I arrived home in New Jersey late Monday night for a conference starting yesterday at Princeton Theological Seminary (my seminary) entited: "Princeton Forum on Youth Ministry." I am spending the week attending workshops geared towards exploring various ways to think outside the box with youth and young adults. As a way for me to process the information from each day, I'd like to do a little more blogging than I usually do.
Yesterday was Day One. It consisted of me arriving at the seminary at about 11 and having a little bit of time to visit with people that are still there from when I was there. They are graduating this year, but after I stopped by the conference registration table, I was able to enjoy some time in the school cafeteria with some old friends. It is so wonderful to be back in New Jersey for the week!
At opening worship, an amazing speaker named Shauna Hannan spoke from Luke 17:11-19, the story of ten made clean by Jesus with only one returning to thank Him for it. Jesus points out when the one returns, "Were not ten made clean?" Shauna then commented, "We might rephrase it, 'Were not 20 confirmed? Were not 12 baptized?'" We laughed but only because we know it's the truth. Too many youth are confirmed and then we never see them again in the church. It is not just small churches that wrestle with how to retain youth in the church. Large churches face that question as well. Part of what I'm hoping to get out of this week is insight on how to provide youth-friendly options both in worship and in youth group time that get youth excited to come to church and spend time with their church family. As someone who always came to church without question and who almost always had perfect attendance in youth group and Sunday school, it's a little harder for me to get my head around why people don't. Part of it I think has to do with upbringing. I don't think it's a "sign of the times" because this is no different for this generation than it was for the last or the one before that.
The lecture I heard last night gave some insight into what has happened between the time when church was just a given and church now being an "optional" activity, second always to sporting events, family gatherings, and sunny days on the golf course. Dr. Richard Osmer, a professor at the seminary in the Christian education and practical theology departments, spoke for about an hour on "Evangelism and the Mission of the Church in an Age of Diversity." He talked about how we can reclaim the spirit of evagelism as a way to help "wake up" the church. Evangelism, he said, is not just for non-Christians, although that's how we often think about it. I've heard it said before and Dr. Osmer kind of reiterated this: evangelism should be about conversation; not strictly about conversion.
The workshop I attended yesterday afternoon was pretty awesome. It was led by a writer named Enuma Okoro and the title of the workshop was, "Writing as Faithful Witness and Building Blocks." We did a writing exercise, shared our work, and talked about how reading and writing has an impact on our spiritual lives. I've never really thought of reading something other than scripture as a spiritual exercise, so that was an interesting highlight of the seminar. I also very much enjoyed the writing exercise and at some point I might type out what I wrote and post it on the blog.
It felt so good to see so many familar faces and catch up with people. I do miss seminary. I miss sitting in the classroom with people. I do not, however, miss exams and writing papers. I do enjoy the time I have now to read things at a more leisurely pace rather than trying to read everything to cram it all in on a deadline.
So that was Day One. Looking forward to reporting back on Day Two : )
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Becki
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