Something Missing

I can't remember how old I was when I went to Sunday School.  8 or 9 ish.  I do remember that the church didn't have big enough halls for the Sunday School, so it was held in the school.  On a Sunday.  None of that rebranded Young Church for us in Little Dounreay, because the name fitted the day and the location perfectly.

I think I went for at least a year, but I stopped going, and I don't remember why, but I'm sure it was my choice.  It was only in my 5th year at secondary school that I started going to church, and on the first visit there I was invited to join the Youth Fellowship that was being formed.  This lasted for a couple of years, but while we had good fellowship, there just wasn't enough youth, as we all moved to do other things, be it university or working elsewhere.

So there's a good bit of Christian fellowship I've missed out on .  Just at the point I was starting to think about matters of faith, I was on my own, and because I'm such an anti-social person, I didn't seek out any Christians of my own age.  In fact, the thought of gathering with a bunch of Christians would have been a scary idea.  In some ways it still is...  I've not been around like minded people as we explored our faith, and seen how our concept of God and the bible can evolve over time.

I have recently made an assumption about the under 25 age group where I thought that they may be more tolerant and open to new ideas, however one person I shared this with suggested the opposite.  That young people may be drawn to more evangelical churches and Christian groups with more fundamentalist beliefs..  Another person agreed with this, however they suggested that it was the fellowship that was important, and that they may go along with the stance of the group in order not to rock the boat.  A third person had experience of being in a more evangelical church group and being told "if you don't believe in X, then you are obviously not a Christian." so there was a social pressure to conform.

Unfortunately, the one person (or persons) I really need to speak to is a group of Christians aged under 25, and I don't have many of them in my social circle.  I want  to know what they are thinking, about life, the universe and everything. 

So here's my request.  If you are reading this, and you know of a youth group I could visit, can you please leave a comment with some sort of contact details.  All my comments are moderated so your details won't be published.  In return, I'm happy to answer any questions they may have, and in particular about how a 36 year old Gerbil found himself moving towards ministry.  I'm based around Edinburgh, but I can be in most of Scotland in a couple of hours.

And I promise to bring doughnuts.You can't say fairer than that.

This year is getting more and more interesting.