Churchy stuff

It was weird to have a completely mundane conversation about youth ministry today after services, when the whole area is preparing for...who knows.


But I did, and it was good. I talked with a parent who has been trying to get things working, and was unsuccessful. The more I find out about what has been going on the parish over the past few years, the guiltier I feel. It turns out that the pastor kept everything youth-related pretty close to the vest. He didn't even report to council about youth activities. I feel guilty about that because when I first started to explore the possibility of becoming Lutheran, he asked me if I would be willing to work with youth ministry. At that point, I was still so raw from my experiences at the CCC that I still wasn't sure I could tolerate participating in in organized religion, let alone doing any kind of formal ministry (meaning beyond the ministry all should be doing every day as followers of Christ). I couldn't bring myself to say yes.

So, because the pastor didn't have enough time to devote to it, youth ministry in our parish kinda died. Now, we don't have a whole lot of high school students, but the exciting thing is that seven out of the eight we do have are active in the congregation in some way. The deserve to have someone acknowlege that they have needs that are different from the 60 year olds who are the ones who are active in most of our ministries.

So, the parents I talked with are really excited, as are the young people I had a chance to meet (next week is Rally Day - the kick-off of the Christian Formation "year"). They are really psyched about the chance to go to the ELCA youth gathering in New Orleans. I really like what they are doing with it this year. The young people (and the adults who are with them) will be going out into the city and actually doing service the whole weekend. There will be talks and stuff too, but the core of the weekend is service.

It's almost a year away, but I worry what kind of impact Gustav could have on plans.