Operation City on a Hill
by Dave Weiss
This may be the ultimate A.M.O.K. project because it ultimately uses your student's gifts to the limit and then pushes them beyond. This is an ongoing project that will hopefully set a fire in your whole church, your whole community and nation and ultimately the world. The time for this is now! It starts locally and continues to grow and best of all it empowers your students to make a difference.
It all starts with a light.
Take your group into a darkened room. Make it as close to pitch black as you possibly can. When everyone is seated and quiet, light one single candle in the middle of the room. Make the point that when all around is darkness you cannot help but be drawn to the light. Read Matthew 4:15-17 and talk about how The world was in darkness when Jesus came. He came based from a lowly place called Galilee. The light can come from anywhere, even right where you are. This passage refers to Jesus being a light for the dark world but then look what happens in Matthew 5: 13-16 (read it to the group) Jesus calls us the light of the world. Pose the question, how can we be the light of the world, how can we be a city on a hill. Pray for God to show you the way. Pray that God will lay a vision on each heart. Pray that God will help us to put our limitations behind us and help us to jump in so far over our heads that success could only come from Him. This will be a Spirit driven movement. It has to be if it is going to succeed.
Then it becomes an image.
We live in a very visual society. Visual images stimulate us to act. In this case each student will make a piece of the image, a large group of symbols based around Matthew 5:13-16. As you are going through the painting process, look at some of the ways that you can be light of the world. Encourage your students to think outside the box. The visual image will be hung in your meeting room as a constant reminder. For a detailed drawing of the painting, see below.
Then it becomes empowerment.
This is where the rubber meets the road and where the real work will begin. Give your students the power to do what they feel led to do. This may work best if you allow a small group of two or more to work together. Tell them that the rest of the group will provide support and help out as the things they feel led to do come to pass. Tell them that they are responsible for having enough people to complete the project. That means if a student wants to do a play, the group will find a venue, help with a script and raise funds and help out as much as possible, but the leadership and recruiting people is up to them. You may also need to recruit adults to help them from your congregation. For example: I know that one of the girls in my group has a burden on her heart for Habitat for Humanity. I also know that one of our ministers has a similar vision. I will work to get the two of them together, give her the phone number of the local Habitat chapter and allow her to coordinate it. It will be up to her to recruit people both from within and outside the group.
This kind of empowerment will accomplish a lot. It will help to build unity among the group as they work together to help each other accomplish their visions. It will help with outreach since the amount of people in your group could not accomplish all that needs to be done without reaching out to friends. It will develop more intergenerational relationships within the congregation. Most importantly it will get noticed and help not just your group but your whole congregation to be a city on a hill shining the light of Jesus on a hurting world.
So what can you do?
This is not a program. It is a Spirit led endeavor. There will be as many ideas as there are people. The idea is to empower people and let them run. The guiding principle should be 1 Peter 4:10, each one should use whatever gifts he has received to serve others. A kid with a drama gift may want to do a community drama, a student with a mechanical gift may want to repair cars, a student with a servantıs heart may want to organize a group to go around and clean the streets. The leadership of the group may help out but the idea is to help the kids take the lead. This is part of discipleship.
Then it becomes a movement.
I will be sending this concept out via the internet to people all over the world, in hopes that people will take hold of this vision and run with it. My prayer is that people will help to disciple their students to be leaders for Jesus and that we will report in to each other via the web to share ideas, resources, etc. We are living in the last days, the signs are more evident every day. The time to empower our kids to make a difference and reach the world for Christ is now! Please join us.
