Young Voices

I sit here surrounded by the youth in Okmulgee serving as Youth Force 2012. I came into this week straight off of a week of church camp. It is hard to explain to someone who hasn't had the joy of camping or serving with a group of teenagers who love Jesus how invigorating it is. The energy of young people is amazing and to have it directed at growing in their faith is a wonder to experience. I think we have to ask how we manage to have such amazing youth ministry that doesn't grow into young adults of faith. We have been using a model of youth ministry that claims success when we get big enough to move our youth into their own building with their own worship service. But what message does that send to our youth? We seperate them from the rest of the church and teach them that the "main building" doesn't have anything of relevance for them. We graduate them out of the youth program and wonder why they don't go back to the place that we have implicitly taught them has no meaning for their lives. We then wonder why they go to churches that have worship that reminds them of their youth program. This is a pattern we have to change if we want to engage young adults in our churches. If we want our youth to grow into lifetime disciples, we have to be willing to allow the entire church to respond to their needs and build relationships that span the generations. At my most previous church, one of the most meaningful things we did was connect our 7th graders to adults through a mentoring program. Both the adults and the youth are transformed by the conversations about their faith. Relationships are nurtured that never would have happened if we had taken the youth out of the main church. As we grow a new church, we have to find ways to be in conversation with the young voices in our community. We have to be willing to take young people seriously and actually listen to what they have to say. The church needs the young voices of every generation to walk boldly forward in faith, to be relevant as a voice in the wilderness. I challenge you, to start something new, something that speaks to people of every age, and takes the time to listen to the things of the heart, mind and soul that possibly could transform the world.

Vision Cook Out

Last Saturday night we had our first official gathering as a community called Living Water UMC!  We had 15 people gather in my home and share food and conversation.  The youth minister in me had everyone play the game Two Truths and A Lie.  The game is played by putting two facts about yourself and a lie on a 3x5 card.  The group tries to guess which person put in the card and then which item on the card is a lie.  We learned some amazing facts about each other.  Some of them were: who likes animals and who clearly does not (Jokes about eating our cat were made!), one of us was baptized in slimy green water at a church in Glenpool, Ashley's favorite food is jello but is jello really food?  It was a lovely evening and my prayer is that it was the beginning seed of who we will become.  I was asked that night where I got the name Living Water so I wanted to share that here.

After I was asked if I would be willing to start a church,  I went through a series of steps that included interviews, questions and a group evaluation.   During that time my husband and I tried to come up with a name and nothing seemed right..  After I was "officially" going to start a new church, my youth group, collegues, and friends all started coming up with names.  The funniest one was by a student who wanted to name it "Monkey Business UMC."  During our week of boot camp training, the need to name the church became glaringly important.  We had come up with some great names but if I googled them, they were already taken by people in the Tulsa area or the OK United Methodist community.  So as I went to bed one night, I said to God "I need help with this one.  I can't do it and you have to give me a name, please."  I went to sleep that night confidant that in the next few weeks that it would come to me if I was willing to listen.  About 2 am, my husband woke me with his snoring and I moved to the living room couch.  As soon as I laid down, it came to me "living water."  So I got up, hit the computer and didn't find a Living Water UMC in the entire state of Oklahoma.  I then did a Bible search of the words and discovered it is woven throughout the entire Bible.  I starting reading the woman at the well story and was drawn in to the perfection of how it fit my vision for the kind of church I wanted to start.  So that is how we became Living Water before we had ever met.

Mother's Eyes

I have been remiss in keeping this updated so I have a lot to catch up on today!  Last week my friend, Mike, lost his mother and I went to the funeral in Rogers, Arkansas.  The things that Mike said that day were so profound and moving that I feel the need to share them.  He read the things his mother had written in his last birthday card (she knew she was dying of her third type of cancer.)  She wrote about what a beautiful baby he had been, what a wonderful man and parent he had become and how much she loved him.  Mike talked about how he obviously wasn't perfect and that she saw him with a mother's love.  He then made the connection to how Jesus sees us with eyes full of love and a willingness to forgive when we fail to live up to our potential.  How beautiful!  To think of our creator viewing us with a mother's unfailing love and willingness to overlook our blemishes. As I/we create this new community of believers my hope is that they can experience this kind of love and we will have the courage to tell them.    

Throwing Out the Baby with the Bathwater

I had a conversation with a group of young adults this week where I used this old fashioned phrase "throwing out the baby with the bathwater."  I used it in reference to the arguments about worship-traditional versus contemporary.  Traditional worship connects us to music, ritual and people who have been part of the church since Jesus first offered the last supper or washed the disciples feet.  My very musical, pretty hip cousin once articulated that the reason he likes hymns is that they feel connected to the people of the 14th century and they help him be part of something bigger than this time and this place.  I had never considered this before and hadn't really appreciated that connection to the early church.  (Which is surprising considering how much I love history.)
I once read a story about a man who suffered a tragedy and in his shock found that his only words were that of the Apostles Creed.  (The Apostles Creed is an early statement of what people believe in the Christian tradition.)  He repeated them over and over again until he found the place where he could face his great loss.  His comfort came from the consistency of the beliefs, from the familiar and the ritual of the words.  People from the Catholic tradition advocate for the use of the rosary beads as steps in prayer that help them focus and remember what they want to pray for.  My best friend in high school let me accompany her to the Catholic church for Christmas Eve midnight mass and I always found it fascinating and beautiful.  I didn't know what all was going on around me but I recognized the sacredness in what they were doing.
But, as someone who was raised in a church that was very traditional, when I went to youth events or to church camp I was amazed at how the contemporary music moved my soul and helped me rejoice in my faith.  I found them energizing and charging of my spiritual battery.  I still feel that way about many of the praise and worship songs this day.  As I continue to visit churches in the area, I am amazed at how contemporary we have gone.  I went to a church today that had a light show with the music and it was so loud that it vibrated my chest.  It was energetic and very well done but it felt a lot like a concert to me.  I watched the music more than participated and I even knew the songs.  The sermon was excellant and the people responded to the service.  It is a growing congregation with a heart for Jesus but wasn't a place I could make my church home.  So I think there has to be a way we can have some ritual, hang a cross in our worship space and still be contemporary and relevant in what we are doing.  We have to find a way to hold on to the baby and get rid of the bathwater.  I am open to ideas and willing to take the risk of finding out if it can be done.