Refreshed
By benjaminwallis
Tags: All Hollows Church, mission trip, refreshed, Steubenville, theology, youth works
Category: Day to Day Blog, religion
Thursday night I found myself in the middle of what could be described as an emergent Maundy Thursday service. It moved me to tears.
As the culmination of a week long mission experience in Steubenville OH, the teenagers and adult leaders together sang hymns to God, read from His Word, heard a sermon, and washed each others’ feet. The form for this service could have come from a formal liturgical prayer book.
On a Thursday night not in Holy Week, the teenagers and adult leaders together sang modern praise and worship songs, had a talk about God, and then prayed over each other spontaneously while washing each others’ feet. The gathering looked about as far from a traditional catholic Maundy Thursday worship experience as is possible for a Christian gathering.
It is this very dichotomy that is characteristic of the emergent experience. Thursday night’s service was both rooted in thousands of years of tradition and completely non-traditional at the same time. How is that possible?
Perhaps the most influential aspect of Barthian theology on my own personal theology has been the dialectic method. It might not take exactly the same form in my own theology as it did for Karl Barth, but the very idea of a ‘yes’ and ‘no’, two opposing answers to every question, has had a profound impact on my theological thinking.
The emergent experience is both a ‘yes’ and ‘no’ to tradition. It is yes in its form and no in its substance. Its yes in its theology and no in its practicality.
As a seminary student, my weeks are normally packed full of church services. My particular seminary does a good job of varying the worship experience, at least to slight degrees. However, after a long and arduous semester of studying theology, the past week in Ohio was nothing short of a complete spiritual refreshment, in the same way that the emergent foot washing service was a refreshing take on a traditional service. Studying theology is one thing-living theology is another.
Cori and I went on this trip with All Hollows Church in Wyncote, PA. We didn’t know any of the youth. We only knew our friend Dennis, the youth director at All Hollows. It certainly took us out of our comfort zone to travel 6 hours on a week long mission trip with youth we had never met. By the end of the week, my comfort zone was shattered, freeing me mentally and spiritually to serve God and neighbor.
We learned about the true meaning of fame, wealth, and power, and how to radically follow in the footsteps of Jesus. We followed in those steps as we ran a kids club, working with 40-60 of the most troubled children I’ve ever seen. We visited nursing homes, picked up trash, painted walls, and much more. We made new friends and had experiences that will stay with us forever. At Youth Works the theology is deep and the experience is wide!
One of the most exciting parts of this trip were the new friends we found in the YW staff: Kim, Kryn, Mark, and Eric. The four were absolutely incredible. These were four of the most Godly people I’ve ever met. I can’t begin to describe the impact each of them had on my life. They truly had a servants heart, and I pray that I can live for Christ as they did this summer in Steubenville! I’m also blessed to say that we will be seeing Kim, Kryn, and Eric in Philadelphia next week, as long as time allows. I will be very sad if we don’t!
I could talk about this week forever, but instead I will leave you with a few more photos from the week. Unfortunately, I forgot my cable so I was only able to take pictures the first few days. However, I think that my camera was one of the things I needed to let go of this week, to fully become immersed in the experience.
I imagine that after today, I will blink and my summer will be gone. Tomorrow I have a Crafty By Nature, this week we pack, next Saturday we move, shortly thereafter is Prologue and then my semester! I will take the refreshment I received in Steubenville and use it to be productive.
Please keep Steubenville, OH in your prayers, as well as Youth Works in general, and the four staff members as they embark on their last week of the summer.
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