Collide Begins

Sunday night our new series, Collide, began at FOCUS. The idea for this series came from one of our seniors, Elijah Schiarelli, and he kicked us off with a passionate message. Students entered to a playlist of songs about colliding, and then we watched an introductory video created by our very own Sarah Brawley. We ventured outside to collide with a piñata, and then students and adults collided with one another as they were tied up in groups for dodgeball and soccer. Joseph Freeman showed us a video about an evangelism linebacker which was hilarious! We played Trainwreck, a long-time favorite FOCUS game in which we collide with one another as we race for open seats and learn interesting bits of information about one another—like who’s the only person to have dated two Brawleys.

Sarah Brawley led us in beautiful worship, including “Sweetly Broken,” a song about being sweetly broken and wholly surrendered to God.

One of Elijah’s points in his message was that when things collide, they break. The same happens when we collide with God—we break, but that’s good. Brokenness is a good thing, and that’s difficult to wrap our minds around. When things—cars, washers and dryers, refrigerators—break, it costs us money and convenience. In essence, brokenness is bad. But not when it comes to us and God. Elijah pointed out that when we, with our ambitions, our pride, our agendas, are broken, we are most accessible to God. When we collide with God, we break, but that means God gets to put us back together. That means God puts our priorities, our attitudes, our goals, our ambitions, our dreams together so that they reflect his perfect will for us. Being broken usually involves pain on our parts, but it’s good, healthy, growing pain. Two members of the crowd Sunday night, one adult and one relatively new student, courageously spoke up about their own experiences of making poor choices and then coming to God in states of brokenness.
Elijah also made some bold statements that he felt led to say. He called students out by proclaiming that if they were offended by something said during the Collide series, they should go to God in prayer to see what he was trying to say to them. He said that it’s not okay to intentionally sin all week and then show up at church and FOCUS knowing you’ll hear all about how God loves you and forgives you. Elijah reiterated that God does love us and is willing to forgive us, but that we also have a responsibility to live lives that will please God. He called students out to a higher level of commitment to God and a Christian lifestyle.
The other messages in this Collide series will also call students to collide with themselves and their world in bold, radical ways. The church’s current series is called, “You Can’t Handle the Truth,” but I wonder if that phrase may more appropriately name the current FOCUS series where students are speaking bold, difficult truths from the Bible. Our student speakers, Elijah, Sarah, and Marc Chewning, feel that it’s time to step up and proclaim a Gospel that isn’t always a warm, fuzzy blanket, but a Gospel that calls us to follow Jesus 100% in selfless, sacrificial, and seemingly unusual ways. If you’re ready to hear something different, then come join us for the rest of Collide.