doing Jesus stuff out there.

On Sunday I snuck into the RIOT room to bask in the glory and insanity of life with 30 grade 6,7 & 8ers. I only lasted a few minutes among them because, lets face it, I dont have the stamina for their energy level, but I did catch a glimpse of the Kingdom pressing forth among some pretty amazing kids that I wanted to share with you.

Mike was asking the kids to share their favourite part of the year with RIOT and amongst the responses of "eating junk food" and "throwing eggs at Pastor Mike" there was one that honestly brought tears to my eyes (don't worry Internet, it doesn't take much). One of the grade 8 boys raised his hand and politely said "I liked when we went to Tim Hortons for breakfast and prayer on that Sunday morning. It was really good to have donuts but I also really liked being in the community and doing Jesus stuff out there."

SERIOUSLY!?!? Can someone please tell me how to bottle that and spike the water here? That we would be a people marked by the desire to be in our neighbourhoods, coffee shops, community centers, pubs, libraries, sports fields DOING JESUS STUFF! That we would be a people who want to be beyond our building, that our dreaming would not be contained to what we can do within our walls but would be exponentially bigger than that box. Because, lets face it, people are not drawn to the church building (especially ours) they're drawn to Jesus and how are they going to meet those people and have a cup of tea with them if we are all sitting in the church doing our Jesus stuff?

I love the RIOTers, even in with their insane energy levels, but I especially love that we have a generation of kids coming to whom "doing Jesus stuff out there" is normal AND exciting.