Welcome to CrossFire Youth Ministries blog
By Pastor Barry Blackmon
As a relatively new youth pastor I am becoming increasingly aware of the concept of identity. Church youth groups are made up of middle school and high school students. These students range in ages is generally from twelve to eighteen. This age group falls into the developmental stage that Erik Erikson terms "Identity vs. Role Confusion" (for more information see stages of psychosocial development). One of my goals as a youth pastor is to help my students establish their identity. We definitely don't want our students to be confused about who they are. One way to do this is by constantly teaching them and reminding them who God says they are in Christ. Another way we came up with to help them explore the concept of identity was to rename our youth group. Our individual identities are inseparably linked to the collective identity of the groups we identify with. I want the youth group to which our students belong to be something that they feel a sense of ownership in. I don't want it to be yet another thing that they inherited and are expected to accept and identify with without question.
Together we recently brainstormed names and voted on the one that would be our name. The name we settled on was CrossFire Youth Ministries, hence the name of this blog. I like this name because the Cross represents our Savior, Jesus Christ. It represents self-sacrifice, which I know is not the most popular idea these days in America, but it is necessary if we want to follow in the path of Jesus. The cross also reminds us of our freedom and the great price that was paid for it. And the cross is an globally recognized symbol that links us to our heritage as christians.
Fire also is a great biblical symbol. It represents God's Holy Spirit which is the fuel for believers that enables us to live out the calling on our lives. It represents the unquenchable nature of God that hungers for us, his children, and is never satisfied. Fire is the way God led the children of Israel through the darkness and the desert while they wandered. This is a symbol of hope to those who look to him for leadership today.
Together the words crossfire have come to mean (1) lines of gunfire from two or more positions or combatants crossing one another or (2) a situation involving conflicting claims, forces, etc. (definitions borrowed from dictionary.com). This is an image that paints a vivid picture of where our youth find themselves. Our youth are constantly exposed to withering enemy fire through the bombardment of culture and media, schools and peers. All of this is laced with ideas and claims that are in opposition to the truth. On the other hand we have a few short hours a week to expose them to the liberating truth of the Bible, in hopes to counter all of the things they have heard and seen that tries to undermine the truth. So this describes how many of our youth feel in our present day. Coming from both sides are shots at the other side. Attacks from one side at the other. Each side hoping to push back the other long enough to claim the hearts and minds of the young people in the middle. They are caught in the crossfire. A cultural crossfire between the culture of this world and the culture of the Kingdom of God.
It is our hope and our aim to be a place of rescue. We want to pull them out of fear and confusion and set their foot on a rock. We want to give them a firm place to stand. (Psalm 40:2) We desire to be a place of belonging, a place where they are part of a family, a place that they are loved and a place where they want to be.
