SOARING - A Bishop's Blog

As many others have expressed, the youth really enjoy Resurrection. It allows them a more hands-on experience of what God and the Holy Spirit are all about!

I agree that when we get back home, this excitement and growth will sometimes atrophy. We do not need to try to make our churches like Resurrection, however, we may want to focus more on outreach to teenagers by incorporating more praise and worship music as well as multimedia presentations. We do not want to stray from our United Methodist roots of having a reverent, reflective service, however, we cannot stick to tradition in such a way that will appeal only to the elderly.

Our teenagers and young adults are a vital part of the United Methodist Church and I am excited about many new things that are happening in our congregations!

Amen to letting our youth help formulate our worship services. I'm all for community church where all ages can worship together. However, many of our youth are hungry for multisensory worship, but they only find it once a year at Resurrection. One of my youth said it best, "I just don't get traditional worship. Who's tradition is it anyway?"
Should we expect unchurched or new christian youth and families to adopt our traditions or offer them a chance to have a say in how we do things?

"Will they feel this free back home?" Only if we let them! I appreciated what Aaron and Joey had to say about the importance of allowing the kids to get involved in the worship service as well as trying to avoid the mistake of re-inventing Resurrection in the local church. I was privileged to go with my daughter's youth group several years ago and was impressed with how kids that just seem to sit around every Sunday could get excited about Jesus. The difference was, of course, that they were part of the worship at Resurrection. Given the chance, I discovered that they could get excited about being not only part of the worship but part of the church. When they were encouraged to look at and use the gifts God gave them, they felt called to be in service to the church. When they were given a chance to pray and to preach, they did so from their hearts. I also discovered that their choice of music was not always what I expected. As Joey mentioned, I discovered the kids liked the ritual and even some of the "old hymns." They missed things like the Apostle's Creed and Gloria Patria when they were left out of worship. Of course they enjoyed the use of drama and puppet shows too but it had to say something. I discovered they don't seem to like the United Methodist "Church of What's Happening Now" any more than I did in the 60s and 70s when I was their age. These young people are indeed the church of today as much as we "old folks" are, if we'll give them that chance. We have to consider that sometimes we need to listen for a while. We still have a lot to learn and they have a few things to teach us.

Mike Roberts

I would like to add a big "Amen" to what Aaron said in his comment. Ressurection is an event that the youth I serve talk about year around. They begin to get the Rez "itch" as I like to call it when the holidays begin. They look forward to being challenged in another way. We do not need to make a counterfit resurrection experience in the local church. Otherwise the youth will not have anything to look forward during the winter. I ask the youth what they would like to participate in during worship. Many want to be involved in the "process" of worship. They help plan and participate in the services. They love to be involved in the service of the Holy Eucharist and many are interested in more "ritual" in the worship experience. It is a sad reality that my generation did not have these options as the youth of today. I agreed with Bishop Swanson when he mentioned that he was "upset" with the fact that he did not have this expereince. Though he mentioned this is a toungue and cheek way we did not have it. So, we must involve our youth in every aspect of the church so that they can learn and feel involved. Many say that we need to do this becuase they are the church of the future. I disagree. Our youth are the church of TODAY.

I've been working in youth ministry now for 10 plus years and have been to Resurrection many of the 20 Resurrections as a youth and now an adult. I've seen it change greatly over the years, but one thing that hasn't changed is what I find youth enjoy most about the "Resurrection experience". The lights, projectors, energetic music, and speakers are great, but what I hear more than anything else is that they are allowed to worship the way they choose. They feel a freedom to express themselves and connect to our mysterious God in ways that feels right to them. The obvious implication is that they often don't feel that same freedom in our local congregations. That is a problem! What's the answer? The gut reaction, and likely the wrong one is to "copy" Resurrection. Resurrection operates on a scale and in an environment that is unique. We likely cannot duplicate that experience and would only succeed in creating a cheap knockoff. In trying to recreate Resurrection we’d be operating like a physician who treats only the symptoms of disease and not the actual ailment. So, what is the ailment? I believe the answer (at least in part) is giving the youth some control and freedom over the way we as a church worship. It means letting go of closed mindedness and formula driven worship services. It means allowing ourselves (as adults) to be a little uncomfortable so that our youth are more comfortable. Are willing to do this? I don’t know if we are. What do you think?

Aaron Atchley