I meet them about a year ago through Michael, one of the students in my student ministry, at the church where I am student pastor. Michael had been going to the Secular Student Alliance Club each week to talk and share his Christian beliefs with the students and to jump in to the debates and discussions they had each week. I really admire Michael for doing this, I don’t think I would have done that at his age if our school had a SSA Club like they do. (We had to fight to even have the right to a Christian Club when I went to South Gwinnett High School 20 years ago.) The SSA club invited me to speak a few times last school year thanks to the invite from Michael. After Michael has graduated and gone to college I have stay in contact with the students and we talk weekly through Facebook about different subjects.
Let me first break some common misconceptions about the students in the SSA club. They are nice, polite, smart, and funny. Just like the average teen. Many of them are active in community doing things to take care of environment. A few weeks ago they held a can drive to collect food items for a local food bank in the area. There are certain feelings that are associated or arise when you mention the word “atheist” or “skeptic”, or even “Christian” for that matter. I think these feelings come from a past where perception was different. Any time I have gone to talk with them I have always felt at ease and comfortable with talking to them.
Part of the reason I wanted to write this blog was to help you break down those areas of misconception and also to get a feel of what is like to have conversations with students like these or anyone else for that matter. Yesterday I went to the meeting not really knowing what I might talk about. I usually have an outline and prepared talk, but yesterday I just felt like being very low-key and open to where the conversation may go. I had been in some intense discussions recently online with some of them and I really felt it was important to just be a good listener this time. I admit, I think I have become addicted to the feeling of being in the moment with apologetic discussions. Not knowing what questions may come up and not having all the answers, I know the best thing I can do is offer up a quick prayer for help and rely on the Holy Spirit to help me give an answer that is Biblical and is easy to understand.
As the meeting started they allowed me to open with a small discussion about some things that I have noticed through the online conversations as misunderstandings about the Christian worldview. I talked about Blind faith vs. a Biblical Faith. Biblical faith is based on evidence just as scientists make thesis and hypothesis based on evidence in science. From there the conversation morphed into the different types of knowledge that we can obtain.
After I finished talking I opened it up for anybody ask questions. They asked some really good questions that I could tell that they really wanted to know the answer to. Some were easy to answer, some questions I had to ask a question in return to get some clarification over, and some I had to pause and think a bit before responding. We were discussing free will, and one student asked a good question, that caught me off guard, one I had never heard before. A student asked me if God took part of Mary’s free will when He chose her to be the mother of Jesus and to be with child from the Holy Spirit. After a brief pause, and another silent prayer for some help from God I thought and went back to the story. We know from the text that Mary was already a follower of Jehovah God and like most Christians today, we want God’s will to be our own will. I made a personal reference to my life to back up the thought. The other Christian in the room, the student, chimed in and said that Mary still had a choice of whether to keep the baby or to accept God’s desire for her life. In the text it says that she had been chosen by God, but it didn’t say that she was already pregnant yet. That was an insightful question. We ended the meeting talking about Homosexuality a bit and then finished talking about worldviews and how that there can only be one right worldview. They can’t all be right.
One of the students I have been talking with for the last several weeks was asking a lot of questions about the Bible and I asked him if he had a Bible. He did not have one so I asked if I could give him one. He agreed and took it from me. I am looking forward to going back soon, if not to talk, but perhaps only to listen and sit in on their discussions and learn what kinds of things that they deal with and question. One thing that I can say about this group oh high school students is that they really want to know what they believe and why. They are looking for truth and answers for life and I applaud their thirst for knowledge and truth. I would wish that many Christians would also have the same type of fire that these high school students do.
As always, questions, comments, and discussions welcome.
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