Do You Want a Revolution (whoop Whoop)?
Sunday afternoon The Youth Collective gathered at Mt. Carmel Presbyterian Church. Two of the girls have been to Massanetta Middle School Conference and are planning to go to Montreat Youth Conference this summer. For part of our activities this time, the girls taught us two energizers. If you don’t know, an energizer is a type of dance or movements set to music that is intended to get youth “pumped up” and energized for the conference—particularly in the mornings! The first one the girls taught us is called Revolution, which is performed with Kirk Franklin’s song of the same name. I told the girls, as Aslan would say, “do not cite the deep magic to me, witch, I was there when it was written!” That might not be quite the truth, but close. I’ve been doing the energizer for Revolution for 28 years! In fact, I think it might be the first energizer I ever learned. It still brings me great joy to “build my cross” with my arms while Franklin’s deep voice calls out:
“The Book of Revelations
Chapter 7: Verses 16 and 17 (yes sir)
They shall hunger no more
Neither shall they thirst anymore (preach, preacher)”
The truth is that when I started putting feelers out for The Youth Collective, this was the type of interaction I hoped for. I dream of creating a tradition of taking a group of kids to Massanetta and Montreat Conferences as they get older. Youth Group made such an impression on my life, those experiences were vital to my faith formation. Seeing other kids get a taste of that and enjoy it gives me hope that there are still opportunities for our teens to engage in faith formation that is not only formative, but fun. I realize now (what I took for granted all those years ago) how fortunate I was to have adults in my church and presbytery that made space for those types of occasions. And I had peers around whom I could be myself, what a gift!
I am not without youth ministry experience, but my previous groups were already built when I entered them, so I wasn’t building from scratch—and I was in my 20s so it seemed a little easier to be cool, or have rizz, or whatever the kids say these days! I’ll be honest, it has been a tough row to hoe getting this program started…it is hard to get busy families to commit to coming out even once a month, especially when sports are in season. It is also tough to help teens mesh and form bonds without significant time together—and two hours once a month, especially when attendance is spotty, does not make that task any easier. And in case you haven’t noticed, having a preacher’s kid does not automatically create buy-in! It has been tough for my son to be one of the youngest among the group and at an age where everything feels awkward, being the only kid in sixth grade a lot of times makes it extra hard. But this week, one of the high school boys asked where he was and when I explained the discomfort my son has been having, he said, “tell him we don’t care about any of that, we want him to come.” And my heart melted just a little bit, because that young man-- just sixteen years old-- who drove himself to youth group, didn’t have to ask about my son and he didn’t have to say something so encouraging. And I was able to bring that message back home and see the look of surprise and admiration on my kid’s face.
This could be the revolution, right? We fear for the future of our churches, we fear for the future of our country, our world, our children! But we have the opportunity to do something right, we have the opportunity to come together and show our children, our teenagers, and yes—our adults—what it means to work together and be a truly supportive community. And if I may (stands on soap box and taps mic, “is this thing on”?) we can’t expect our kids to want to go to each other’s churches to learn and play together if we won’t do that ourselves! So, when you hear us invite you to a special service where churches are working together, if we get an opportunity to worship with another congregation, or do Bible Studies together or VBS, or a trip, truly anything, I hope you will consider how important your presence is with us. It is important for your faith formation, yes, but it is also important for the formation of our community. The body of Christ is stronger when we are all together!!
On April 24th a Praise and Worship Night is being planned at Bethesda. This event will raise money for the youth to go on a trip to Sight and Sound Theatre in PA this summer and possibly contribute to a few of the girls going to Montreat as well. As plans are finalized, I will share them with you, and really, really hope you will come and show your support for this little garden we are planting. We’ll even teach you how to do an energizer or two. Please keep praying for this ministry. One day, with your support, we might just have a bumper crop.
“Do you want a revolution?
Whoop, whoop”
A Note about the featured picture : This photo was taken by Mike Erdelyi at Montreat Youth Conference in 2010. All those orange t-shirts—those are ‘my kids’ from Three Chopt Presbyterian in Richmond, participating in energizers.