Youth

Dear family,

This Sunday we have an incredible opportunity. The young people of our church family will lead us in worship. They are creating it. They are leading it. They are choosing the music. And they will bring the message. It is, even for those trained in areas of worship and message development, a stressful time, but for four persons who have no experience, it can be down right frightening.

And yet, they cant wait to do it. They can't wait to lead us. They cant wait to share their experiences of NYC and how God moved and touched them during their two week excursion into the west. And they are anxious for all of us to get on board and join them in this exciting journey we called faith. They have a passion and a deep desire to follow God, and my hope is that we join them, no more than that, my hope is that we follow their lead and let them become the stars of this congregation.

But all too often my experiences, in previous congregations and previous NYCs, is that the energy and power of National Youth Conference gets swept under the rug or dismissed as emotional fervor with no real reason to pay attention to it. We cannot and must not do this to our young people this time. We must throw our inhibitions away and listen to what God has to offer, even if it means turning our world upside down. Folks, i know i have said it before, and i cant say it enough, but we should feel the desperation of this moment.

We are desperate. We have little resources. We have fewer numbers. And daily it seems bad news comes through the papers or television warning us that life, in the "Rust Belt" is only going to get tougher. The economy, in our communities, continues to struggle, and that truth creates a culture of anxiety in our church. No money coming in means what? Fewer persons attending equals what? So we are desperate. Right?

And if we are desperate, which i sense we are, why not listen to new ideas, from our young people, letting them inspire and lead us? What do we have to lose? Come to church, this Sunday and every Sunday, with an open mind and willingness to hear, to see, to experience God in new ways. If we come to worship, letting our lives be our offering, our act of worship, we can and will experience God in powerful ways. But more than that, we can overcome the western tendecy to make worship be about us. It isn't. It is about the Creator.

So. This Sunday, listen, worship, and give yourselves to God and let our youth lead you. If all goes as planned, they will illumine a similiar path to the ones each of them walked a week ago, and what an amazing journey it was. Amen.

Shalom,
jerry