That's a Big Sheet: Growing Through Disruption
Over the past few weeks, I have stumbled across numerous ‘click-bait’ articles telling us what an opportunity Covid-19 will be for Aotearoa New Zealand. Storylines have focused on how we can re-think everything from tourism to expanding our weekend. There’s an opportunity for everyone. Perhaps you have also heard the acronym ‘WWJD’ kicked in, offering ideas to build the Kingdom of God.
God does not need calamity or pandemics to create a new thing, but He can use disruption as an opportunity for growth.
In Acts we read about Peter’s dream of a giant sheet which comes down from heaven. On it are all kinds of animals, including birds and reptiles:
Peter’s Vision
About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds. Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.”
“Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”
The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”
(Acts 10:9-16, NIV)
Who was Peter? Why was this dream significant?
Peter was pretty old-school and kept the Torah (those early books in the Bible about the law). This meant he avoided all things impure (certain foods, people, houses, etc.) because he saw God as pure and holy. There were things that were allowed and things that weren’t allowed. This was Peter’s framework or way of seeing God, and it fitted together nicely. Then something rocked the boat. Peter’s view was disrupted by his dream, and he doesn’t submit to the new frame of reference easily. For a Jewish man it represented a big shift.
The Jewish faith isn’t just a faith, it's a way of life! And, in his dedication to the way of life, Peter almost missed a chance to grow and develop his understanding of who God is. Or simply put… Peter’s devotion to God meant he resisted God in the name of God. It sounds like a giant oxymoron! Yet it was this disruption that provided Peter with an opportunity for growth.
Peter could not ‘un-see’ his dream. He had to make a choice. He could either ignore the message in the dream, or open himself up to a new way of living. Many of the institutions or ways of life that Peter had been a part of (and even happily I might add) were now going, going, gone—or about to be—on instruction from God
Similarly, we cannot ‘un-see’ the changes wrought by Covid-19. So how do we respond?
Here are some parallel questions for you to reflect on about your expressions of youth ministry:
What have been on your pre Covid-19 lists of ‘could do’ and ‘couldn’t do’?
How has Covid-19 disrupted your youth ministry? (Don’t deny it has…)
What have you resisted in how you demonstrate youth ministry over this time?
What freedom has it brought you to try something different in your youth ministry?
Just now, it seems our world has been turned on its head, but this is a post-Easter story and our God is God of the resurrection. Let’s ask God what “creatures” lie on the sheet we see descending from heaven—how would He have us change in the weeks and months ahead?