Immerse | A Journal of Faith, Life, and Youth Ministry

Going Deeper with: Alan Roxburgh’s “Can the West be converted?”

by Steve Case on March 4th, 2011 -- filed under Church

See if you can relate…

It is six o’clock in the morning. You’ve been up for an hour. Sleep came in short bursts all night long. You are standing in the kitchen of a church where you have never worshiped and barely know your way around. You’re sleeping here because the friend of a friend of a pastor said, “Yeah, you and your group can sleep here.”

You’re trying to figure out which of the youth sleeping in the next room ate the last of the chocolate Pop-Tarts. You’re willing the coffee to come out of the pot faster. The other chaperones stand around you, all of you in silence; it is not time to speak just yet. In a moment, when the Pop-Tarts are gone and the coffee is in hand, you can speak about the day ahead.

Yesterday you helped put a new roof on a home that most of your students would never lower themselves to live in. The woman who owns the home grew up there. She’s 90. Today you will take the youth to the local food pantry because this is the day the welfare checks come in, and many of those in town make a day of it and come for food and clothing. Tonight you’ll sit around on hard metal chairs and talk about the day. Tomorrow you’ll do work very similar to today’s, and the next day you’ll go home to a warm bed, a loving spouse, and a hot shower.

This…