young adults and the church

I was having a conversation the other day that got me thinking a lot about this question: Have we, the church, done young adults and youth a disservice in the way we have hired people to fill ministry positions rather than look for volunteers for some of them? However unintentional (and I do believe it was unintentional), I do believe that the church has done young adults a disservice in this. The current economic situation mean that just hiring someone to do everything is not the most cost-effective or financially responsible way to do things. But, it also requires a change in thinking for many people in terms of how monasteries within the church are run, and I would venture a guess that for many youth and young adults it is a change to something that is foreign to us.

Growing up in the church, I remember the day we hired our first youth pastor, our first childrens' pastor . . . those were big deals at the time, while now it seems like most churches of any size have these positions as paid staff. But, while I remember those days, it is a vague memory. I was young - young enough that it then became normal to me that those were paid positions within the church. Growing up there was always Sunday school, weekly kid's club, youth group events that were organized by church staff and then I showed up at - maybe with something I said I would help with (ie. concession, clean-up, etc.), but for the most part all I had to do was show up. As I grew older, this expanded into the area of young adults (18-30 something) ministry, as we now had a pastor who had that as his job, as well as having an assistant in the office. While we were given more opportunity to get involved in the planning of young adult events and in actually making them happen, ultimately there was still someone on the church staff who was paid to do that job.

Enter the last couple of years, and the change in things economically, which presented a challenge for many churches, as the number of staff they had it became no longer financially possible for them to employ. A change in thinking about how ministry is run is now required. For some people this is no problem, as they are returning to how church was done when they were growing up in the church - volunteers running most things with the pastors and church staff overseeing the various ministries. But, for youth and young adults, this a change of thinking to something we have barely, if ever, seen in how church operates. Some young adults may vaguely remember a time when there was not a pastor for every ministry, but they were definitely too young at that time to realize that it was volunteers who had run kid's programs before, or to grasp the significance of the change from volunteers to paid staff.

So now you have young adults who are used to having things delivered to them by church staff who are not being told that the church can no longer provide us with a young adult pastor and we have to figure out how to do it on our own. Okay, no big deal, we have been incredibly spoiled up to this point. The problem is now that we do not know how to make things happen on our own. We are so used to having someone do most of the work for us that we do not even know where to begin. And so the feeling of being un-valued and forgotten begins to take root. Since we are used to having a staff person(s) focusing just on us, we feel like by taking away that staff person(s) the church is saying to us that we no longer matter, that no one cares about us anymore.

This is where I believe there ends up being some serious miscommunication on both the part of young adults and church leadership. This miscommunication goes both ways. As young adults, instead of making our voice heard and asking for some help and guidance, we get hurt and we walk away from that particular church body - possibly even the universal church. As church leadership, who is often a generation or two older and remembers when everything was run by volunteers and the people who wanted something to happen were the ones who made it happen, there is an assumption made that young adults can just switch over to that way of doing things, with no realization that this is not a return to what it used to be for us, that this is a complete change in thinking and we need some help to make the change. The result of this miscommunication is a world of hurt and misunderstanding, while young adults continue to decide that they while they still want to call themselves followers of Christ - Christians - they have no use for the church and would rather go it alone. There is no blame to be placed here. It is a misunderstanding and miscommunication that goes both ways - neither side has necessarily done anything wrong, they are both operating out of their understanding of how church can and should work.

That story of what has happened above, I believe it is one that has played itself out many times in recent years. Some people know that is what has been going on; others do not know. Some young adults have found themselves caught in the middle of this. They have grown up in church and know that is has not always been the way they grew up with it being, but they have few memories of what it was like when everything was not done by paid staff. We are not willing to give up on the church, yet, but we are still struggling with the pain of all that transpired, because we too, feel that we have been thrown off the deep end not knowing how to swim and now we have to figure it out. But, we also have friends who have known nothing of before the church paid people to run every program who are deeply hurt and have walked away from the church and do not understand why we are hanging on. Some days, it would be so much easier to just walk away. But, we choose not to, because we know that we are the people who 20, 30, 40 years down the road will be the ones who have to make the same tough decisions that church leaders have made and are still making. We know that we need to take the opportunity we have to learn from those ahead of us, and so we hang on, despite the hurt we feel, despite the moments we feel that it would be easier to just walk away.

So I am left wondering, has the church done youth and young adults a disservice in the way we were brought up in church? I honestly think that the answer is yes. We are so used to paid staff to do everything that we expect it will always be that way. And when we lose that paid staff we take it personally.

I think the church is in a critical place right now. There is an entire generation that is in danger of walking away from the church for good. They still love Jesus and want to follow Him with their lives, but they have become disillusioned and they are hurt. Those young adults who are still hanging on need to speak up and make their voices heard. We need to explain our situation to others and ask for the help we need. But, we also need church leadership and older generations in the church to come alongside us and help us to learn this new way of doing church. We are willing to learn. We are willing to work. We are willing to be the ones who make it happen. But, right now we have no idea how to do that. We need some help. This is a change in thinking to something that is completely foreign to us. We are not reverting to the way it used to be; we are moving on to something new. We love change. We will embrace it. But we need others to come alongside us in the deep water we have just been thrown into and help us learn how to swim in it.

What has been done has been done. It is what it is. I do believe that it is time to move forward from here. But, it means that we need all generations in the church to work together to make sure no one is left out or feels like they are not valued. I believe that the church can come out stronger for this hard time, but it will not be easy.

when God calls, He equips

I was reading in Jeremiah the other day and I was struck by the conversation between God and Jeremiah in the opening verses of Jeremiah chapter 1. It just seemed so familiar a conversation - one that I have definitely had with God in my life, on more than one occasion. I would guess that this is a conversation many of us have had with God at some point in our lives.

The word of the LORD came to me, saying:
            "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
                    before you were born I set you apart;
                    I appointed you as prophet to the nations."
"Ah, Sovereign Lord," I said, "I do not know how to speak; I am only a child."
But the LORD said to me, "Do not say 'I am only a child'. You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you," declares the LORD.
Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, "Now, I have put my words in your mouth. See, today, I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant."

-Jeremiah 1:4-10, NIV

In these verses, God is calling Jeremiah to be His prophet. Jeremiah does not feel qualified for the job and protests accordingly. Then we see God promising to lead Jeremiah and to provide him with the words he is to say.

When I read this I began to think about how often we have similar conversations with God. It may be about a major decision in life, such as our career, education. Or it may be about taking on a role in a ministry at church or volunteering somewhere that pushes us out of our comfort zone. Or it may be about stopping and offering help to the person we just passed on the street. It does not matter what it is about, I think we very often protest when God asks us to do something specific.

I know there have been times when God has asked me to do something and I have very quickly had a long list of reasons why I was not qualified or able to do what He was asking. It is pretty easy to come up with reasons why. Much like Jeremiah protesting that he was only a child and did not know how to speak, we have reasons we give to God about why we cannot do something.

But, I was struck by God's response to Jeremiah - and it is much the same response that He gives us when we protest about our inability to do something. God responds to Jeremiah by equipping to him to carry out the calling God has given him. God does the same thing for us. When He calls us to do something, He will provide what we need to do it if we follow in obedience - even if we have doubts about our ability.

We serve a God who is capable of doing anything - even what would be impossible for man - so I wonder why we so often determine that He cannot give us the ability to do what He calls us to do? Do we believe that God can equip others and not us? Do we believe that God only equips people for certain tasks? Do we believe God only equipped people to do things in Bible times?

The truth is that God will equip us to do what He asks of us. Even if it seems impossible for us to do on our own, if God has called us to do it we can step out in faith that He will enable us to do it! Is that not some pretty incredible truth to build a life on? If God calls us to do, He will make us able to do it - whatever that means we need. But, we have to step out in faith that He will.

when we walk through the dark

I was just listening to a CD from my time at Briercrest. It's probably one of my favourite CDs because it brings back memories of my time there. But, that's not the reason for this post.

I was stopped in the middle of what I was doing as I listened to one of the songs. The lyrics to the song just struck me. They so describe a journey many of us go through in life and one that is definitely familiar to me.

When I Walk Through the Dark

(Brad Guldemond)

When the pain seems like too much to take

When my heart can't stand another break

When the battle's wearing down on me

Stay by my side to comfort and guide me

When my feet don't know which step to take

When my heart's not sure which choice to make

When my eyes are blind to sights that lead

Help me to know You're right beside me

Hold my hand when I walk through the dark

Speak my name so I know where you are

With You close I will not wander far away

When I walk through the dark

When the clouds block out the light of day

When summer skies return to grey

When the rain pours down and I can't see

Stay by my side and come through this with me

Hold my hand when I walk through the dark

Speak my name so I know where you are

With You close I will not wander far away
When I walk through the dark

Cover me with Your love

I don't want to lose my way and give up all the good here for me

You have planned what's best for me

So I want to be faithful to You

You are here as I walk through the dark

And Your voice says, "Child, I know where you are"

With You close, I will follow the path You made

And walk on through the dark

Just a simple song declaring trust in God - even when things are dark. I don't know if you needed that reminder today, but I did.