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WF Youth Ministry Insight--What Do You Think? |
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Written by Brenda Seefeldt
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Tuesday, 08 September 2009 |
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"Short-term trips (STMs) are contemporary versions of an ancient Christian practice called pilgrimage. (Perhaps we should call them STPs). A pilgrim goes on a journey to meet God in a faraway place, hoping to return as a different person from the one who left. In medieval times, Europe particularly was crisscrossed with pilgrimage routes, with the destination usually being a notable church or site of a saint's relics.
"Pilgrims had no illusions that they were going to 'change the world' by their pilgrimage, but they hoped that being exposed to the world, and to the stories of the saints who had been faithful in it, would change them. They were much more than tourists, traveling simply for the fun of it (though medieval pilgrimages were often, appropriately, convivial and joyful affairs). Pilgrims travel for transformation, and that's a good thing." --Andy Crouch, Youth Worker Journal, September/October 2009 Does this view change how you plan your STMs? Is there a way to blend your STMs to also be rites of passage?
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