PASSION RAVE
What makes mJa member Andy Gregory rave with excitement...

Think churches and you get graveyards. Think young men at churches and you think choirs, weddings and funerals.

No chance of becoming a churchgoer then. Or so many young men would say.

But they also say things like, "One life: now live it". This translates into "sex, power and money" - but never church and rarely Jesus.

Young men love football, too - that's the big one. In fact, "it's our religion", they say, "our passion". We Christians, "in the know" about church as it should be, can knock them for it. We can look down on it as shallow. But football has found a connection with young men that church has lost.

There is passion in every man that is desperate to find its voice - its expression. And football provides a daily fix , a common ground with fellow "believers", a cause to live for, a dream to be fulfilled.

Church must be like this! Church has to be a place for young men - a place of energy, passion, power, and at times terrace-like singing!

Jesus showed the way to be a true man and gave us worthy cause to live for.

May young men reading this search and find a church like that - and live your life to the full, not forever blowing bubbles and following the crowds - but living life to make a difference.