BEYOND EXPERIENCE

PAUL HUMPHREYS | Leadership Development Facilitator, SUNZ

BEYOND EXPERIENCE TAKES YOUNG ADULTS TO THE NEXT LEVEL OF LEADERSHIP.

FAITH SHOULD BE LIKE LUNCH IN THE BACK COUNTRY WHICH STARTS AT BREAKFAST AND CONTINUES UNTIL DINNER.

Lunch starts after breakfast and ends before dinner,” I told my friend Kenneth as we were prepping to climb Mt Rainer in Washington State, USA. Mt Rainier is 4392m high and so it’s a serious undertaking. Kenneth looked perplexed until I explained that it’s important to eat frequently and outside of regular meal times to keep your keep energy levels high when you’re involved in strenuous outdoor activity I offer you this story to illustrate how faith looks for many young adults. Frequent ‘eating’ is the key to maintaining our faith levels. We need to keep on topping up our faith with personal Bible reading, prayer and fellowship so we don’t run on empty. Beyond Experience (BE) is Scripture Union’s leadership development programme. It’s designed to help young people develop as leaders within the context they find themselves – whether that’s with Scripture Union or their churches or communities. As we move forward with BE we are facilitating faith and leadership experiences through various means, including weekends away, conversations with mentors, and following a monthly Bible reading plan as well as through SUNZ camps. We’re constantly finding opportunities to connect with BE’ers and others by demonstrating faith in action and how it is relevant in everything we do – from having dinner together, to playing in the mountains, competing in Rogaine/orienteering races, or going to adventure film festivals: the list is long. Through these opportunities we are able to encourage small moments of faith formation. Most of this interaction happens around adventure activities which not only serve young adults well to lead on SUNZ camps, but also set up the potent idea that God can be present in all we do. Praying, listening, and using stories to facilitate further conversations allows us to talk about how our faith has shaped and grown us in our relationship with God. These real, sometimes raw and often fun experiences demonstrate how God is present in our lives. This idea is a departure for many who compartmentalise God and struggle to see where He can fit into their relationships, recreational activities, career decision-making and issues they face in everyday life. Faith should be like lunch in the back country which starts at breakfast and continues until dinner. Faith can be with us every day, all the time.