Articles Number Five

Like all Co-Mission churches, we were keen to
love our neighbours the way that our Father in
heaven does. In part, that looked like finding
ways to show mercy in our community (Matthew
5:43-47). One of the groups most in need of
that mercy were our young people. Here’s how
that worked out for us:
INSTILLING PURPOSE
Our aim was to offer young people an
attractive new purpose - to be an ambassador
for God (Genesis 1:26-28). Unfortunately, the
circumstances, experiences and culture of the
boys who were referred to us through schools
and youth groups often nudged them in a very
different direction. Their life circumstances
were sometimes very stable but in other cases
explosive. Their experiences were sometimes
mostly of the Disney variety - being told “to
be true to what they feel.” For others, police
cordons were second nature and spoke of
troubling tension in their streets. Their cultural
influences sometimes included drill music but
for others just run of the mill, individualistic,
materialistic pop. All of these influences could
nudge them to rewrite the story of our lives
with God far from the centre. So in our weekly
evening meetings, we sought to communicate
something of the Bible’s big story - that we
were made to love, the way that God loves us.
TEACHING AMBASSADORS
With this as our aim, it was clear to
us that we would not excite the next
generation with this vision merely
through correction (e.g. the strict
code of respect in our meetings or
tougher sentencing in the courts). Nor
would mere containment do the job
(e.g. our programming skills courses
that kept them off the streets or more
council youth provision that did the
same). We knew that we needed to do
these things, but that they were never
designed to thrill us with new purpose.
They needed the story of the Bible.
The tough part was communicating
this story well. Often we spoke a
vastly different language to the young
people we served. So to communicate
this vision in language they could
understand, in ways that addressed
their questions and fears, we needed
to know where they are coming from.
This wasn’t about wearing the same
trainers but about taking the time to
listen to them. It’s been crucial. Eating
together every week meant that there
was really time to do that.
We listened to their music and
introduced them to some Christian
hip hop artists too. We heard about
the places in school and on the estate
where they feel scared. Because we
heard them, we could then begin to
communicate this new vision to them
in ways that connect and find practical
ways to support them. I wish I could
say we were now experts. It is still very
much a work in progress.
ARTICLES 9