Do you remember the promises you made to our Middle
Schoolers before they went to Massanetta Springs? You promised to support them with
your prayers while they were away, and then you promised to “celebrate with
them as they conclude their work and ask them with genuine enthusiasm to share
their experiences with you.”
We made the same promises to those who helped with
Vacation Bible School and we’ll make the same promises on July 16 to our High School
Youth Group before they go to Montreat.
Have you honored your promises? Have you asked any
of our young people to share their experiences with you?
If you haven’t, you should. Year in and year out
our Middle Schoolers head to Massanetta Springs and our High Schoolers head to
Montreat with such eagerness and enthusiasm. I cannot recall anyone ever
returning from either place not wanting to return. On the contrary, our young
folks start planning for next year on their way home from this year’s time.
Ask them why. Ask them what they learn, who they
meet, what they did, and why they love to go. What you’ll find is that even as
our young folks are having a wonderful time, they are also growing in faith and
discipleship. A few days at Massanetta Springs, a few days at Montreat are nothing
short of transformative.
We want to keep helping our young folks have these
experiences. We want to help them go back to Triennium in 2019, if they want
to, as they last did in 2013, when we sent the largest contingent of any church
in the National Capital Presbytery.
In order to assure our young people of these and
other opportunities, we are already at work planning for a Stewardship Campaign
that we are hoping and praying will be as successful as our Capital Campaign
was a couple of years back, when we achieved 120% of our goal. Stewardship
giving took a small slide backwards last year, forcing us to cut where we did
not want to cut, including expenditures for Youth Activities.
We can do
better. We need to do better. We will do better. As we wind up our 150th
Anniversary celebrations, it’s time for us to look forward to our future and
make it bright and strong. God will lead us, Jesus will guide us, and the
Spirit will enable us, but we are the ones who will make it strong and vibrant.
I’ve loved this image of a church reminding us that
we are the Body of Christ, each of us called to build the church, and all of us
standing on the shoulders of all those saints who’ve gone before.
What kind of church are we going to build for our
young people? What kind of church will we celebrate in 2027? 2037? 2067? It’s
up to us. It’s up to you.
Grace & Peace,
Pastor Skip
