One of the things I’ve noticed since serving with World Impact is how God uses the table for some of the biggest, most beautiful moments of ministry. It makes sense. Some of Jesus’ most holy, memorable moments with his followers happened around a table as well. So of course, I wasn’t surprised when we went up to a large, beautiful home in Lake Arrowhead with our RED students that most of our time there would be scrunched around a small table in the kitchen.
RED (Restoring and Equipping Disciples) is the four-month leadership program that students from our neighborhood can apply for each year. The application process is rigorous, requiring written essays, references, and a formal interview. Students who are accepted into the program give up their Saturdays, coming to the Teen Center each weekend ready to learn about the characteristics of godly leadership from our local World Impact staff. They are given a mentor who meets with them each week, pushing them toward deeper spiritual growth and helping them with their holistic goal-setting. These students are the cream of the crop—they are leaders in their school Bible clubs, teachers in their churches, and passionate Jesus followers. We do our best to bless them in return for all their hard work, inviting them to all of the leadership opportunities that we know of from our ministry networks, as well as blessing them with both a missions trip to San Diego and a spiritual retreat in Lake Arrowhead. Little did we know just what a blessing they would be to us as they opened themselves up to the Holy Spirit that weekend in March.
After a rocky start (because let's be honest, when is there not a rocky start in urban youth ministry?), we made our way up the mountain to a house we found on Air BnB. After all the ooohhhs and aaahhhhs from looking around the house, our students started piling into, naturally, the kitchen—the smallest room of the house. They brought in chairs from the living room, the snacks from our ride, and then conversations began.
We asked them a simple question: What was your life like before you met Christ, and how has it been since? We had no idea just what the Holy Spirit was going to do with this question. Over the course of the next day, we ended up spending hours at this table as students shared honestly and vulnerably about their lives, many of them with lots of tears and lots of laughter. After students shared, the group shared words of encouragement for each student, pointing out ways they saw Jesus working in each person's stories and affirming each individual's imago dei. But it didn't stop there. Without any prompting, students started asking for forgiveness from one another—some of them from years of bitterness towards one another and even bullying. As confession and forgiveness happened, it was as if we could literally see transformation happening around the table. We were witnessing the gospel: the transforming power of the Holy Spirit that comes as we reconcile to God, which leads to reconciliation with one another.
Our RED leaders came back down the mountain refreshed, reconciled, and more ready to do the work of ministry set before them in their churches and high schools. All because of some time away around the table.