How would you explain a smartphone to someone from Roman times?

Last February, Young Life launched their new St Albans club hosted at Marshalswick Baptist Church and a year on, it is going from strength to strength. It currently meets fortnightly as well as engaging in Illuminate events such as the Cathedral event at the end of the month.

For those who aren’t aware, Step has been working with Young Life to help them establish a link here in St Albans. Their new worker, Gizzy, is also a Step volunteer and joins us in our two lunchtime clubs at Sandringham and other activities. The group is blessed with many leaders including two from Step and we are regularly getting nearly 20 young people attend.

Last week, I got the privilege of leading the talk for the first time (Mary’s already done two!). I was asked to look at the Incarnation of Jesus so kicked off with a question- how would you explain a smartphone to someone from Roman times? It definitely sparked a lot of engagement and was the perfect hook to exploring how God would help his creation, whose brain couldn’t comprehend the complexity of a divine being, know him better.  

The talk focused on Jesus healing the paralysed man and how this account provided evidence that Jesus was God in human form (power over sickness and a claim to have power over sin) but also revealed what God was like (caring, compassionate and merciful).

Conversations flowed as we finished with discussions in groups about what they thought God was like considering all the stories they knew about Jesus.

Our hope is that more young people from local schools will become connected with this group and that the relationship between Step and Younglife continues to be positive.

Geoff