Bulletin Board
This is where you can voice your opinions. I am answering a calling I have heard to help organize young adult ministry within the Diocese of Olympia. I am now making a calling that you may be able to answer. I am calling for content for this board. Be it poems, stories, witness, questions, debates, pictures, sermons, observations, . . . The list is endless, simply email me your submissions.
Memorial Day weekend 1999, I found myself in San Francisco for the 1999 Young Adult Festival. Fifty young Episcopal adults came from all over the country to seek out "How do I live a life with God?" In case you are interested, here are my experiences with that festival. Enjoy.
I would like to share with you some thoughts that occured to me during last Sunday's (June 29, 1999) Gospel reading. The reading; Mark 5:22 - 24, 35b - 43; spoke of Jairus seeking Jesus to heal his daughter. He falls to the feet of Christ and begs repeatedly for Jesus to lay hands on his daughter and make her well. While asking for Christ's help, many people came from Jairus' house to say that his daughter was dead and not to bother the teacher any further. Jesus then turned to him and said "Do not fear, only believe." Christ then entered the house only allowing Peter, James, and John to follow. Upon seeing the commotion of mourners around the girl we told them that the girl "is not dead but sleeping." Hearing this, those present laughed at Christ, who took the girl by the hand and spoke the words "Talitha cum!" ("Little girl, get up!") She then rose and began to walk around and those present were amazed.
I sat in church listening to this reading and the Spirit whispered into my ear. Allowing the Spirit to steer my meditation, I began to reflect upon young adult ministry. I fell upon memories of my college years at the University of California at Santa Barbara. I remembered Canterbury House, and running the Episcopal Campus Ministries with my best friend, Chris Ryerson. I saw images of Gathering at the Crossroads, the national ecumenical young adult ministries conference I attended a few years ago. I thought about a trip to Yosemite with some friends from the Diocese of California. I remembered reading the monthly email newsletter from a friend at USC about their ministry there. Even the frustrations about trying to bring the Diocese of Los Angeles together floated through my head and brought a smile to my face.
Then I began to reflect upon young adult ministry in this diocese. Frustration rose in my heart as I remembered all the conversations I had recently with different parishes and young adults here. News of the diocese cutting the young adult budget. Amazement that nobody seemed to have heard about NatGat and provincial gatherings. Seeing parishes struggle to organize events for a small group of young adults. Thinking that if they only could organize joint events together, how much larger the ministry could become. Looking at what appeared to be young adult ministry dying.
Next, my mind filled with visions and voices I have been hearing ever since I moved to the Seattle area in September of 1996. Voices that spoke of helping to organize the young adult ministry within the Diocese of Olympia. Visions that showed me large groups of young adults walking together down a path, stopping occasionally to ask questions, pick up another to walk with them, wait for a few that may be hesitant in joining the walk, or simply to enjoy their surroundings. Words that had an answer for all my excuses for why this was too big a job for me. Dreams to remind me that my life was saved from death twice recently for a reason, and young adult ministry was that reason.
That's when I saw it. The Spirit showed me Christ standing before me. He reached out his hand and smiled. My heart and spirit were filled with frustration for the lack of ministry that I saw here and hesitant about the calling I kept hearing. Christ's words to the people weeping for the child rang in my ears. "Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping." My heart and spirit emptied of the frustration, and the hesitation left. Young adult ministry is not dead but sleeping. I have been chosen to be one of those to enter the house with Christ to witness the rebirth of this ministry. It is not a task for me to do on my own, but it is an event for me to witness. It is also not an event for me to witness alone, but one that many can share. I ask you, will you enter the house with me? Will you follow Christ and witness this wonderous event?
Well this week's closing has to do with youth and us... Yesterday Sunday, I got the chance to talk with a youth named Phil, as noted earlier in prayer requests.. Well after talking with him for quite a while, I realized just how hard these days it is to be a youth... I look back on my teenage years, and think I thought I had it hard, not at all... For example, the only real drugs you ever heard about were Marijuana and Acid (LSD).. That's about all we heard about at the school level... Yea there were others out there, but that was in high school... Now I'm hearing about 6th. graders trying cigarettes, LDS, Marijuana, and other drugs... 6th Graders?? That's barely 12 years old!!! Then comes sexual activity... Yea you had sexual activity, but it was all hanky panky until high school... Now I'm hearing about 5th and 6th graders having sexual intercourse... I'm just in a state of shock, and also in a state of prayer for these kids... I congratulate our youth and pray for them just the same, for having to deal with these terrible problems society has pushed upon young bodies and minds, with TV, ads, radio, all aspects of their daily lives... I also pray for more of these kids to come to know Jesus Christ's love for each of them... With Jesus Christ's love the decisions aren't going to be any easier, but they can know that Jesus will stand by their sides...
So the next time you're at church, or out in your workplace, or at school (it starts soon you know), or you're in your home, talk to those teenagers around you, and let them know you love them as brothers and sisters, and PARENTS especially, talk to these teenagers about these things in their lives... Youth respect our decisions and what we have to say more than anything else... A new study says youth look to their parents and elders for their decision to drink alcohol or not... Not their peers, their elders!! Remember everyone, we're setting the precedent for all our youth... Which also means we are setting the standard for God's church... Remember it takes the whole village to raise a child, not just one person... So don't stand there and think someone else will take care of this child.. Jus think what would have happened if Jesus Christ walked past Pontious Pilate and said, "Nope, let someone else take care of these children..." Where would we be today?? Well it's time for me to back off the soap box until next time, God Bless....
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