the bowden family blog

during the last day of the class i had the sweet privilege of taking part in last week at fuller (living the (biblical) text in a postmodern context), one of the exercises really rocked my brain. i was asked to reflect on a certain aspect of the biblical text, and it’s interaction with my life in each of the last 12 months. now this might not seem to be anything special to you, and i’ll admit that in years past it would not have been that extra ordinary to me either, but this year was quite different.

in my past, you normally could ask to think back over a given year and their would not be too many dramatic changes. But as i thought back over the last 12 months of my life, my life has been anything but constant. Last July I was very newly married, living in the great land of north Louisiana, searching for my first post college real deal job. A month later my brave and trusting beauty and I headed to Texas to join the staff of ‘the Bridge fellowship‘ in Sugar Land as the associate student minister.

as the new year started, God allowed us the chance to step into a greater role at the Bridge as the interim student minister, and as I thought about how the text interacted with my life last week, I couldn’t help but remember the emotions, changes, and the truths that were a result of this opportunity back in january. as i stepped into this position, i was excited for the chance to have an even greater influence in touching student’s lives, and I must admit that I wasn’t too overwhelmed by the office, administrative, and planning work (much contrary to my laid back, easy going ways) that were now solely my responsibility.

but as the weeks rolled by, a different kind of responsibility seemed to weigh on me. I think the only person I’ve shared the following with is Brittany, so if you are actually reading all of this, thanks, and welcome to my thought world! So as I picked up more responsibilities in the student ministry and dug in deeper and more frequently in my study of the bible, Brittany and I also had the chance to minister to and converse with students in varied places in their Journey to God. My eyes were opened to the average student’s lack of understanding with the bible (not to mention my own deficiency) and it’s character’s, themes, and message. one of the greatest reasons that serving at the Bridge fellowship was a great opportunity was because of the unique way that God is using this local church body to reach a great number of previously unchurched families, who have little or no experience with Jesus, the Bible, church, or God. but as I served there as the student minister, I also found that this sweet characteristic of the Bridge also made my task a little more difficult.

as family’s came faith at the Bridge, many of the student’s were just now beginning to hear and/or wrestle with the Bible in the crazy time known as adolescents. As if the hormones, pimples, and opposite sex weren’t enough, now they had ‘youth pastor’ trying to teach them about this ancient-yet now faith, called the bible full of burning bush’s, ‘the law’, lots of blood, olive trees, and the savior of the world, all somehow fitting together? Do you see the challenge I saw? This was a much different situation than my own personal story. I had grown up in church all of my life. I knew the stories, I knew the flannel-graphs. I knew what was suppose to make sense, or what i was suppose to nod and agree with. I could somewhat speak and understand the lingo; but not these students.

and so I was faced with questions much like the questions toiled over last week in the living the text.. class: how do we teach (not limited to the pulpit on sunday am), discuss, and live out God’s eternal truth in a largely post-christian, biblically illiterate, post modern, globalized world?

coming fresh from my experience at the Bridge, I was excited to take part in the class last week, largely with more questions than knowledge or expertise to offer. i was not disappointed. although the one week intensive format was a bit much (5 days of class at 7 days an hour), every other part of the experience was greatly beneficial from my co-educatees with their varied background, experiences, and life stages, the many exercises we practiced (like the one at the beginning), to the talented educator steve taylor (www.emergentkiwi.org.nz)(great even with the accent, ha).

looking back on the limited time we had to complete a full course (5 days, whoa), I am stunned by the breadth and depth of topics we touched on. coming into the class, I had a fear that the focus of the week would be solely on preaching, and while I could definitely use much work and growth in this area, I was highly pleased that this was only one aspect of living the text. to focus on this aspect would have been missing the boat.

this course developed in me a greater appreciation for the power and importance of the text in both my personal walk with God, and also in my ministry to a local church. yes, it would be much easier and head ache free to minister to a world that is fluent in the stories of God at work, but that is not where we find ourselves. I must honestly seek to know the world I live in, not the world i think or wish I live in.

stories will be told, songs will be sung. what will they tell of?