Canning 1, 2, 3, 4

"Our personalities reflect our relationships with God." ~Sophie

Sophie is a sophomore at The King's College where I work as a Resident Director.  And it just so happens that Sophie is on my team of students I'm taking to East Africa this May. 

This evening on our class break Sophie and I got in a dialogue about how we all experience God a bit differently, and that we shouldn't expect our relationships with him to all look the same.

The conversation stemmed from a teaching time with an evangelist trainer, who left my East Africa team feeling less than satisfied with his presentation of presenting the Good News.  I felt bad, actually, that even I as the leader faced inward opposition as I listened to the man insist on the "traditional" methods that in today's world are ineffective and outdated.  As Os Guinness stated a few months ago, "Any method that goes 1, 2, 3, 4, needs to be canned."  Os pointed out that Jesus' interactions with people varied significantly as he met each person where they were at in life.  With Jesus, there is no cookie cutter method, or way to be a Christian, yet for years the church has tricked people in saying there is only one way to be a Christian.
My debrief time with the team was short, I only asked for the positive, since we didn't have time to hash out all the ickyness felt by my team.  This, of course, is a mistake as a team leader, but with the clock quickly ticking away, I honored time rather than honesty.  Of course I hope to return to the dialogue in a future meeting, but sometimes a delay in debrief is less than effective because by then people have forgotten or are indifferent to what the situation or conversation is or was.