sheep to shepherd week

Transcription

1 week 7 sheep to shepherd by Matthew Beck n July 7, 2011, Jonathan Stark loaded thirty dollars on his Starbucks card. He then posted online the barcode image for anyone to use the money at his or her local Starbucks. Not surprisingly, the money was gone in a couple hours; but not the next fifty dollars. The experiment moved forward this time because people started putting money back on the card: a shocking 50 percent of them. So participants could know if there was enough money on the card for their drinks, Jonathan began tweeting the balance and created a Facebook page for people to discuss the social experiment. Within a five-day period (Starbucks later told Jonathan) twenty thousand dollars was exchanged through his card. Strangers were buying coffee for strangers!1 Then the fund and fun ended. Sitting in Jonathan s Starbucks, Sam Odio found a way to transfer the money on Jonathan s card to his own Starbucks card. In only five hours, Sam relocated 625 dollars. Starbucks was alerted and Jonathan s card was o

2 soulsh ft youth ministry leader s guide deactivated. To be fair, Sam s intentions were never to steal the money. He promised to auction off the card for charity, and Sam s brother immediately reloaded Jonathan s card with 625 dollars of his own. But if Sam could hijack Jonathan s card, so could someone else with less noble aspirations. This was a security risk Starbucks was not willing to take. 2 There is a lot we can learn from Jonathan s experiment. People want to be a part of something good. One year later, over eleven thousand people are following Jonathan on Twitter. People are energized by random acts of kindness, and even smartphone apps are opening up new possibilities to pay it forward. These are all interesting lessons, but what strikes me the most is how the whole thing was bankrupted by one person. Jonathan Stark believes around one thousand coffee drinkers used his card over the course of about a month. Then it only took one person to shut it down. Stark s social experiment reminds me of a parable Jesus told in Luke 15. He said, Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? (Luke 15:4). Ninety-nine sheep were left behind and exposed to the elements and wolves because one chose to wander off. What Jesus was saying is counterintuitive. Anyone can do the math: ninety-nine is better than one. But Jesus wasn t offering business advice; the idea is about changing the world. 48

3 sheep to shepherd The difference between Jonathan s card and Jesus parable is that Starbucks shut down the whole experiment because the risk was too great. But Jesus risked the whole experiment because the one sheep was too great. Jesus thought the one lost sheep was worth losing the others. It might all fall apart, but he will still come for you. When we are rescued as sheep by God the shepherd, grace works its way into our nature, until in a moment or over time we begin to behave like shepherds. This is what John meant when he said, We love because he first loved us (1 John 4:19). It is possible to think and love like Jesus did. Nothing excites me more than to see students make the shift from Sheep to Shepherd. Returning to JC Bodyshop (our youth ministry) late one night after an event, Krista, a high school student, recognized for the first time that a cleaning crew was hired to clean the building. Motivated by the idea that someone else was cleaning up after her and the rest of the youth group, Krista suggested our youth do something to show the cleaning crew that we appreciated them and their hard work. So we made plans to throw a party for George and Chastity, the couple who cleaned JC Bodyshop. Nearly fifty students gathered on a Sunday night to mop floors, take out trash, and finally shout, Surprise! when George and Chastity showed up to do their job, only to find a party for them. The most surprising part of the night, however, was not the party, but when we discovered that George and Chastity were about to become grandparents, and because the work was done early they could go to the hospital to welcome 49

4 soulsh ft youth ministry leader s guide their grandchild. We all had a sense that what Krista had started was really something much larger that God was doing. Around the same time, both Kayla and Maris, students from JC Bodyshop, discovered that two younger girls they knew were pregnant. These girls had little or no support in place to guide them through their pregnancies, so Kayla and Maris wanted to do something. If JC Bodyshop didn t help them, who would? they asked. After discussing the sensitivity of the situation and the brokenness involved in teen pregnancy, Kayla and Maris believed in that moment more than ever that these young pregnant girls needed to know that God had not abandoned them. So they started planning a baby shower, invited the girls, and prayed that they would show. Students from JC Bodyshop bought diapers, and adult small groups gathered baby clothes and toys for the shower. Kayla and Maris s prayers were answered: the girls showed up early. A couple of college students volunteered to host the event at their small town house. So when the entire JC Bodyshop group showed up, it was standing room only. I ll never forget when each student walked into the town house and greeted the two girls. One after another they came through the door, as if saying over and over, God has not left you alone. In a way, the church and every youth ministry functions like Jonathan s Starbucks card. Every time we lead, serve, and invest in a student, it is as if we are putting funds onto a gift card. Students show up and swipe the card, and every week we 50

5 sheep to shepherd reload it. Some students start to catch on. They realize that in order for the youth group to move forward and grow they must add to the fund as well. Of course it only works if the love with which we reload the card comes from the source: Jesus. Kayla and Maris took it upon themselves to care for students who were younger than they were and lacked the faith that they held. They understood that their investment is what kept the youth ministry going, just as those who reloaded Jonathan s card kept the card going. Part of the journey from Sheep to Shepherd requires what Steven Argue calls self-authorship. Self-authorship occurs when spiritual growth becomes internally motivated, not dictated by a parent, teacher, or youth worker. 3 Students who author their own stories believe they play an important part of the greater story that Jesus is telling. In this way, self-authorship is marked by action. In Jesus parable of the lost sheep, the action is finding. Finding something is selfauthored. You do the action. Discovery is made in person. As youth workers, we cannot force the shift from Sheep to Shepherd to happen for our students. (We cannot force any SoulShift really. We can only encourage, pray for, and provide opportunities to shift for our students.) The shift from Sheep to Shepherd, more than any other, requires us as leaders to step back. To witness a student self-author his or her journey, we may have to sacrifice production for participation in our programming. Students who are self-authoring their faith stories need leaders who will lead from behind the scenes. 51

6 soulsh ft youth ministry leader s guide Vital to helping our students through this SoulShift is being ready and available to process conversations and debrief events. As youth workers, if we can set the stage through prayer and presence, we get a front-row seat to watch students shift from Sheep to Shepherd. 52

7 sheep to shepherd Questions 1. What do you think about Jonathan s Starbucks card experiment? Were you surprised it worked and people kept reloading his card? 2. What do you think would have happened if Sam Odio had never transferred the money to his card? 3. What does Jonathan s card teach about what it means to belong to a youth group? 4. What could you do at your youth group and church to reload the card and pay it forward? Are you serving as much as you re being served? 5. How do you stay connected to Jesus, the source of love? Notes 1. Alex Goldmark, Radical Sharing Works: This Guy Lets the World Use His Starbucks Card for Free, GOOD, accessed October 8, 2012, 2. Alex Goldmark, Lessons from the End of the Free Starbucks Card Experiment Jonathan s Card Starbucks Sharing Experiment Shut Down, GOOD, accessed October 8, 2012, 53

8 soulsh ft youth ministry leader s guide 3. Steven Argue and Josh Bishop, Spiritual Growth through Self-Authorship, Fuller Youth Institute, accessed October 8, 2012, 54