People find out they're Christians...

Last night the high school group whose numb I break joined with the middle school group from our church to go around in local neighborhoods to pass out fliers for a food drive pick-up happening on Saturday. I was really proud of the kids (obviously I wouldn't blog here if I wasn't) for three big reasons.

1. A large number of them showed up. We've never done this kind of a "mini-missions" trip on a Wednesday night before, so we weren't sure who would really be into it. We had a "high" attendance night (which is not our sole indicator of success, but every "number" is a teen we love)! This blessed me and I hope each other - it also furthered my belief that the teens in our group/town are tired of talking about it and being intellectual Christians - they want to put wheels on the car and go somewhere. Our teens are not stupid about theology though, they know the great schism and the 95 thesis and routinely talk eschatology...they are missionary minded theologians.

2. Many of the high schoolers acted very graciously towards middle schoolers. I have two fears: sharks and larage groups of children under 13. Thankfully only one of those was a reality last night. And since we are an hour from the ocean, I have to say that I love seeing high schoolers care for "the least of these"; in their world, this often means a 6th-8th grader.

3. One of the drivers was a teacher from one of the local high schools and he made a point 2 or 3 times to tell me how much he loved these kids and how they were a great group and etc. etc. After a lot of the kids had left I got to engage him in a bit of conversation and ask about his remarks. He told me that the thing he liked most about the Driven (no, he didn't use the word Driven) high schoolers is that they don't go around school being bible thumpers. He said they are just kind students who are open to people and show love in ordinary but real ways. He said, then other people find out they are Christians and they are pleasantly surprised. I almost teared up. Not only are Driven students loving others, but they are changing the negative perceptions of Christians. Not bad, not bad.