Let Love In

What a night! It's cloudy with a storm-ish feeling brewing in the air. I love it. I haven't experienced a weather service interruption on television in over half a year. I am sure it won't amount to anything, but what fun!

This weekend has been great. I love it when I can say that on a Sunday night.

Friday was a sleep-in day + lots of window shopping + book oogling at Borders + Sunshine Cleaning. If you haven't seen the movie, I recommend it. It is interesting and different enough to keep it feeling new. It's been out in theatres for a while so I am sure it will be out on dvd probably sooner rather than later. My favorite thing about going to the movies here is that Harkins Theatres has a sweet deal that if you buy one of their loyal customer t-shirts you get a "free" bag of popcorn at every movie and $1 refills on drinks. Sweet.

Saturday & Sunday were mostly errand running + church. Over the past two months, our Confirmation students have been learning about and discussing worship: what it is, why we do it, & ideally what worship looks like to them. The lessons culminated in having the youth lead the worship services at the E. Mesa campus this weekend.

What is so impressive is that our seven youth planned everything, wrote the confession and forgiveness, prayers, sermonette, and chose the songs. They greeted everyone and introduced themselves to members and visitors. We brought in guitarists and only had one song played on the organ. Our theme was love and welcoming others--perfect considering the lectionary texts for this weekend. It was fantastic. Matt & I got to take the back seat today.

This was a huge jump from Our Savior's normal worship pattern. In my youth and family classes at seminary we used to discuss how "Youth Sundays" can be counterproductive. In this church, one "Youth Sunday" was a significant accomplishment!

Many people were very supportive and very appreciative of the ministry that happened in worship this weekend, but of course not everyone liked it. Some people were upset that Matt & I weren't wearing our albs (white robes). Some people were confused by the music. Some couldn't hear what the youth were saying (C'mon! You try standing in front of hundreds of people and leading them!). Some were a little irked that we celebrated Holy Communion on a "non-Communion Sunday." One person said "I didn't come to church for this." That part was disheartening.

But to be honest with you, I don't really care. Ok, I care (that's part of the reason why I feel called to ministry), but I think sometimes we all need to relax a little bit and have faith. We need to be open and willing to embrace all people--especially our youth. That includes the babies that cry in the back of the church, the children that want to take Communion without being "of age," and the youth that get caught using their cell phones in the sanctuary.

As the Goo Goo Dolls play on Pandora right now, I am reminded that sometimes we need to be more attentive, so we can let love in--in both the big and small ways--at home, at work, at church, and on the streets. As I think about our worship services were about this weekend, that is exactly what our youth were trying to express to the congregation.

I think we have some future pastors coming out of Our Saviors. That's why I like youth ministry so much. Teenagers have a special way of balancing reality with faith life. Sometimes they do it so much better than adults do--myself included.

Enough rambling. I hope you have a good week.

Peace--
HGJ