The Model in Action 2: Jesus Receives an Offering

Few stories told in all 4 gospels. This is one of them.
Matt 14 / Mark 6 / Luke 9 / John 6

• 5,000 men, plus women and children.
• Jesus tells disciples: “Give them something to eat”
• The disciples didn’t get it. The masses were confused and hungry.
• But a boy with a bagged lunch understood, and his tuna fish sandwich fed them all.

What is your creative context?

+ What constraints make your situation formless, empty and dark?

• Formless: Building from scratch. Dysfunctional community, families, culture, churches. Broken lives.
• Empty: Insufficient funding, space, equipment, staff
• Dark: Confusion. No direction.

+ What evidence of the “Spirit’s hovering” do you see present in your situation? Share with your neighbor some of the assets that exist…

• In your youth & families
• In your neighborhood
• In your leaders
• In your own family

+ How have you responded to His Spirit? What words are you speaking?

The following series of articles is from the "Bagged Lunch and a Drop of Oil: Multiplying Re$ources for Urban Ministry" workshop which Jeremy Del Rio wrote for Reload 2006-2007.

Workshop Description:

Called but underfunded. Impassioned and hungry for more. Broke and feeling alone. How do bi-vocational youth workers pay the bills and buy the stuff necessary to get the job done? Jesus received one recorded offering in his career. The disciples didn’t get it. The masses were confused. But a boy with a bagged lunch understood, and his tuna fish sandwich fed 5,000. A husband’s debts nearly cost a widow her son’s freedom. The prophet’s response: “What’s in your hand?” A few drops of oil and a town full of jars later, she bought their freedom. Let’s explore how to turn tuna fish and empty bottles into resources for urban ministry.

Looking for a Biblical vision on which to build your youth ministry?

In this course from UYWI's '06-'07 Reload conference, Jeremy Del Rio shows us that all it takes is a little faith and a bagged lunch morsel to set God's creativity to work.

A Widow Creates

2 Kings 4:1-7

• A husband’s debts + a cranky creditor nearly cost a widow her sons’ freedom.
• The prophet’s response: What’s in your hand?
• A few drops of oil and a town full of jars later, she bought their freedom.
• It was only after she ran out of containers that the oil stopped flowing.

Justice is so easy even a five-year-old can do it.

It took me a long time to figure that out. Even though I’ve spent the better part of a lifetime committed to the idea of justice, determined to live for justice, I really couldn’t define it until last year. My latest journey toward better understanding why Jesus loves justice began roughly last March when I was asked to sit on a social justice panel at the 2006 Urban Youth Workers Institute (UYWI), and the moderator told the panelists he would begin by asking us to define it.

"Cross the street," I thought. "This could get ugly."

I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. – Jesus, to his disciples (Matthew 18:3, NIV)

“Why didn’t we help him?”

As Judah’s confused yet compassionate eyes gazed at mine, his words cut deep. We had just passed a panhandler in Chinatown on the way to introduce mom to soupy dumplings.

I had taken Judah the night before, just the two of us, on a father-son date. He enjoyed the dumplings so much, and the practice chopsticks the waiter taught him how to use, that he wanted to bring mom the next night.

"Be alert, be present. I'm about to do something brand-new. It's bursting out! Don't you see it? There it is! I'm making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands." - Isaiah 43:19, The Message

Two years ago, the evangelical world eagerly awaited the release of what was being lauded as "the greatest evangelistic tool of our time." The anticipation built as a brilliant marketing campaign invited pastors and church leaders to pre-screen Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ movie, and its trailer spread virally online. The supposed anti-Semitism controversy notwithstanding, evangelicals and Catholics worldwide pre-purchased tickets for opening night.

The MySpace Cry

What does the fact that so many kids share intimacies online say about the church?

Jesus once asked His disciples: "'Are you listening to Me? Really listening?'" (Matt. 11:15, The Message). Thousands of teens in our society are asking the same thing, as evidenced by the comments they generate on Web sites such as MySpace, a site designed to help them connect electronically with other young people. Many of their comments are graphic statements about the issues they confront every day: emotional conflicts, relationship dramas, family strife, sexuality, insecurities, purpose.