Being a Light in the Dark

Activity 1: Kingdom Exercise:

• For this activity, you will need the giant poster board or white board. Draw two lines to separate the board into three columns. At the top of the middle column, write “THE WORLD.”
• Now ask the youth for things that exist in this world. You can spur their answer by offering examples like “death,” “poverty,” “sickness,” but you can also lead them toward answers like “friendship,” “love,” and “family.” However it works out, you should end up with a lot of disparity in the kinds of answers, ranging anywhere from “happiness” and “beauty” to “divorce” and “suffering,” and “loneliness.”
• Once you have filled out “THE WORLD” column with no less than 15-20 words, on the left most column, write “THE GOOD LIFE.”
• Now invite youth to consider their first list and in the light of this to start describing what it would look like to have a “good life” in this world. Encourage young people toward answers like “money,” “good job,” “health insurance,” and “friends.” Lead the kids to offer answers that tend to be protection against the more negative words in “THE WORLD” column.
• Once you have established a list of no less than 15-20 words, briefly discuss with the youth what makes this our vision of the “good life.” It is important to help youth connect the “THE GOOD LIFE” with the fear of what could happen to us in “THE WORLD” list. For example, because we are afraid of getting sick, we have the idea that health insurance is protection against those things. It is okay to let the youth stumble around to find an answer to this, but if they are having trouble drawing clear connections, it is useful to help them make connections.
• Then invite youth to consider whether the things in “THE GOOD LIFE” list are able to protect them against sickness, loneliness, and death ultimately. The answer, of course, is no. We hope that they will protect us, but they simply cannot do so forever. At some point we get sick. At some point we will all feel lonely, even if we have lots of friends. Eventually we all die.
• Then emphasize that not everyone has the capacity to attain to the kind of list in “THE GOOD LIFE.” Reality is that there is great disparity in the world still, and this disparity is still not a vision of God’s Kingdom.
• At this point, write the words “THE KINGDOM OF GOD” on the right column. Read Revelation 21:1-5 to the youth, and invite the youth to begin constructing a list of characteristics of the Kingdom of God. Such things could be about what is there or what is not there: “There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Rev. 21:4).
• Continue to establish a strong vision for the characteristics of the Kingdom.
• Once you have your list, invite youth to consider that fear of the things in “THE WORLD” drives us toward “THE GOOD LIFE” list so that we never have to deal with those frightening things. But the reality is that we cannot ignore the things in this world, as much as fear would have us do so. It is only when we have hope in “THE KINGDOM OF GOD” that we are able to fully look at the things in “THE WORLD” and to know that they aren’t forever, and that we are called to continually lean toward the reality of “THE KINGDOM OF GOD” now. In the Kingdom, there is no hunger, and so our lives become about leaning toward that reality in this world, feeding those who are hungry. In the Kingdom there is no loneliness, only communion with God and others, and so, in this world, we welcome the stranger. It is about leaning into hope, but it can only be hope if we look at the world for what it is.

Activity 2: World Prayer Map:

• Lead the youth in silence into the dark sanctuary (or other room where you have earlier set up the tealights and the world map (itself also surrounded by tea lights)).
• Make sure you have printed out the list of the statistics and stories from around the world.
• Invite the youth to sit on the floor around the map. Point out that this is our world, the world that God so loved that God gave God’s only Son for it. It lies in darkness, waiting for the sons and daughters of God to be revealed.
• Tell the youth that you will be reading various statistics and stories about places around the world, after which you will ask someone to pray for that place and that situation.
• Tell them that after someone prays for that particular place and situation, they will take one of the tea lights and place it on that location on the map (i.e., if someone prays for the unwanted children in China, they will place a tea light on China).
• Read at least 5 or 6 different scenarios and then invite people to begin praying for the world as they feel led. Perhaps they know someone who has been deeply affected by an abusive home or an alcoholic parent; they may feel led to pray for all those in frightening home situations and for those who are held in captivity to addiction.
• Once you feel that the youth have sufficiently prayed as they felt led, close with this prayer:

O, Lord, your world lies in eager anticipation of your coming Kingdom. Your world is beset by war, by famine, by addiction. Your world is a place where parents abandon their children, where children are sold into slavery. How long, O Lord, must this continue? We ask you to bring your Kingdom, we ask you to embolden us to be your servants in the world, to enter the places of darkness and to fill them with the light and the life of your Kingdom. Lord, the world is deeply broken and deeply wounded. It is also deeply beautiful and wonderful, and we glorify you for all the majesty around us. We ask that you give us eyes to see your Kingdom, to long for it, to anticipate it and to lean into its coming reality. We thank you, Lord, that you ascended the Cross, that you made death and human frailty the very location of your Divine Life. We ask that you give us courage to live lives of service to this world, as you yourself did, this world which you have created and this world which you love. Come quickly, Lord Jesus, we pray you. Have mercy, and come quickly and save this ailing world and have mercy on our souls.

After this prayer, you may close the time by singing a solemn hymn a capella.