Youth Column: Making Connections

Monday July 11 2022

David Moodie, a young member of Granton Parish Church in Edinburgh, highlights the work of the church's Acorn group.

Like many people, one of the big struggles I have with faith is “is it relevant?” There’s a time and place for the big questions, but if being a Christian doesn’t have an impact on the way I live and the people around me, it’s easy to question what is the point?

One thing that’s really helped give my faith a sense of purpose has been joining our church’s Acorn Group. The basic idea behind an Acorn Group is that God is always prompting us to make connections with other people, so it’s our job to listen and act. All of us who are part of the group commit to asking “God, who do you want me to make a connection with today?”, and every two weeks we meet together on Zoom and feedback how it went. Did God answer and give us the name of someone to connect to? Did we speak to them, and if so, how did it go?

What’s been great is that you don’t have to be a super confident person to take part. One of our members calls it a ‘support group for people who are bad at talking about their faith’. We are a really diverse group, we are different ages and even live in different countries, but what we have in common is that we want to become more confident in speaking about our faith. And there’s no pressure, some meetings I won’t have anything new to report, so I just enjoy listening to other people’s stories.

And the stories we’ve had have been incredible. Often one of us has sent a message to a friend out of the blue only to hear back, “that was just what I needed to hear today.” Sometimes it’s chance encounters. One of our folks was almost run over by a cyclist, she stopped to speak to them and within 5 mins the cyclist was sharing their life story. And most encouraging of all, one of our members was at dinner at their neighbours and heard their son was interested in visiting a church for the first time. She took the initiative and asked if they wanted to come to our church with her. Within two weeks he was recruited into the music group and just recently he was baptised and joined our congregation.

Being part of an Acorn group has been really encouraging. Every week someone has a positive story to tell of a connection made. Every meeting I come away with more evidence that God is at work in the world and is calling us to participate. If I ever start to worry if faith is really relevant, I only need to think of the stories I’ve heard and experiences I’ve had through Acorn, and I am reminded that God’s Spirit is always at work.

So I’d encourage you to give the Acorn method a go. There’s more info online but starting is really simple. Just pray, “God, who do you want me to make a connection with today?” and listen for the answer. When you get a sense of a name, connect with the person. That can be as simple as asking, “How are you? No really, how are you?” Then, if possible, try to find a group of people you can share the experience with or create one. And that’s it. It’s really simple, but I’ve found that over time I’ve become bolder in making connections with others and much more excited to share my faith.