Exploring Our Faith

This evening is week two of our Confirmation/Exploring Our Faith classes for the Spring of 2012. I was pleased with a turnout of fifteen last week, and with the composition of the group. There are seven teens, three in their thirties, one in her forties, and...up! That may sound like a challenge because of the range, but I really enjoy the diversity of a group of mixed ages. I figure out how to break up the teens because they know one another best. They were great last week at pairing with the adults for discussion.

We talked about Jesus and I appreciated how open people were, given the awkwardness of beginning as a group. I put up ten images of Jesus from different artistic perspectives, along with a Popular Mechanics (really) image created years ago using the best forensic evidence available about a first century Palestinian male. It was a way to invite conversation about Jesus who has been interpreted in so many ways through the centuries and must be interpreted today by Christians.

Some people liked more striking representations while others liked the image they grew up with in their church, even if he looked rather white and Caucasian. Sort of Jesus comfort food.

I loved it when one of the teens offered that her Jesus looked alot like Ashton Kutcher! And apparently someone else found a resemblance, as you can see above. It was the "out of the box" response that delighted me. I don't think for a moment she was trying to be irreverent, just candid. All in all I was really impressed by how willing the younger participants were to engage in faith talk. It speaks well for the excellent youth leaders we have been blessed with in recent years and this remarkable gang of young people.

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