The Wilder View…February 2008

Remember when you were a young person at church and they would have the annual ‘youth’ Sunday? It was so exciting to plan the worship service and be one of the leaders. Do you remember? They would always position that Sunday as ‘celebrating the future of the church’, it was like we didn’t matter quite yet, but one of these days we would be the future, and then we would really contribute to the ministry of the church.

I am proud to serve at Lafayette Park, a church with a history of investing in their children and youth. I have heard countless stories… about the youth club ministry that was so very important to the church that only funerals had priority in scheduling… about the choir robes we have now are have because the youth club so that the children and youth choir would have matching robes with the adult choir. Or that our church has the privilege of supporting a huge number of Eagle Scouts!

I also celebrate the fact that on the last Sunday of each month for the last 3 ½ years we have been blessed by the leadership gifts of our children and youth on Youth Sundays. We have been blessed by their musicianship, their liturgy, their hospitality, their art work, and their creativity. It brings me great joy to see the pride on everyone’s face on the Sundays when they are leading in worship or when they do the Christmas pageant. I am thankful to serve a church that values the gifts of leadership of their children right now and not sometime in the future. We know that our children are truly a gift from God, and we gladly provide them the opportunity to lead us in worship. In many ways, we live out the verse about a child leading them.

This year has been exciting to see the youth group starting to form. It is great that we have a group that went to a conference youth experience called WOW! Our confirmation group is meeting already and having great discussions.

I periodically share my dreams and hopes with various people for our children and youth ministry so I thought I might just share them with you. One of my dreams is that we continue to grow our youth Sunday until we have the children and youth completely planning this worship service. Eventually, I hope that our youth would actually preach on a regular basis so that we might hear what God is speaking to us through them.

I also dream of Lafayette Park becoming a community youth center. Our building is uniquely equipped to offer great ministry opportunities. We have almost completed the renovation of our bowling alley. We have a wonderful gym, and a great fellowship hall. Maybe one of these days we would be set up so that on Friday nights or Saturday evenings the building would be open as a safe place for teenagers to come and hang out so that they can make new friendships and have a place to talk. Perhaps we could have an evening a week where we have a youth service with a praise band, and we fill our sanctuary with youth from our community worshipping God. I dream about a youth choir that can go touring in the summer. Or what about offering youth club again? Just think of the great ways we can serve our community by extending ourselves to the ministry of reaching out to the youth in our community.

On February 24th we will again celebrate youth Sunday. This month we will be presenting Bibles to our 3rd graders. We also celebrate the expansion of our children’s Sunday school classes and the people who every week prepares lessons to teach our children. We celebrate our children’s church leaders who lead our children in a closer walk with God through worship.

I invite you this month to take time to thank those who are working closely with our children and youth. I also invite you to pray about God’s call on your life. Could it possibly be that God would like your help in building dreams with our youth? You never know what blessings might be in store for you as you support the gifts that God has given us in our children and youth. Let’s work and pray together that the rich history and ministry of celebrating the gifts of our children and youth will continue and expand so that we might realize God’s dreams for our church.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Kathleen