Ute Sunday

“Let no one despise your youth, but set the believers an example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.”  I Timothy 4:12

            This coming Sunday is what we celebrate as Youth Sunday.  It’s meant to give the young people an opportunity to mark the end of their year with some expressions of faith through leadership in worship.  They are giving back, but they are also helping the whole congregation to see how it is that the entire body works together.  Through their talents, gifts and abilities, they are able to sing, pray, and speak the words of faith while encouraging us in our own.

As they continue their journey of faith, they are able to bring a wide variety of gifts into the fold, yet they also need guidance as they spend what may be their last few years in the life of First Presbyterian.  Some will graduate and move on to college.  Some will remain in the area and begin life in the working world.  Some will depart and never attend church again.  And it’s okay if we ask ourselves if we’ve done as much as we could to fulfill the baptismal covenant, if we’ve provided them with the foundation they will need for whatever is next, if we’ve participated in their lives of faith as much as they have in ours.  The accountability is needed, and so is the follow-through. 

The words Paul writes to Timothy are meant for encouragement and example—as are many of Paul’s words to those who shared in his ministry.  Please do what you can to encourage the young people among us.  You may or may not know this, but we have people who come from far away to worship at First Presbytarian Church of Brandon simply because we have young people here—children and youth alike.  Some other churches either don’t have this aspect of their congregation present, or they simply do not encourage it.  We must continue to encourage the education and discipleship of our children from the earliest ages, through our Sunday School classes, through our Preschool Praise, through Vacation Bible School, through our Preschool itself—all of these and much more that help to build this foundation.  If we are building their faith, then they are likely not having it built at all.

     I look back on my own upbringing in the church with mixed feelings.  As a child of a pastor, I was steeped in congregational life.  I was at the church all the time for things, most of them not geared toward children or youth.  When I was in my early teen years, my parents took the important step of sending me to summer camp.  Without those experiences, I’m not sure I would be who or where I am today.  We have lots of options before us, but we must mostly invest in the relationships we build with our young people.  They don’t need the whole world—but maybe just to know that their church family loves them and cares about their lives—just as God does so for every one of us.  Let’s celebrate them on Youth Sunday and in as many other ways as we can.