The Stunning Thing that Kids Don't Get

I asked a very straightforward question for a third time on a test this past week.  It is a question which we have discussed multiple times in class and which I have asked on two previous occasions.  Yet, after three tests and multiple conversations, my juniors just can't seem to get it.  Here is the question:

In Jesus we find the ultimate game-changer in God's Story with the self-announced arrival of what He called the "Kingdom" of God.  What did Jesus mean by the arrival of God's Kingdom and how/where can we see this "Kingdom" in our world today?

Rather than answering with any kind of meaning, passion, or purpose, my juniors continue to fall back onto (what they know and acknowledge are) tired church-lingo cliches which have absolutely no meaning for them but which continue to serve as almost "default" responses in lieu of internalizing a better Story.   When discussing this question, several students even denied that anything was "new" in Jesus or that Jesus was "unique"  in any way.  I can handle interpretive differences such as "This world is currently being run by who? (Satan or God, depending on one's worldview) or "Is everything that happens in this world God's Will ? (Yes or No, again depending on one's viewpoint).  What I can't handle is the colossally vague petrified responses that seem to rob Jesus of any purpose beyond "saving us from our sins".  If this is the best we can do in explaining God's Mission in the world, our next generation is in a heap of trouble . . which, of course, is already being played out in multiple surveys which demonstrate that kids intend to leave church/faith upon leaving home.   

Not that I really blame the kids.  The reality is that the fault is our's for consistently telling a Story that is not threatening, dangerous or compelling let alone worthy of devotion or the sacrifice of one's very life.  Kids have spent their entire (church) lives hearing a story (or worse, a disconnected series of stories) that is often on the level of children's fables with a ridiculously simplistic moral at the end.  With a lifetime of hearing only these stories to draw on, is it any wonder that kids don't get Jesus in any depth or detail.  Or worse yet, turn away from Jesus because they think they've heard/experienced it all when, in fact, they haven't even begun to live the Real Deal.

So I am discouraged at present with how to proceed.  How can I help kids "get" God's Mission in the world when they can't even "get" the One who is calling us there?      

Comments

[Ryan]

Jim, I'm really glad your posting this stuff and offering up some provocative questions.
I've been thinking alot about this lately and for Lent am reading NT Wright's The Gospel of Mark for Everyone. Wright breaks down the Gospels in accessible little chunks and essentially highlights the Kingdom languange or code throughout. It might be a good next step for these kids. Just a thought.

Hope you're well.