MVP: Youth & Young Families

Make the Vision Plain: Youth & Young Families
(Psalm 145; Haggai 1:15b-2:9)
10:30 am,  Sun, Nov 10 2013, Windsor UBC, J G White

     The voices of young people in Canada today…
     There is no right and wrong ever in anything, it’s what you believe in you as an individual and what you choose to do. - Elsie
     Premarital sex is not a big deal nowadays… If they changed those teachings to say, you know, it would be a bad thing to have a child out of wedlock, or I dunno, it would be a bad thing to have - to corrupt and innocent person.  Those are good teachings.  To teach against premarital sex is unrealistic. - Stan
     I felt it was somewhat hypocritical… like being in church and saying these things and then not acting, not acting in Christian ways. - Marly
     Ideally someone who doesn’t know Christ should be able to go to a church and feel welcome anyways, you know.  And I feel like that would happen in my church, I feel that, you know, people would get to know them and make them feel welcome. - Bill
     To be a community of Faith for the next generations that are coming along is a thrilling and challenging project.  It is a mission, a missionary task for a missional Church.  It is a calling from God, if it is indeed within God’s vision for us to do: to develop an intentional focus upon youth and young families.
     Last year a booklet came out that was the result of a significant study of people 18 - 29 years old in Canada, who have been in churches.  Many are now gone.  The study is called Hemorrhaging Faith: Why and When Canadian Young Adults are Leaving, Staying and Returning to Church.
Some of you have excitement this fall about our vision for these Canadian young adults.  And you picture in your own minds folk coming to faith in Jesus Christ, and coming in to be part of us who are here.  It’s a glorious vision, a beautiful hope.
     In the days of a Hebrew prophet named Haggai, the Jews who were living again in their capital city, Jerusalem, heard this good news about their worship centre, which was lying in ruins.  I will fill this house with splendor…  The latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former, says the LORD of hosts….
     Those folk, thousands of years ago, had visions of silver and gold adorning their building once again.  We have visions of people adorning our pews and halls and rooms: young people, families, retirees, everyone.
     But, as the research  names it, Hemorrhaging Faith is what we have in younger people today: even the young who get in the churches leave in droves.
     I want us to have conversation this morning about what the Lord is showing us about younger generations today.  I want us to share what we see and know, and what we find in the Word that inspires us to have a mission to those who are of younger cultures.
     Let me start with a quotation from the Hemorrhaging Faith study, in the chapter called  Faith Drivers and Barriers (4).
     To understand the emerging generation, we have to put aside our desire for straightforward answers and learn to be comfortable with the complex and even contradictory nature of young adults. There is nothing simple about them. We must try to hear the message behind what they are saying.
     Do you get to hear what younger people are saying?

What are they saying?  What do you hear?

     I think about the perspectives we can share, across ages and generations.  As someone who has always been interested in science and nature, I am interested in that way of understanding and knowing other people.  Common awe and wonder in creation.
     Psalm 145 says to God:  Generation after generation stands in awe of your work; each one tells stories of your mighty acts.  Your beauty and splendor have everyone talking; I compose songs on your wonders.

     What experiences of younger people intersect with God, and with the Gospel?
Making a difference in the world
Helping people
Environmentalism - knowing and enjoying creation
Building community
Truth seeking, truth exploring
Common experiences of youth & young adulthood

HF: Foreword - John H. Wilkinson
However, for the larger number of youth who no longer are involved in church, this research leads us to ask how we can move the church to be more, more welcoming of their faith journey, and more willing to engage in an authentic dialogue about faith and life issues, a dialogue that in many ways will require us in church leadership to understand a mindset quite different from our own. If we are to take young adults seriously, there will be a price to pay.

What kind of price might we need to pay for the sake of young adults?

What words of scripture challenge us to reach the next generations?

     Hemmorrhaging Faith says: Listen to young adult voices. And then imagine with us the best possible responses.
     Haggai 2 says, Take courage… work, for I am with you, says the LORD of hosts.  My spirit abides among you; do not fear.