At school, just like in life, if we’re not careful, we can over-endorse the event at the expense of the process. The exam, even the GCSE, or A Level, is the event, the learning, that hopefully lasts a lifetime, is the process. The FA Cup final is the event. The multiple qualifying rounds that begin the previous August involving countless obscure non-league clubs, is the process. The wedding is the event, the marriage, that again should last a lifetime, is the process.
None of these are bad things of themselves, in fact they are all good things, the wedding, the Cup final, even the exam, but oh how we place emphasis on these things, often to the detriment of what really matters! How many times have a bride & groom woken up from their honeymoon, quite literally, with a process underway that they simply were not ready for because for months all their effort had gone into planning the wedding day.
We have started to recognise this principle at work in our youth church as we move towards our 2nd birthday later this term. At St Christopher’s youth church, we do events well, and we want to continue to do them well, whether that’s a youth Alpha Holy Spirit away day, or a Confirmation/Baptism service, or even a 2nd anniversary special celebratory service. But we don’t ever want this to be at the expense of ensuring that we give to God maximum yield from our lives through the often-mundane daily process of walking with Him constantly.
One of the last events we put on as a school last term was our Spirituality week, and what an event! We hosted a Christian band, sports coaches, a performance poet and multiple talented youth workers of all kinds. But not one of these excellent Christian contributors to this event would claim that it was ever a replacement for the process of surrendering to the will of God for our lives over the course of our entire lifetimes.
The danger with placing too much focus on the exciting event is that everything else can seem dull by comparison. We are convinced that we can encounter the living God through the power of His Holy Spirit every week at our youth church services and small group meetings, in fact, the Spirit of Jesus is with us every moment: whether we’re doing our homework, helping out with household chores, or even sleeping, we don’t have to wait for the big event.
If the event could speak, it would say: “I am only an event, it’s the process that matters, please stay focused on cultivating maximum productivity from your life through the everyday processes.” If we listen to these words, we get to enjoy the events too, but we never lose sight of the fact that the process, sometimes dull, often boring and unspectacular, but frequently supernatural if we will only open our eyes to see it, is what really counts.
“Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 1:6
Mr Pountain
Head of Religious Education/Director of Spirituality