By Paul Cizek, Youth Minister

What kind of friendships is God forming among our youth at Holy Family?

Jr. EYC reflected on the school lunchroom: Who do you usually eat with and why?  Who don’t you usually eat with and why?  And, if we all went to the same school, would we be eating at the same lunch table?  You know: the vicious social dynamics of who’s in and who’s not, and the concrete ways this plays out around food.

But the stories of early Christians gave us lens to see ourselves through: thousands of strangers who became Christ followers suddenly started praying together and eating together (Acts. 2:38-47).  Strangers eating together; the ins eating with the outs; those we usually eat with eating with those we usually don’t eat with… all because they started following Jesus.  This was one picture of the early church.  Was it picture of our EYC mealtimes?  How could this challenge us?

Sr. EYC’s discussion meandered: What binds most of your friendships together?  What binds our EYC friendships together?  And, if someone from outside EYC was observing our friendships, would it be readily apparent that we were a church community?

We put on the lens of Acts 4:13-37, a story of Christian friends who prayed for each other’s boldness in a time of oppression and who sold their possessions in order to care for each other’s needs.  In some ways, we saw ourselves in the story: we pray for each other and our tithes help care for each other’s needs – or at least the needs of others.  But more so, the story seemed stranger: Do we ever feel like we’re banded together in a common struggle or even for a common cause?  Do our tithes come anywhere near the selling our own possessions?

Pray for Holy Family’s EYC as we discern what it means for us to be friends in Christ.

By Paul Cizek, Youth Minister

Friends: youth are passionate about their friends. Friends they laugh with; friends they mess with; friends they adventure with; old friends with shared memories; forging new friendships. But also, friends who were with them in hard times; friends that have drifted apart; broken friendships; being betrayed or used by a “friend;” friendships on the mend… maybe.

This past Sunday night we shared these stories about friendships, and we began to wonder, What makes good friends? How do friendships start? What makes a bad friend? And, is it easier to become friends with someone you just met, or someone you’ve known for a long time?

In the weeks to come, we’ll narrow our discussion around questions like, Is it necessary that Christians have friends? and Does being a Christian affect what kind of friend you are? After all, Jesus called some of his first followers “friends” (John 15), and those stories of the early church in Acts hardly ever involve an isolated Christian, but rather brothers, sisters, and friends in Christ.