One of our ministry partners at Solas is Scripture Union Scotland. We’ve done many events, conferences, holidays, and staff-training courses over the years; as have many friends in and around the organisation and really appreciate their commitment to delivering high quality youth and children’s work all over the country.
In a new development for me at least – I was asked to go and speak at an SU Group in one of the large secondary schools in Perth. They’ve had a thriving SU group in the school for many years, which meets on a Thursday lunchtime. A Christian teacher allows the group to use his room, while a retired teacher comes into the school to lead the meetings.
The format is probably pretty similar to what many school SU groups do. They have lunch together with drinks and snacks and all the pupils catch up with each other. Then they have some kind of message or informal Bible study together. This is obviously really encouraging for the pupils who come, and it draws people from across a wide variety of churches, and one or two who have no church background (or even have significant objections to aspects of the Christian faith), who are very welcome too.
The reason I was invited into the school to speak at the SU group was because this term they have been using our Have You Ever Wondered? book as the basis for their discussions. Interestingly, as well as looking at several chapters in the book within the SU group, they have been trying out using the questions as ways of stirring up spiritual and value-based conversations with friends in the school – and reporting back each week how they got on.
I was asked to give them a quick guide to my chapter: Have You Ever Wondered Why We Love Happy Endings? which is an enjoyable chapter to look at together because it has parallels with the grand narrative of scripture as well as many aspects of popular culture. The group was divided 60/40 against the appreciation of Rom-Coms, but yet they all appreciated the way in which these films have a common narrative arc, from hope through despair and on to resolution in a happy ending!
We looked at our yearning for a happy ending and thought about the way in which the world is yearning for “closure”. Injustice, pain, illness, wickedness, war and disappointments all leave us yearning for resolution. In the meantime, the deepest need we have is hope. That means that in Christ we can offer people hope -that there will be a happy ending (a New Heaven and a New Earth), and that we can invite them to come to Christ and into the happy ending that God offers us all. My colleague Steve is going to the same group in a few weeks, so I’ll be interested to hear how they got on with their conversations!
The SU group in this school is quite strong, they often get up to 19 people along from across the school (it was slightly less the week I was there). We were amazed when we heard the story of a girl who tried to start a group like this in her school, but no one came. She is in fact the only Christian she knows in here school. Rather than giving up however, she has set up a book group and the are looking at Have You Ever Wondered? together, as she thinks it will interest her friends and lead to great conversations; bridging from what matters most to her friends to what matters most!
So, I was delighted to tell this big SU school Su group about that girl on her own in that secondary school in England – and they promised to pray for her and her book group!
