While I was driving last week I was thinking about how to explain Christian community to the young people coming to Yellow Braces, how to explain Kingdom stuff in non-religious language. At camp I really want EVERYONE to experience being accepted and valued and them being an important part of the event. Whilst for the christians, I should be preaching to the converted (as it were), I really want those who don't come from a christian experience to not only understand what's happening but give them permission to live it.
As I was thinking about how I might explain, it struck me that what I was talking about was the exact opposite to Bullying, i.e Going out of your way to build people up, not knock them down. Seeking to include and value not isolate and devalue. To gain the best result for the other person, not for yourself. So I turned the word backwards and came up with a phonetic version of gniyllub ........ Gernillub!
So I told the camp about Jesus and the way that he valued and included people, the way he looked at the real person, not just what people saw. I explained how this camp lived out Gernillub and that's what I wanted them to do. Anyway, they got it and they did it. It was so cool each day to give examples of the great Gernillubing that we'd noticed. It was also a great way of discussing the difference Jesus wants to make to us and to our communities.
I thought I'd writet it up in case it's useful to anyone else.
PS: I tried to find on the web if anyone else had also had this idea? and there is this site I don't understand? and a Google page back to front? so I still don't know.
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