How do you let good vibes flow?

In case you missed it, we’ve given ourselves the new name The Royal Club of Friendly Vibes. An awesome name obviously needs an awesome logo, so we came up with this temporary one until we can vote on a winner:

Our latest lesson revolved around the question: How do you let good vibes flow?

Another way of saying this is, How do you let the Spirit of God—the Holy Spirit—move in and through your life?

To answer this question of flowing vibes, we imagined God as the fountainhead -- the source and the carrier all divine vibes. Just as God is the source of all love, goodness, justice, and beauty, the Spirit of God is like the rivers that carry the contents of the source out into the world. Living faithfully is dependent on God’s constant flow into our hearts and actions.

Imagine there are Friendly Water Fountains next to the Spirit River from which we drink. The better the flow of the Spirit River, the easier it is to drink from the fountains and grow in friendly vibes. Sometimes our spiritual lives are like water fountains with bad water-pressure (you know, the ones where you press down and nothing really shoots up and you basically have to make out with the spigot to get anything to drink).

Without intending to, we often allow things or habits into our lives that clog up the good vibes and reduce the flow of the Spirit. These obstructions aren’t necessarily bad or negative things. They only become problems when they get in the way of God.

We identified some of the things that, though fine in moderation, prevent God’s good vibes from freely flowing through our lives: spending too much time on our cell phones, computers, or social media; playing too many video games or watching too much TV; having too many unused clothes or being surrounded by unwanted clutter.

The season of Lent is kind of a ‘spring cleaning of the soul’ or an annual Spirit River pick-up where we prayerfully identify and remove the excessive things in our lives that pile up. Removing distractions is only one way to let vibes flow better. You can also add small habits or things to help generate God’s friendly vibes.

The challenge this week is to help the good vibes flow by attaching a small prayer onto something you do every day—like saying a prayer each time you wash your hands, make your bed, before you eat, etc.

Whatever we come up with will be slow-jammed by Chris and Timothy when we return.

Peace Out, 

Timothy

The Royal Club of Friendly Vibes

For the past few weeks, we've been considering what type of club Jesus would have belonged to as teenager. This Sunday, we took the idea a bit further. As an extension of the club Jesus started, we considered what sort of teenage club we would want to start at Holy Innocents'.

First, the name. 

We agreed that we'd call ourselves The Royal Club of Friendly Vibes.

• 'Royal' means awesome. Since God is royal, and all people are made in God's image, everyone is essentially royal and awesome even if they fail to recognize it. Our Royal Club would be devoted to recognizing God's awesomeness in our lives and the life of the world.
• 'Vibes' are the shared feelings, intuitions, and emotions inspired by the Holy Spirit. Good vibes are always Friendly Vibes.

Second, what would people actually do when The Royal Club of Friendly Vibes (TRCFV) got together on Sundays?

The list of activities we came up with includes the following: 

• playing games, 
• engaging technology, 
• making info-graphs on the white board, 
• interactive learning,
• taking turns letting members share what song, poem, or piece of art best represents his or her faith.

Third, what sort of faith-related topics would members of The Royal Club of Friendly Vibes discuss?

We only scratched the surface of answering this, but some topics of interest were:

• religious themes in pop culture, 
• the history of the church, 
• finding the sacred feminine,
• the afterlife.

Last, we considered what events and get-togethers The Royal Club of Friendly Vibes might have outside of Sunday mornings. 

This possibilities included:

• going to movies and ice cream/froyo,
• playing ultimate frisbee at the park,
• laser tag and whirly ball,
• Braves games,
• visit to the aquarium and World of Coke,
• local scavenger hunt,
• church lock-in where we have a marathon watching Dr. Who, Sherlock, or Lord Of The Rings.

Stay tuned and begin to image what The Royal Club of Friendly Vibes at Holy Innocents' would look like to you?

Irrelevant Challenge of the Week:

• Do the 'no dance' (if you do not know the dance then make up your own 'no dance'). 

Timothy and Chris

Holy Innocents' Episcopal Church 

March 16, 2014

BTW: We apologize for the lack of an update last week. Not only was it Spring Break Sunday, but, just moments before class began, one of our fearless (youth) leaders opened a very special box of donuts (see below).

Needless to say, Timothy accepted his beloved's proposal and we spent the next hour celebrating and eating.

Jesus' Club and God's Kingdom

What kind of leader was Jesus? What did he offer people that made them decided to follow him?

These were the two main questions we discussed during during Faith Formation on Sunday (which was Part 2 of  last week's conversation about what kind of club Jesus would start if he were a modern teenage student). 

For those with ears to hear, the quickest answers are these: Jesus was a royal leader and the vibes he offered others were so holy and good that he was quickly identified as the Savior who would redeem the world.

Jesus led by persuasion; he relied on actions over arguments. Instead of merely talking about love, peace, forgiveness, and justice, he embodied these divine qualities in the life he shared with those around him. Like Jesus, God never forces us to do anything. We have the freedom to either enter into a relationship with God and help heal the world, or we can choose opt out of this.

Jesus led by invitation; he invited people into a different way of living. The youth at Holy Innocents' try to practice this different way of living too. This life involves being down-to-earth, open minded and open hearted, helping and showing kindness to everyone, having royal vibes and feeling loved, and seeing God in yourself, others, and all creation.

This way of living was definitely risky for the early followers of Jesus. He told the disciples that if they truly wanted to follow him they'd have to "take up their cross," which was another way of saying "you'll have to be shamefully and gruesomely executed as a criminal." Not something you'd expect to find on an invitation.

When we considered what we'd ask Jesus' club of early followers, we came up with this question: "What did Jesus have to offer that's worth dying for?" 

They probably would have said that Jesus offered an irresistible vision of the kingdom of heaven. 'The kingdom' is not a specific place -- it's not a realm up in the sky; and it's not necessarily in the future either. Instead, the kingdom comes about when people come together to join God in making life better by filling it with love, justice, mercy, and beauty. The kingdom begins to come each time we open our eyes up to God's awesomeness working in our lives and through creation. The kingdom comes each time we vibe with that awesomeness and share those godly vibes with the world and people around us.

What divine vibes drew you to Holy Innocents'? Why do you continue to come? What vibes do you look forward to experiencing week? How do you vibe (or pray) with God when you're not at church? What are some ways our group can be more intentional about sharing Godly vibes with others?

These are some of the questions we'll try answering this Sunday. Until then, find your vibe with God and also attempt these two irrelevant challenges:
1. Do the 'yes dance' (if you do not know the dance then make up your own 'yes dance').
2. Sing the second word in the next sentence you use when talking with someone.

(Vibe antennas can sometimes resemble the ones in the photo.
Don't judge. Don't be jeally. Just vibe.)