This coming Sunday is Youth Sunday.  Some of the youth of our church will be leading us in worship.  Their Sunday Funday School Teachers, Nancy Kluge and Beth Cullop, have been leading the youth deeper in their faith.  They have brainstormed, talked, prayed, practiced, and grown in faith in their preparations for leadership.  I've only needed to give a little bit of guidance.  It's so humbling to see how much they understand and how willing they are to lead.   Their numbers have been small, but their faith is huge.

It's a gift to gift the church.

Every generation gifts the church to the next generation.  What's wonderful is that some of our traditional ways of approaching worship are still meaningful to the next generation, and yet, it's challenging because some of our traditions are not meaningful to them.   New ways and styles of worship have been developed.  New songs to sing.

And yet, it's the faith in God that remains.  It's the desire to worship God that remains.  It's the hope in God that we see in the upcoming generations that is still inspiring.

The church will not be the same in the future.  But, you have to admit, the church today is not the same as any of our parents imagined.  Some things have been preserved and some have changed.  And what we cherish in worship today was not in our grandparents era.  

And that's OK, because the gift is in gifting the church.  The Church is not ours to hold onto but to give away.  Our prayer and hope isn't in our style of worship but in our faith in God.  And that, above all, is what we want to give to future generations.  How they relate, how they express, that may all change... but it's the same faith in God through Jesus as the Christ that we are humbling passing along.

Come join us Sunday, either in-person or on-line.  Let the youth lead you deeper into faith.  .... even as we have led them.
 

Peace in our journeys,

Pastor Steve Melde