Parental Recap of Week 1 [24/25]

Dear Parents,

I hope you all had a blessed summer with your families. Now, that the school year has official started I wanted to share a brief explanation of what we have planned for our Wednesday night youth gatherings.

School year plan

This school year, our plan is to go through three major series of discussions. Each series will be drawn from three separate books: the book of Ecclesiastes, “Analog Christian” by Jay Kim, and “Radical” by David Platt. The main idea of the books build on each other in order to help your students have a clear vision of what really matters in this world. Ecclesiastes helps them see the fleeting nature of the world under the sun. “Analog Christian” helps them cultivate contentment, resilience, and wisdom in a digital world. And “Radical” helps them see the call to live ordinary Christian lives empowered by an extraordinary God and gospel.

I plan to send out a weekly recap email (on Thursdays) to help you understand what is being discussed on Wednesday nights and help you continue the conversation at home. (This email will be by far the longest weekly email this school year.)

Wednesday night’s discussion

Yesterday, we began our series on the book of Ecclesiastes by introducing the main theme of the vanity of life (not meaningless but a midst, fleeting, temporary, vanishing). We read through Ecclesiastes 1:1-11 and had our discussions in the cemetery next door, surrounded by a few hundred tombstones and names of people who were once parents, children, friends, co-workers, and RPC church members. We learned the Preacher draws our attention to death so that death can give us clarity on how to live.

Here are a few follow-up questions you can ask your students to continue the conversation at home:

1. The Lord may grant us a short or long life but we all will face death. How can ignoring death be detrimental to living a life glorifying to God and loving others?
2. How does our momentary life on earth draw us to things that matter for our eternal life in heaven?
   1. Or, write a list of things that you value the most. How much time and energy you are investing on the things at the top of the list?
3. The gospel of Jesus looks at life in an upside-down way:
   1. Greatness is through serving others
   2. Gaining life by dying to yourself
   3. Seeing by looking to things unseen
   4. Wisdom in the foolish things of the world
   5. True strength when you are weak
   6. Growth by God’s power not willpower

How does the gospel find eternal meaning in light of the temporary nature of life?