I am renowned for what is technically known as a “low coolness factor” and normally people sedulously keep me away from anything having to do with youth; but if you are elected moderator, they have to invite you to events like Canada Youth 2014. I arrived just barely in time for opening worship and I wondered if I had got to the wrong place. This couldn’t be a Presbyterian service. The auditorium was filled with those in their teens and early twenties—note that word “filled”—and we latecomers had to find a back row. There was a countdown to worship, with the kids shouting the numbers as loudly as they could and then a terrific service. The band was great, which is a huge factor at such events.
The band, despite their very high coolness factor, turned out to be two Presbyterian ministers and a theology student. They said that the CY participants were one of the best singing groups they had ever met. Good singing is definitely Presbyterian. The service, when you considered it closely, actually had the same elements in the same order as very traditional Presbyterian churches, with prayers and the reading and preaching of the Word. There was a wide variety of music, some of which included traditional hymns sung in a more lively way, with a contemporary bridge included. Most importantly, the gospel preached and sung was a faithful representation of the message of God’s love that has always touched the hearts of Presbyterians of any age. The heart of the faith, presented in new ways, got through. Who knew?!
I spoke briefly each day but far more importantly, I had the chance to listen. One day, a leader handed me an “epistle” her group had prepared for the Presbyterian Church in Canada. It began quite deliberately, as most biblical epistles do, with thanks.
Thank you for having CY 2014. (You support it through Presbyterians Sharing.) “Our churches are understanding… [they] encourage us … some teach us well but some don’t.”
Then came the appeal: “We really want to learn more about the Bible and how it is relevant for our lives.
We want to be welcomed more. Don’t be so worried about hanging on to us that you don’t reach out to other youth… We want to be challenged in our faith. Don’t give us the same old, same old.”
They want mentors and to be involved in the service more often. (Absolutely! But this means that someone is going to have to provide training so that they can do it well!) They want to participate in mission work in their communities and to see more passion in worship. They hope to be excited to go to worship, “not the same thing every week.” They do want what they did get at CY—a variety of music, not all choruses, not all hymns, and they hope for more accessible sermons. (Well, the guy who has taught preaching for a generation does have a low coolness factor.)
“Are committees and committees and committees really necessary?” (I once saw a graffito: “God so loved the world that He did not send a committee.”) They value “multi – generational stuff.” The writers know they themselves need to be more welcoming. And more light – heartedly, they wanted free ice cream, “Sundae Sundays.” (They meant it as a joke but I think it’s a good idea.)
And “don’t get freaked about sitting in the same place all the time.” I think that may have been their cheeky way of phrasing something else they had to say: “Change doesn’t have to be a bad thing.”
