Hookup Culture

We recently co-hosted an event in a campus pub at Trinity College Dublin (TCD) called God on Tap. Partnering with the Methodist Chaplain at TCD, our goal is to build relationships with university students from diverse backgrounds. This past evening, one topic stuck out more than anything this...the "hookup culture".

The boundaries of sexuality are becoming more and more ambiguous, and it is no different on the college campuses of Dublin. Not only is it common for students to have casual sexual encounters with friends/acquaintances, it is encouraged. What's more, there is an atmosphere of peer pressure towards these activities. 

We’ve come to realise that most students don't actually want casual sex. They want longterm, meaningful relationships with someone they love and trust (not necessarily confined to marriage). While they’re fine with others participating in the hookup culture, many don't want it for themselves. However, there is ever-growing pressure for them not only to approve, but to participate.

During our conversation I shared what I understand to be the Biblical boundaries of sex and relationships. I also shared that Katy and I waited until marriage. Surprisingly, most of the students around the table were positively curious toward our experience and expressed a desire to take some of our principles into their own relationships.

Please pray for the students of Dublin (and all across the world). They are under immense pressure. Social norms that develop culturally will come and go. What has not changed is the Word of God and a call to make Jesus first. That means boundaries and holiness, but it also brings the joy and peace of the Lord.

Thank you for all your prayers and support. Together we are impacting the universities of Dublin and Ireland. I will close with a brilliant quote.

The Horse and Rider

As I (Blake) was prepping for my annual worship course I teach at AGI's SALT school, I ran into a wonderful story by Henri Nouwen in his book Creative Ministry. It ties in to last weeks post about the importance of understanding our "why".

"...a Vietnamese Buddhist monk came to Holland and one day walked into the house where I lived. He was a thin man whom you would be afraid to touch...While he looked straight into my eyes, he said: “There was a man on a horse galloping swiftly along the road. An old farmer standing in the fields, seeing him pass by, called out, ‘Hey, rider, where are you going?’ The rider turned around and shouted back, ‘Don’t ask me, just ask my horse!’ ” 

    The monk looked at me and said: “That is your condition. You are no longer master over your own destiny. You have lost control over the great powers that pull you forward toward an unknown direction. You have become a passive victim of an ongoing movement which you do not understand.”

We must all always seek to understand why we worship the way we do and test these methods, first and foremost, with the Word of God. Secondly, we must test them against our culture. Our private worship will drive our public worship. In public (or corporate) worship, participation is the key. If we are riding a horse that no longer communicates to our culture and encourages those in our culture to participate in worship, then we must be open to changing directions...even possibly changing horses.

Thank you for all your prayers and support. As I begin teaching next week, together we are impacting students and churches literally all across Ireland.

The Why

I (Katy) was able to spend some time in Glendalough last week looking at some of the old ruins there. In the centre of the valley, there is a church that was once the largest gathering point for Christian believers of its time. The area was a place of pilgrimage and theological study. It was built in the 900's and took roughly 100 years to be completed. 

Even though the bones of the structure are still standing today, it is but a shadow of its former glory. As I was walking through the front doors of the church, I wondered how the people who journeyed there felt about the place at the time. That place was a pretty big deal to them and to the rest of the God-fearing nation. 

The truth is, it was just a building; a building that is now frequented by Japanese tourists with cameras. See, it was indeed just a building, but what lives on about the parish is the impact the Word of God had on the generations that followed. Buildings, systems, liturgy, and all that we use to convey the message of Jesus are merely tools. They are temporal and will fade away. They are the "What," not the "Why." Sometimes we as Christians have a tendency to worship the What. 

We should be the most focused on the big picture - why do we do the things we do? Do they bring the most glory to God and illuminate His love? Our vision of the present should reflect the truth that, unlike what we can build with our human hands, the Word of God will never fade away.