Tue 20 Nov 2007
Expectations
Posted by jen under Mentoring, Ministry
[2] Comments
I love the NYWC and read about a talk given by Shane Claiborne. I’ve bounced around on some of the blogs giving recounts of this session and I couldn’t believe some of the feedback. People were actually pissed that he spoke from the bible… only. There was so much expectation from people who wanted to hear about him and his life journey but when he started reading straight from the bible they kept thinking he’d stop at any moment and give his own reflection on it all. It’s just amazing to me that we’ve become a society where youth workers are know-it-alls, “I know this”, “I’ve read that verse a hundred times”. Some people were so focused on Shane stopping at any moment that they completely missed his entire point. Sure, anyone could read straight from the bible but they completely missed the opportunity of hearing the Sermon on the Mount, in all it’s entirety, because they were so eager in hearing this guy’s opinion and autobiography. In that moment, they felt Shane’s life was more important than grasping the actual words (of Jesus) coming from his mouth. If we become like this, then what is the purpose of the bible? Why have a bible at all? If a verse is read once, is it set in our hearts and memory forever? Is it never applicable to our life again? Are our lives so redundant that verses become incapable of variant meaning at different stages of life?
How utterly profound that we go places, expecting God to speak to us, expecting to learn more about Jesus, yet when someone reads Jesus’ actual words, it’s considered an irritant and boring.
November 20th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
jen, this kind of comment drives me nuts:
It’s just amazing to me that we’ve become a society where youth workers are know-it-alls, “I know this”, “I’ve read that verse a hundred times”.
the VAST majority of responses (both at the event, and through blogs and comments) was positive about what shane did. people thought it was amazing, brilliant, profound, etc. only a FEW people have struggled with it — and, in their defense, it’s not scripture they’re having any problem with, but the semi-manipulative bait-and-switch shane did. it’s not about whether youth workers value scripture or not. the question was about set expectations.
please be careful not to make sweeping statements about youth workers based on a few comments.
November 20th, 2007 at 4:23 pm
Marko,
I mistakenly left out an important word: some. The section that you quoted should have been “where some youth workers are know-it-alls”. Obviously I wasn’t making a “sweeping comment”, I am a youth worker after all and have read the positive feedback about Shane’s talk, from youth workers, as well.
My entry was directed at those [few] attitudes that posted comments on your site or posted entries on their own blogs about wanting to hear what Shane had to say about himself or opinions that he had and these [few] were disappointed in the fact that, instead, Shane read the entire sermon straight from the bible. Some feedback stated that anyone could have done that or that they were already familiar with the section that Shane was speaking on. It still shocks me that those that teach the bible to youth are acting so immature in not being able to get over an expectation that wasn’t met, especially when the alternative to their hope was one of Jesus’ most popular talks.
I agree that the select “few” that had issues were probably because of their “set expectations”. If you notice, my entry title is “Expectations” because of the people that were anticipating a first-hand account from someone and expressed irritation when, instead, the bible was read.
Call it a “semi-manipulative bait-and-switch”, I call it a brilliant way to teach about the bible.