A few weeks ago I heard a sermon delivered by Pastor Clark Crebar, Young Adults Pastor at Grace Church. I recommend that you listen for yourself. It gives an excellent exposition of how we are to pray for one another. There were a number of great things about his sermon. One thing that he said, that wasn't at all the main point was when he defined the word 'pure'. In simple form he said that the original word means to be 'unmixed'. Ever since this sermon, I have been thinking about what being 'unmixed' means for me personally and how I look at ministry.
There are a number of ways that unmixed could be applied to life. Or, maybe I should say that there a number of ways that I find myself mixed. My diet, iTunes collection, television watching, family leadership, the weed content of my yard (when its alive), my preference for PC's or Macs... When I take a hard took at my physical, emotional, spiritual, mental and social balance, I see things being mixed.
I think a great tension that I deal with is how to teach and model to students how to be unmixed in some situations and mixed in others. There are areas where students (and adults for that matter) should strive to be unmixed with the things of this world (sexual immorality, idolatry, gossip, slander...). And then I feel that there are areas where we should be mixed or to borrow Eugene Peterson's word 'remixed'. In order to be salt and light, it is of ultimate importance for us to engage in the people and culture of this world. I think that youthworkers need to teach and model the tension between areas of life that need to be unmixed and areas where a mixture is necessary. We tend to go to far one way or the other! This gets us into the whole "being in the world but not of it" discussion. Jesus' words shed some light:
14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. - John 17:14,15 (NIV)
I currently find myself reading two books talking about this very thing. The first is Pop Goes the Church: Should the Church Engage Pop Culture and The Fine Line: Reinvisioning the Gap Between Christ and Culture. I haven't finished either book, and I plan on having a 'part 2' to this posting once I do.
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