A couple times each school year, I have the opportunity to be the speaker for high school chapel at Windham Christian Academy, where I teach the middle school students.  Yesterday was one of those times.  It is especially fun for me because I taught most of our high school students when they were middle schoolers.

I went with the same theme I spoke on in my home church a few weeks ago: discipleship.  This is a very relevant topic throughout all our churches, but especially for teens.  I presented them some of the data I posted earlier in a blog entitled "What's in a Name".  I tried to challenge their thinking with facts such as "Jesus was virtually never referred to as Savior in Scripture.  He was almost always called "Lord."  Believers never called themselves "Christians"; They were disciples. 

So what does that translate into for teens in 2013 America?  The closest synonym for disciple we have in our language is 'apprentice': someone who makes a life long commitment to become more and more like the master.  Both Jesus and Paul taught that the greatest quality for a disciple to pursue is love, so we looked at Paul's recipe for love in I Corinthians 13.  I asked them how their love life is.  (I actually asked this question while I projected the classic picture from Lady and the Tramp in which they share a plate of spaghetti.  I paused in my message long enough to tell the teens that that was the sexiest scene in any movie ever made... forget Nicolas Sparks!)

Then I spoke to them about what discipleship isn't.  I focused on two areas: discipleship is not rules and it is not following a religious pop culture.  Teens can relate to both of these examples.  They realize that most of the things done in the name of Christian pop culture pale in comparison to what's out there in 'the world'.  They also understand rules for rules' sake.

So, I'm not sure how long of an impact this chapel service will have on the teens, but I know most of them were very attentive, and I had fun talking with them.