2005 Term 1 Week 2 - Reasons to Enter the Chaos

This week we will look at why people don't enter the chaos. I know we have done this before. This time will be from a new angle. This time we want to encourage others to enter the chaos. When we do they will give us lots of reasons why they shouldn't. Almost everyone of their reasons will be valid. The typical approach is argumentative, that is I argue against your reasons. This approach seldom works (unless you are a bully then it might work a bit more often).
Example:
Mum: Johnny turn the TV off and go do your homework
Johnny: I'll do it later, I want to watch this show
Mum: You wont do it later. Bedtime will come around and the homework wont be done
Johnny: I promise I will. This show is just up to the exciting part
Mum: Its just a cartoon
At every turn the mum character argues against each of Johnny's reasons. This is a common way of dealing with differences, making the other person's reasoning look flawed. As you can imagine, this leads to a lot of fights. Tonight we will consider another approach.

Update after the fact:
We came up with a list of why a guy wont ask a girl out on date (in honour of Valentines Day). Some of the reasons were: Fear of rejection, Don't know her, Waste of time or money, Might not work out, and Don't want one.
I then turned the tables and said if you were a friend of the guy who saw the girl and you knew they would be great together, how would you act in the situation. All the responses involved attacking/undermining the aforementioned reasons against.
This tends to be the approach of culture, very adversarial. In this situation people tend to get very defensive, and when that happens they stop listening.
Another example we used was: If I were to ask one of the guys to lead devotions next week they would probably say no. Then I would ask why and the only reason I ask why is so that I can know the reason in order to break it. Eg. "I don't know what topic to do" - "I'll give you one". "I don't think I can make it last 1 hour" - "I'll help you". All I am doing is undermining the reasons, saying that their fear is baseless, which is never believable.
So, what to do in response? With out coercion, the only way to encourage someone to enter the chaos is to give them a reason to do it (a pro reason, as opposed to the con reasons we listed earlier).
To illustrate this I picked on Jono, who I had given a pro reason last September.
We then talked about how we could increase our city's water and power supply. Everyone of the guys contributed without having any detailed knowledge or expertise, yet they were willing to try and create something rather than just critique existing ideas.
We then went back to the initial guy and girl situation and came up with reasons why the guy would actually ask the girl on a date. The reasons were: Adventure, Fairy tale, Crazy, Forever, Bless her, Mystery, and God. We then had another look at the list and realised that the list was reflective of the gospel. These reasons to enter the chaos are the same reasons that God uses to enter the chaos. We can be like God.