If Sir David Attenborough did youthwork Part 2…

Fire Ants: Unsinkable!

I don’t know whether you have used the phrase “hanging on for dear life”, maybe at the moment you actually feel this way? I used to do a bit of climbing and on one occasion I was on a rock face in Derbyshire, I managed to get the whole way to the top when some of my gear got caught. After a few minutes light panic and trying various ideas I realised the only option I had was to unclip from the safety of my rope and clamber the last few feet up onto the top of the rock. A good friend was there with me and helped me “survive”, but I clearly remember grabbing his arm tighter than anything ever as he pulled me up to safety. So whenever I hear the phrase “hanging on for dear life” this is what comes to mind.

I can only imagine what would have happened if the same situation would have unfolded while I was on my own, maybe a very different outcome!!

My reason for sharing is to point out the very simple, but deeply profound fact, that we are stronger, better, more capable, more significant when we are together! But also let us not forget the call in Acts 2 for “All the believers were together and had everything in common.” The growth of the church came out of their working together and from them valuing the whole group over anyone’s individual needs.

Allow me to introduce to you some of the greatest team players in all creation: fire ants from the Amazon rainforest. So why I am talking about fire ants? Firstly, fire ants are awesome, just a couple of millimetres long yet hugely creative. Secondly, fire ants actually build themselves together to become a new home in times of disaster! Thirdly, they leave no one behind!! My family and I love watching the stories and discoveries of Sir David Attenborough and his ability to show unseen amazing creation. But every time we watch I find myself grabbing my notebook because of the wonder of creation but also because the behaviour of so many creatures teaches me something significant about youth ministry.

During the rainy season in the rainforest there are obviously times when flooding happens and during this time fire ants lose their home because it becomes submerged. But they are prepared, they know what’s happening and they posses the skills and ingenuity to adapt. They literally trap air in the hair on the bodies which creates a cushion that allows them to float. As the flood waters rise the fire ants leave their home and link together to create a floating raft of fire ants. Then as the waters continue to rise they allow themselves to float to their new home in time for when the waters recede. This isn’t a behaviour of panic and chaos, it is organised and extremely creative. The fire ants link their legs together to build a solid raft, and as they move they are constantly watching out for any ant that slips off the raft, if this happens a chain of ants is created to reach out, grab, save, and bring back to the colony – so cool! As you watch this adventure unfold you also see the ‘soldier’ ants pushing the younger ants up on top to keep then safe and ensure survival, ants literally going underwater to save younger ants from drowning – I am so in awe of these heroic ants! But what a great image of leadership; that we as leaders should be “sacrificing” ourselves to lift younger leaders up!

I hope you are starting to have an image in your minds about how amazing these creatures are. But also I wonder if God is nudging you at this point and asking “who do you need to reach out and grab?” This last 12 months we have seen ‘flood waters rise’, we have seen stable homes be shaken, we have seen communities unsettled by the ever-changing restrictions. Even with our churches and youth groups we have been forced to change the way we do community and this has caused some to slip away. Maybe now, as gatherings is starting to become possible again, we should be looking around seeing where we can reach out, grab, save, and bring back? Who do we need to ‘link’ with so that they can be revived and discover a new home? Maybe during this past season you have found a new strength and are being called to use your current stability to serve someone who has struggled. This is the power of the colony; each of us at different times will be able to lift the other back up.

By working together the fire ants become unsinkable, moving through the impending disaster to a new place, a new home, a new togetherness. Forgive the cliché, but fire ants don’t care where their home is, their home is wherever they are together. We all know the church is not the building, but the people, and we belong to ‘one’ church. A individual fire ant will not survive! But the whole colony, when unified, when prioritising the health and survival of the whole group, will move together and will then succeed and thrive.

Our youthwork tribe is a colony of fire ants, I see so often youth leaders reaching out to grab and ‘pull back in’ others. I am still in youth ministry after 30 years because of people caring enough to look out for me and ‘pull me back’ when I needed them to. Time and time again I see youth leaders connecting and gathering simply to encourage one another. I see youth groups running events together and being community. I see leaders using social media to encourage and cheer on other youth ministry. The Youthwork Tribe is a beacon to the whole church. Yes we can always do better and yes we need to continue to put in great effort to include and draw others closer. But I see great unity within my tribe and I am often driven to my knees praying that the whole church community would behave this way. Just imagine churches reaching to grab those that are slipping away, imagine the whole church seeing themselves as one colony, imagine the whole church moving together and overcoming disaster to build something new.

So as we ‘move’ during this next season, as we consider where to go next in ministry, my prayer is that we would do it together. There is power in the colony, and by working together we can become unsinkable.

Amen.

No longer alone!

As 267 looks towards a more ‘open’ season of ministry I have been reflecting on the importance of creating community and establishing real, relevant, joy-filled spaces where people can gather, heal, receive and grow.

“What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.” – Kurt Vonnegut

I believe that God has called 267 to be able to offer community and connection that will counteract the isolation and loneliness many have experienced over the last year. We need to place young people at the centre of this community, not just so that they benefit themselves, but more importantly for what they can bring to those around them. I’ve seen how young people do friendship; no they are not perfect, but they love their friends deeply, they make time for them, they check in on them when they are down, they fight for them when there is opposition and they embrace the simplicity of just being together. These behaviours are central to a great community, but more than that, people are able to heal when they dwell in this type of community, a community where they are welcomed, loved, valued, included and protected.

“We don’t heal in isolation, but in community.” S. Kelley Harrell

One of my best friends Tori, who spent time in Spain doing youthwork, shared with me a great Spanish tradition; sobremesa! The words doesn’t really translate into a single English word but more of a event. The tradition of sobermesa involves spending time relaxing after a meal to drink coffee and chat. The ritual came about because of the heavy Spanish lunch, often made up of a first course, second course and dessert (I need to move to Spain)! The idea of sitting around sharing stories, listening to the joys, adventures and burdens of one another’s lives is a deeply beneficial act for a community. I believe it is something we have lost from our families and communities. I know, for various reasons, that sitting around the table for a meal happens less, which leaves me wondering where are the spaces where we can have unhurried times of re-connection and relational restoration? I find the idea of sobremesa hugely exciting, not least because having a meal together is a joy, but also it enables time and space where people can be real and build relationship without hurrying onto the next thing.

There is another great word I’ve discovered; Koinonia! Koinonia is a Greek word found in various places in the New Testament. Like many Greek words it doesn’t easily translate into one English word, and sometimes when we try and do that we miss the point! Koinonia is a ‘dynamic relationship’, it involves deep participation in the Christian community, sharing, generosity, honesty and celebrating what we have in common; Jesus! But the idea of koinonia isn’t just something for Christians to embrace, what if all our communities were to seek a way of doing life that prioritised generosity, sharing and investing in the lives of one another in a deeper way.

One of the highlights of my youthwork ministry has been the times we have taken young people away. These times are full of both abundant ‘koinonia’ and ‘sobremesa’. This community-attitude creates spaces and gatherings where young people and leaders alike find it easier to deepen friendships and express feelings. Young people always lead the way in this, their ability to celebrate community continues to blow my mind and I constantly seek to follow their example.

Throughout the entire last 12 months we have all, in some way, experienced fractured community and relationships. We have felt isolation and we may have experienced loneliness on various levels. The solution is to come together, the solution is embrace what connects us rather that what divides us. I have loved hearing stories of neighbours who prior to March 2020 didn’t even know one another’s names, now meet up and chat regularly. What we have come to realise through this paralysing event which has affected the entire planet, is that we need one another! Rather than spending time pursuing my own agenda I now need to look to those close by and ask how can I serve and love them?

So, as we navigate 2021, carrying the scars of the last year but also the hope of the coming year, my prayer is that we will do all we can to provide a koinonia-like, sobremesa-like community that people would find easy to join but, after experiencing its joy and life, will then choose never to leave! (without wanting it to sound like cult!!)