Dear Friends,
What a wonderful Easter Sunday! The pews were filled, the flowers were beautiful, the music glorious as always, hearing the familiar Easter Story and just being there all together in our amazing space, supporting, encouraging and loving one another.
Many people have noted throughout the week the joy of the children who distributed the antidoron, the blessed bread (croissants, beignets, muffins, etc…), during the sermon. I saw wonderful photos people shared of the joy on the faces of those receiving the bread.
Yesterday I talked with Alex Roberts and Dave Hoover, our lay leaders, about all the feedback on the joy and participation of the children. What a wonderful way to celebrate the resurrection!
I’ve had talks with older folks and younger folks, parents and people who aren’t parents, young and old, across varieties of spectrums in the last few days. There are two things, to me, that have risen out of conversations with our Weaver of Generations, Lexi Fortna, about this. (This is me working to articulate a lot of ideas together.)
I’ve heard from parents that when they are talking with other parents, outside the church, they hear some variation of “I worry about what the kids will learn there.” Unfortunately the big “C” church has often done a really bad job of articulating a God of wonder and love. Our branding in the larger culture often seems to be of “judgmental jerks” (or worse).
So, these two things I think articulate what we are trying to do in faith formation with young people in our church. (So you can have it, feed back to me what you think about it, and, if you have anything to add, I’d love to hear it.)
1) Faith formation. How are we giving young people who connect with our church the language and stories of faith? Many worry about what young people will learn at church. We want young people who might be confronted with the more hateful depictions of Christianity to say: “That’s not what I’ve learned. We believe the living God is a God of love and justice and generosity.” Often people will tell me they remember, warmly, days of Sunday School and Youth Group. (Not everyone had good experiences in these, but we often seem to think it was all good.) We know, from patterns of our lives that have changed in the last 50 years as well as data and science done on these subjects, this generation’s Faith Formation will look very different than 50 years ago. (And this is fine too…while it was good 50 years ago, it did not create deep connections to the church for those who grew up in it.)
2) Celebration of gifts. We want young people who grow up as part of this place to say, “My church saw me, saw I have gifts to share with the world, and encouraged and challenged me to grow those gifts and share them with the world, because we believe God is at work in every person in this way.” One of the most interesting and exciting experiments with young people in our church is that, over the last 5 months, Lexi has been talking with the young people and offering them financial investment in a gift they have they want to develop. This has often engaged the whole family in conversations. Young people have been given money to develop a gift they have, to explore a curiosity of mind, body or spirit, or to learn something they have always wanted to know about.
By the way – Lexi’s work is made possible the Miracle on Spruce Street (still accepting donations!).
What might you add to these two core commitments we are carrying in our work, our ministry, our attention to the lives of children, youth and families around our church?
Keep tellin’ the Story,
Mike
Enjoy THIS weaving of generations from across the world singing “What a Wonderful World” –
This week’s takeaway: The young people around us are terrific. We are working to find ways both for “faith formation” among young people and to invest in and celebrate the gifts of young people in our church and beyond.