Tonight I am leading our youth group through an event where we introduce and activate a few "disciplines of subtraction". In our increasingly frenetic culture, I believe it is absolutely vital, for young people especially, to learn to unplug, slow down, do nothing, be bored, at least for a few minutes.
The focii tonight:
HUSH: the discipline of silence
WAIT: the discipline of restraint/delayed gratification
REST: the discipline of Sabbath
It will be interesting to see how a bunch of teenagers respond to having their 24/7 online world stripped from them for 45 minutes, but it will be fun.
Just found your blog, via Andy Booth’s site.
It is interesting… I led a youth meeting a while back which focussed on listening to God. We had about 20 young people (from 13 years upwards) sitting in almost complete silence for around the same time. And a few had some prophetic words for others. I was surprised.. but the presence of God was there. It makes a difference.
Let us know what happens 🙂
Thanks for your comments, dave.
The evening went surprisingly well (well, I was surprised, anyway!). I would say 90% of the young people were very engaged from start to finish. There were a few who couldn’t resist turning around and looking at their friends, etc. but overall I think the night was a success. It seems to me many of the youth found it refreshing to unplug for a few minutes.
Yeah, I think it was a pretty interesting time. I started to wonder what it would look like for us to faciliate a whole day like that once in a while.
Yeah I keep thinking I need to work in a day or two like that in my own life 2-3 times a year, just to take regular time to slow down and listen.