It's Never Just a Goose

Geese.
Lots of geese.
Our church has a beautiful little pond surrounded by several cleared acres in northeast Memphis. This pond is a magnet for Canadian geese. On any given day, you can drive onto our property and see a small flock grazing in the field. These geese are pretty brave in that they graze close to our building, walk to and fro across driveways, and even find themselves in our recreation fields from time to time. Although the geese are beautiful to look at and provide for a picturesque setting for any church, the most distinguished quality I've noticed is that they are never alone. They are always together. It's always geese and never a goose.

I had a very difficult conversation with a young man last night who confessed to me a moral failure he experienced over the weekend. I'm just broken for him. I know how significant sin can be in our lives and I know his life is forever changed because of his lack of judgment. As we talked it became obvious that one of the contributing factors to his indiscretion were his friends. Inasmuch as he fully responsible for his actions, the crowd he runs around with never encouraged him to stick to his moral standard. When he found himself in the situation he didn't have friends helping him get out, he had peers encouraging to stay in.

That's how it is with teenagers. No teenager ever wants to be lonely. Every teenager wants a friend. As teenagers look for friends, they are drawn to the ones who accept them, irregardless of the moral compass that group exhibits. Teenagers, in their efforts to avoid loneliness, will engage in crowds that lead them to bad choices. I'm convinced most teenagers don't really consider the kind of crowd they are with as they find security in being a crowd. Geese, never a goose.

So what how does the church respond? I'm convinced its not all that realistic to tell students to stand out as a goose. I do, however, think its our calling to equip geese with gospel to go and gather more geese for the gospel. We have a lot of Christian teenagers who are too content to be geese in the Christian flock and never consider the gooses out there looking for a new pond. We've got to get our geese off the church property and help understand their calling is to go make disciples among the gooses. In the end, we all love geese, no one wants to be a goose, and we've got to make more room for new flocks.