To committee or not to committee
I got a letter from my pastor last night.
He wants to invite me to join the Stewardship Committee. Next year, the committee will apparently be using Herb Miller’s “Consecration Sunday Stewardship” program, focusing on the spiritual need to be “givers” rather than the church’s need to “receive”.
It’s nice to be asked. However ….
When I joined the church, we were asked to fill out a stewardship questionnaire. On the page were a list of major church committees, and we were asked to check those that we were interested in. Unless I’m remembering incorrectly, Stewardship is one that I chose not to check.
I also have some fundamental issues with the way that the church in general goes about asking for money. Giving is too often a demand in the church. I feel that giving in the church should be voluntary – each gives as they feel moved (called, even) to do so. If the church comes up short, they tell us so and we adjust our giving to make it up. I really don’t care what other people give – it’s only important to consider my own giving.
This past year, the church (through the pastor) threw around actual numbers. In one sermon, Pastor Vamos said:
One tangible indicator of our generosity is this–our giving to the
church. The health of this organism. We need to say that. If our
congregation is struggling to meet the bills, something is wrong. Your
giving to this church is an indicator of whether you’re living
generously. If you’re making over $90,000 and giving $50 a week–your
intent may not match with the reality. There’s something wrong with
that picture.
The use of an actual dollar amount in the sermon is what bothered me the most. That sermon almost caused me not to pledge this year. In a later sermon, a guest preacher exhorted us to take risks with our giving, knowing that God will make it work. On the basis of that guest’s sermon, I increased the amount that I pledged by 25% over what I’d planned to give.
Later, Pastor Vamos compounded the error of using specific numbers. During his “State of the Communion” sermon, he spoke about the actual pledges received:
There are some interesting statistics that you can take home and mull
over. I remember from college statistics that the mean is the average,
and so our average pledge from this past year is $2,206. And that’s a
lot more than it was last year, and so that’s terrific. But the
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are below–is $1,500. And I’ve been told that the mark of health for a
congregation is when the mean and the median are close together,
because it means that we’re not as dependent on those large pledges.
And don’t get me wrong–if you’re one of those larger givers, we hope
that you will increase your giving, because that really affects our
ministry greatly. But this really represents a challenge to those who
are below that mean and are able to, if you have the gifts, to be able
to do more. It’s a challenge for us to think about that, how we can try
to make the mean and the median match up a little more closely.
It was even worse than that. We were given a bulletin insert that showed a bar graph with each pledge from smallest to largest (the smallest being under $100 and the largest being $20,000). We were also given the average household income for the county, the average household income for the town that the church is in, and what a 10% tithe would be for each of those incomes. These were compared to the average and median pledges.
The use of specific numbers in financial stewardship is the use of guilt in the church. It’s measuring us against each other rather than measuring us against Christ. There’s no question in my mind that the church must be funded in order to survive. There’s also no question in my mind that giving of your time, talents, and money are required for a faithful Christian. It’s just the use of specific numbers that bothers me. Following Christ is not about guilt – it’s about the grace of Christ’s sacrifice and our attempt to be as Christ-like as possible to thank God for that miracle.
Lest you think that I’m griping because I’m cheap, my pledge was above the average. It’s important to remember that I am a part of a two-church household, and Carolyn pledges a similar (probably identical, but I’m not sure) amount to her church.
So the problem for me is this: If I’m uncomfortable with asking others to give money, if I’m uncomfortable with the way that stewardship campaigns have been handled in the past – should I join the stewardship committee?
Perhaps my presence would moderate some of the things that bother me. On the other hand, I really don’t want to find myself at odds with the rest of the committee and my pastor on a regular basis.
What do you think?
I really wish they’d chosen me for one of the other committees.
The letter says that “in the next couple of weeks, someone from the current committee will be calling to see if you are willing to serve.” I hope I have an answer by then.
10 Ways to Keep Me from Discovering Your Church
Via a chain of Decently.org to Church Marketing Sucks I have found a great article at Church Redone:
10 Ways to Keep Me from Discovering Your Church
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The point about use of the Internet is particularly true. I did not consider any churches without at least a minimal web presence in my church search. My preconceptions of the church prior to a visit were colored by the quality of the website. Getting the web right is essential these days.
Dredging up pain of the past
This weekend, I’ve experienced two instances of people inadvertently ripping the scab off of my personal pains of the past.
Pain #1 – Me of the Past
When I was in early elementary school, I had some emotional issues. I was the kid afraid of change (to the degree that I’d hide under a table in the hallway if given a new workbook). I was “most likely to get upset and disrupt a class”. I was also very intelligent and was ahead of the curve in school. I entered kindergarten (and even pre-school, if my parents are to be believed) already reading. One teacher that I had constant trouble with during my early grade school years was the gym teacher. According to my father (I’ve either forgotten or blocked memories of most of this), the gym teacher and principal were talking about the problem that I posed in gym class (and believe me, I was a bit of a problem). The principal suggested to the gym teacher that I was very bright and already reading. The gym teacher refused to believe that, and the principal suggested that he take a free period and come to kindergarten to get to know me better. (Dad heard about this because he was also a principal in another school in the same district – a “normal” parent probably wouldn’t have heard about it.)
Apparently, the gym teacher came down to the classroom and picked a book off the shelf. He gave it to me and I read it to him. He went back to the principal and told him that I’d memorized that book. The principal told him to go get a book from the library – maybe a 3rd grade level book – and ask me to read it. Same results – I must have memorized it. The principal told the gym teacher to go to a bookstore and BUY a book that isn’t in the library, and have me read it. Same result. According to Dad, the gym teacher concluded that I’d memorized every book. He reportedly said to the principal: “I took the book to him and he read it. I didn’t know what else to do with it so I gave it to him.”
Funny story, eh?
Dad reportedly got to use this story as an illustration for an elementary school colleague (Dad’s a school superintendent now). Apparently it made its point.
The problem for me is that Dad decided to retell the whole story to me this past Saturday night at dinner. I had completely forgotten it or blocked it as a painful memory (most of my memories of school from that period are painful). So Dad inadvertently dredged it up again. It was rather deflating for me. It’s not Dad’s fault – he figured that he’d done some good with a story from my life (and he probably has) and he’d tell me about it. It did hurt.
Pain #2 – Church of the Past
Way back in September, I wrote about my past in the church and why I had left and why I was returning. I mentioned in passing a “cult-like retreat” held by an “extremely conservative chapter of a conservative Christian campus
organization”. I think it’s time to flesh out that story some more, to explain my current dilemma.
Still, most patients have to live with pharmacy cialis the fact that you need to plan when you are going to trap by ED, but if you notice negative side effects such as vision loss moments after taking this medicine, call your doctor immediately. Men who were deprived of treatment due to pfizer viagra the high amount of the uric acid crystals. Vitamin buy tadalafil india A: Vitamin A is important for all males to focus on their diet and exercise to stay healthy. One of get viagra without prescription over at this web-site the most suitable versions is known by the name of Impotence, Erectile Dysfunction (ED) is an inability to achieve and sustain enough of a penile erection to make love. Back in 1986, I was a freshman at Rutgers University. On the first day, I was wandering around campus looking at the booths that various student organizations had set up. One of them near the Busch Student Center was for the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. They were giving away ice cream. I figured that as a rather religious person (at this point I was already a deacon and serving on two Synod committees) I should take a look and find a campus christian fellowship. The local Campus Crusade for Christ seemed too fundamentalist for me, so I tried out InterVarsity.
I have since learned that different chapters of IVCF fall into different places on the liberal/conservative spectrum. This chapter was VERY conservative. One of the first Bible studies on campus taught me that I should not be a friend to any Jews unless I was actively trying to convert them to Christ (“be not unequally yoked”). Other lessons were similarly extreme.
In October I took a retreat with them for a weekend in the woods. It turned out to be a very cult-like situation for me. The 48-hour retreat turned out to be (as experienced by me) 24 hours of telling me how terrible my beliefs are, and then once I stopped fighting them, 24 hours of pouring in their own beliefs. As expected, those beliefs were strongly conservative.
Fortunately, my personality turned out to be strong enough to resist such tactics. I made the right noises and they stopped treating me as the “resisting” attendee and moved on to other people. Once I returned to campus, I never went back to their group again. And as I wrote before, this was the first step in my turn away from the church.
So why do I mention all of this?
I’ve been working with my church’s youth group for a couple months now. There’s a presbytery-wide retreat coming up, and the youth director asked if I’d be willing to serve as a chaperone – they need one adult of each gender to go along. I said that I’d think about it.
I looked up the camp where the retreat is being held. Yup – it’s the same place that the extremely painful memory from 20 years ago was made. Just looking at the pictures of the camp I feel nervous about returning to the “scene of the crime”. I read the “Ministry Philosophy” of the camp on their website, and it’s fairly in line with the folks who held that InterVarsity retreat years ago. I’m about ready to tell the youth director that I won’t be able to participate, just on the basis of where the retreat is being held. I have to think about it some more.
My wife is more emphatic: “DO NOT GO!”
Again – unintentional pain inflicted by someone who doesn’t know my background well enough to see the landmine before stepping on it.
We all have scabs. Some people gleefully pull them off when opportunity presents itself. Others (like my father and the youth director at church) don’t even know that they exist when they accidentally scrape them off. It hurts either way.
Talking AT somebody vs. talking TO somebody
Today we have a tale of two bloggers.
On the one hand we have Will Spotts. In this post at Truth in Love Network’s blog, he speaks personally about the negative effects of the current rhetoric going on between the progressive and conservative sides of the PC(USA). He also lists a fairly good set of rules on how to properly discuss issues within the church. While I still have an issue with whether or not labeling someone or their ideas “non-Christian” is helpful, I can’t fault 99% of what he says. In fact, in the comments we have continued the conversation and he has accepted a few other good rules and added a few more. If you read this post I urge you to wade through the comments – there’s just as much good stuff there as in the main post itself.
Will and I are also talking “across the divide” offline. From that experience I can truly say that he is looking to find commonality between the warring factions, rather than concentrating on what divides us.
We clearly disagree on some points, but not as many as you might think. It’s a very useful discussion.
Will is clearly talking TO somebody.
UPDATE: Will’s post linked above seems to have disappeared from his blog. I have sent him an e-mail to find out whether or not this was intentional.
FURTHER UPDATE: Will’s post is back. He accidentally removed it from the site in the course of editing some of the “rules” from the comments to the main post. I’ve done that myself on occasion.
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On the other hand we have Bill Crawford, of Bayou Christian. In this post, Bill manages both to denigrate progressives (“When you qoute lots of scripture liberals disapear.”) and to stop cold any discussion from progressives. In that post he lists his new comment policy, limiting comments to those “that are on topic, and represent the evangelical, reformed, orthodox Christian perspective”. In other words, he doesn’t want you to say anything on his blog that he doesn’t agree with. His true purpose shows in the last big paragraph:
I am in no mood to be forced into chasing heretics, assuaging hurt liberal feelings, and looking like the “bad guy” because I spoke the truth.
This has the effect of stopping the dialogue. Don’t agree with Bill? Then you don’t agree with “The Truth” and he doesn’t want to hear it. Follow him, or shut up.
Bill is clearly talking AT somebody. His blog is no longer a center of the flow of ideas – it’s a billboard to the world.
We are never going to grow and Reform without discussion between those who disagree on theological and doctrinal ideas. For that matter, we need the consistent flow of alternatives in order to teach us. Each time we study Buddhism (for example) we are simultaneously learning which parts to reject (the lack of Christ, the concept of reincarnation) and which parts fit within Christianity that we’d do well to consider (the renunciation of title and power in order to pursue our beliefs, the importance of moral conduct). We need to be exposed to other concepts in order to hone our ability to separate the wheat from the chaff.
Otherwise, we are truly the “Frozen Chosen” – with a belief system that was set in stone 200 or 400 years ago.
Talk TO someone or talk AT someone – it’s your choice. I choose TO.
Green Church Options
The report of the Lawrenceville Presbyterian Church “Green Team” to the Buildings and Grounds committee is complete.
We suggested several possibilities for inclusion in the upcoming Capital Campaign. I say “suggested” rather than “endorsed” because timing prevented the Green Team from meeting and voting on the options.
The proposals are:
- Installation of Solar Panels – likely on the Fellowship Center – this is a big dollar project
- Switching from fuel oil to biodiesel for heating the church and manse – we concluded that the distribution network isn’t there today but should be soon. This would cost more, but be cleaner.
- Replacing electrical lighting fixtures and incandescent light bulbs with lower energy alternatives (newer long tube ballasts, compact fluorescent bulbs)
- Insulating the roof of the Fellowship Center to increase R-value
- Lowering thermostats and placing framed instructions on temporarily turning them up in all locations – our new programmable thermostats automatically go back to the programmed setting after 2 hours. This would involve setting them lower most of the time and turning them up only when a meeting is held in a particular room.
- Installing ceiling fans in the Fellowship Center (essentially a big high-ceiling multi-purpose room with basketball hoops)
- Installing storm windows in the Meetinghouse (sanctuary) – our historically accurate building does not have them.
- Power Vents for Fellowship Center (to pull hot air out of the room in the summer)
- Weatherstripping/caulking all buildings
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As you can see, most of the recommendations are non-controversial but cost a fair amount of money when done all at once.
The focus of the Green Team should now shift to preparing advocacy and educational presentations for Earth Day (April 22). We have the “Adult Forum” slot that day after worship. The youth are leading worship that day, and we may have the environment be the subject of the “Adult Message” that replaces the “Children’s Message” (where the kids all come down front and get a special lesson) on that day.
Fear and the Visitor/New Member
When we held the Reconnecting with Faith retreat this past January, one of the questions that we asked the group was “What is keeping you from getting involved/more involved in a faith community?”
The word “fear” came up multiple times. I’ll try to describe the different sides of that fear, in the hope that by understanding it, those responsible for working with visitors and new members can help reduce its effects.
One important caveat: The visitor or new member has both a fragile faith and fragile sense of self within the church. I am purposely avoiding any judgment of those visitors. The time for judgment of the appropriateness of a person’s attitude or beliefs is when they are being considered for membership or higher office, not when they first come in the door.
Fear of Acceptance/Rejection
Here’s a situation that may or may not have happened to you personally. I’m sure that you have enough relevant experience to understand the emotions.
Let’s say that you are 13 years old. You’ve just moved to a new town (possibly in a different part of the country). It’s your first day of school. You’ve managed to survive the morning classes, and maybe you’ve made a friend or two. Most of the people around you are strangers, and they may or may not see you as strange. It’s lunchtime. You’ve gotten your lunch, and you’re standing at the side of the cafeteria looking for someplace to sit and eat. Do you find a table by yourself? Do you hope that somebody will invite you to join them? Do you dare to ask to join a table where others are already seated and talking? Will you be called a freak?
That’s what going to a new church feels like to a visitor who is looking for a church or considering the possibility of going to church. A 30-something man or woman (or couple, maybe with kids) is reduced in an instant to a gawky 13-year-old in a new school. Do you take a seat in the back pew to hide? Will someone invite you to sit with them? You may remember the service from the church you grew up in (or attended last week), but there are creeds in the bulletin that you don’t have memorized – that you’ve never heard of. Do you stand or sit during the 2nd hymn? Oh my, it’s Communion Sunday and there are no trays up front. How do I take Communion? Do they even want me to take Communion?
(This leaves out one of my personal fears – what happens when they hear how badly I sing? Ha.)
Once the service ends, will someone talk to me? Do I want them to? Should I go to coffee hour?
In my search for a church to return to, I experienced all of these fears. In some churches I was ignored (notably in the church that I ultimately joined – they had a bad day). In some churches I was smothered with attention. At least once I got a dirty look for daring to inhabit the chosen pew of a family.
In some churches I was treated well. I was welcomed, people asked about me and why I came. People talked to me during coffee hour. I felt at home.
It’s tough wondering if you will be accepted.
Fear of Commitment
The lack of a church experience in your life often leaves a hole. For some its a big hole. For others its a little hole. Something (or someone – like your child) is pushing you to look into joining (or rejoining) a church. Maybe it’s God. Maybe it’s just you. Maybe you don’t know.
At the same time, you have a routine. Your Sunday mornings have been free (and often free from the need to get up early). Your checkbook has not felt the pinch of a weekly donation. Your Sunday evening, Tuesday morning, Wednesday evening, etc are free from church committee meetings, bible studies, youth group, etc.
At some time, you will be called upon to make a commitment to God (and Christ if you choose a Christian church). That commitment is one of money, time and talents. You’ll sacrifice some free time and some personal resources. You may be prepared to do so.
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“What will they expect of me?” “What am I getting myself into?” – I’ve said both of those through the course of my return to the church. (I’m pretty sure I said at least one of those this past weekend.)
During the Reconnecting with Faith retreats, we heard complaints about expectations around personal resources. We heard of one church where financial contributions (including supporting the church school) were essentially mandatory. In one case, a woman who was young and had done youth work, and who also plays guitar, related her experience visiting a church. The pastor talked to her after church, and as he learned of her particular abilities was obviously mentally putting her on committees. “Oh, you can help with the youth group.” “You play guitar, we can sure use your help with the contemporary service.” This woman was scared off by the demands placed on the first day visitor.
What will they demand of me? – this is the question.
One extra note here – “We’d love to see you next week” sounds coercive to some. “We’d love to see you again” is a better choice.
Fear of Special Circumstances
In our retreats, we had a few people who had different reasons to be worried about being judged. We had someone who is gay. We had at least one person going through a divorce. We had several who had been away from the church for a long time (like me).
The church (in my opinion, to its detriment) is very good at making snap judgments of people based on their traits and/or personal situations. Homosexuality, divorce, age, marital status, even time away from the church are all things that can cause church people to “look down their noses”. I’ve experienced it with my long-time absence from the church (though that came more from church people in my own family).
Remember what I wrote above about fear of acceptance or rejection. Add these special factors and what do you get? A 13-year-old who is nervous about a new situation, but who also feels (rightly or wrongly) that they are wearing a target on their shirt. It’s like there’s a scarlet letter on your shirt – G for gay, D for divorced, I for inactive, O for old.
The good news here is that a church that is intentional in its welcome to visitors can get past these fears. Sometimes it means broadcasting your acceptance (and in some cases, the boundary of what you will accept) – in the website, in the bulletin. Sometimes it just means listening to each person’s special circumstances and being clear on the church’s position while loving the person. “We’d love to have you come back again” sends a strong message to someone who has laid their cards on the table. “We’re glad that you visited, but our church has problems with {homosexuality, divorce}” is better than letting someone attend on a regular basis and run into that particular wall should they choose to pursue membership.
Fear of “What Happened Before”
In the retreats nearly 1/2 (or possibly more than 1/2) of the participants were able to point to one or more specific incidents that caused them to leave the church or consider leaving the church. These incidents cover the entire spectrum of church activity. Some mentioned a specific theological concept (or more than one) where they differed from the church (that they belong/belonged to). Some mentioned “people behaving badly” in church – rude, insensitive, political behavior or even in one case physical abuse. Others mentioned a focus on money and donations to the exclusion of theology.
Each of those people is experiencing or has experienced pain at the hands of the church. Some of that might be considered self-inflicted. Some is just “one of those things” (like a theological split from their church).
The key is to recognize that pain, and help the person get it out of their system. This is what we do at the Reconnecting with Faith retreat (among other things). It is not appropriate to fish for this in a visitor, but when it does come out the church and particularly those involved with visitors and new members should be prepared to handle it.
Conclusions
People walking in the door for the first time are usually nervous. The church generates fear in them to some degree. A church is most successful at attracting and retaining visitors when it can help visitors get past that fear.
Back to the Future, part 3
A while back I wrote of getting involved in the youth group at church. Two weeks ago I attended the Sunday evening meeting for the first time, and it involved so little interaction that I wasn’t really able to figure out whether or not I wanted to continue.
Last night, we met again. Due to snow, we only had 5 youth show up (plus 4 adults including me). This group had a really good session getting ready for the Mission Trip this summer to Louisiana.
We did breakout sessions and that gave me a chance to interact with the youth. I discovered a few things:
- These are great kids. No, I mean it. Really awesome people.
- I share enough in common with them to feel comfortable.
- It was fun! I’ve forgotten the joy present in a room full of people laughing so hard that tears are rolling out of their eyes at a little silly comment.
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At this point I feel called to continue for at least a few months. I feel like I can be helpful with this group, and I feel compelled to give back. My own youth group experiences form the foundation of my faith. This experience even has me thinking about taking a week this summer to help chaperone the Mission Trip.
The only hard part is that this adds to my time committed to things outside of the house. This activity puts me at or beyond the upper limit of that time. I need to think about dropping something, possibly flying.
(If you want to see these folks, take a look at the Lawrenceville Presbyterian Youth and Young Adult website. CHAOS is the group that I’m working with. Guidelines on the Mission Trip are found on the Mission page.)
New Members in Mission
Quotidian Grace writes about her recent experience attending a new member’s class at another church. (I’m not entirely clear on whether she is changing churches or just sitting in – she’s the moderator-elect of her presbytery.)
The really interesting part of her experience is the Saturday “workday” that they did. The new members were taken to one of the church’s outreach agencies to work for a 1/2 day. They did the usual mission work – packing sack lunches, working in the Thrift Shop. At the end of the day they heard about other mission opportunities (and learned even more in the regular Sunday session the next day).
The group even made sure that they were thanked and given pictures (electronically) of them working.
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We got an overview of mission opportunities at the Lawrenceville church new member class. We even got to see most of the internal ones just before the classes started at the annual stewardship fair (and the new class just got to see the external ones yesterday at the annual mission fair). But we didn’t actually roll up our sleeves and do something. The new member class was a nice way to get slightly acquainted with some of the other new members, but I would have really liked the chance to get to know people in the way that only happens when you work on something together.
Kudos to the Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church in Houston!
Back to the Future part 2
At this point, I have to give my “Back to the Future” task an incomplete.
Last night’s meeting was nice, but there was minimal interaction with anybody. The program was on Haiti and consisted of a video shot by the Youth Director on a visit to Haiti a few years ago. Later, the pastor of a church in Haiti that our congregation supports came and spoke of his ministry and the situation there (including his being in the US due to death threats). The kids were quiet for the most part and the adults asked most of the questions.
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Another issue that I discovered last night is the time commitment and time with my wife. There might be a conflict there – it depends on how important the youth work is to me. We’ll see.
Back to the Future
This weekend, I go Back to the Future – reliving part of my life. How? I’m helping out with Sr. High Youth Group at church.
Back in my youth (as I’ve said before many times), I was heavily involved in church. Part of that included being probably the most regular member of the Sr. High youth group. My freshman year, I was probably the only one who wasn’t a junior or senior in the group – we didn’t have an Associate Pastor at the time so some of the more recent young adults were running the group. I think we had maybe 4 or 5 people. As I got older, we got a great Associate Pastor who had youth ministry as one of his specialties. We then grew to a solid 8 to 10 by the time I graduated (this in a church that drew about 200 attendees at Sunday services). I enjoyed going every Sunday evening. My parents had it easy – the Associate Pastor’s manse was around the corner from our house so I always had a ride to and from church (or actually to church and from Friendly’s after youth group).
My youth group involvement grew into becoming a deacon, attending the Presbyterian Youth Triennium in 1986, and being a Youth Advisory Delegate to the Synod. One of the most fun weeks of my life happened when I was working at Camp Johnsonburg as a CIT. One summer, I got to be the 3rd counselor in a work camp unit, with my Associate Pastor as a co-counselor and kids from my youth group in the unit. Helping to serve communion (deacons were allowed to do that back then) at Triennium and at work camp were very meaningful for me. This left me sufficient engaged with the church that I headed to college planning to make either religion or computer science my major (with the other my minor).
Then some stuff happened that I’ve written about before and I left the church. However, it was my ties to youth group experiences – particularly camp – that drew me back almost 20 years later.
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So …. this weekend I’ll be volunteering with the CHAOS (Christians Hanging Around On Sundays) Senior High youth group at Lawrenceville Presbyterian Church. Alicia from my church, camp, and who worked with me leading the Reconnecting with Faith retreat (she’s the redhead at the left end of the group photo below) talked to me about getting more involved at church and suggested helping out with this group.
I admit to some fears. While I used to work with youth once upon a time, at the time I more or less WAS a youth. It’s been 20 years, and my youth relational skills are gonna be very rusty. I don’t have any reason to have contact with kids of any age on a regular basis. (I know, be yourself and the kids will respond.) The good news is that the other youth advisors that I know are great people, and I’m sure somebody will be able to backstop me if I falter.
Wish me luck! If it works out, you may see more posts here about this group. If not, well, you’ll probably see an “it didn’t work out” post and that’ll be that.
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