agree on. The 'Zeal Kids Creed' if you will...
We believe our creed to be the things we will not back down on.
Not fear of death, nor instinct to survive, will change this core understanding of who we are.
Not fear of death, nor instinct to survive, will change this core understanding of who we are.
Spiritually, we believe every being to have a Soul.
That our earthly life is not all we have
We believe the Soul to be the only gift that can never be taken
In spite of physical impairment or infirmity, your Soul is still your own.
In Love, you may end up sharing your Soul with others.
That our earthly life is not all we have
We believe the Soul to be the only gift that can never be taken
In spite of physical impairment or infirmity, your Soul is still your own.
In Love, you may end up sharing your Soul with others.
We believe that every perspective is to be respected.
With this in mind, we hope to be treated by others with the values of forgiveness, loyalty, and sincerity. We desire to be treated as we would treat others.
With this in mind, we hope to be treated by others with the values of forgiveness, loyalty, and sincerity. We desire to be treated as we would treat others.
We hold family, both biological and inherited, of key importance
We are not patriotic or bound by borders
We are part of the human race of Earth, not anything defined by geographical lines
Our homeland is not worth dying for
We are part of the human race of Earth, not anything defined by geographical lines
Our homeland is not worth dying for
We believe in personal absolute truth
This experience has been a huge wake-up call to me. I think young people in New Zealand are much more spiritually open and aware than we often give them credit for. I'd love one day to do this exercise with fifty or sixty groups to form a cross-section of New Zealand young people. Without a doubt, this has opened my mind and will impact hugely on the way I work at Zeal in future.
Maybe it's something you could try...
2 comments:
That's awesome bro. Powerful stuff. Interesting that they don't hold patriotism in high regard...
Also, the idea of "personal absolute truth" is quite interesting. Isn't that just another way of saying that all truth is relative?
Yeah it's pretty a wanky way of saying 'there is no truth'. Found that one difficult to write down as I don't subscribe to it at all.
Lead to interesting discussion on how people should not think their beliefs are any better than anyone elses. The fact is, if you hold beliefs, you believe they are right - therefore of course better than any other set of beliefs.
We can only attempt to be objective to a point. Sometimes blatant subjectivity is the best form of objectivity. Atleast then people know where you stand.
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