Time to Get Going!

Hey, everyone. I can't help but notice that there a number of new young adults coming to church these last several weeks. Most have been attending or thinking of attending Dave's group. I still think, though, we need to start something. Let me put it out there -- who do you think might want to be part of a leadership team?

Campfire

Seed proposal
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In a nutshell: A contemplative evening where friends and visitors gather together to share expressions of testimony.

Major components:
a) Verbal Testimony
b) Written Testimony
c) Song

Inspiration: When I was a counselor at youth camps, the last night of camp was set aside for the entire group to huddle together in front of an open mike and a flame. Campers and counselors alike would line up and share their camp experience with the whole. Some would talk about how they encountered God, others would share about personal growth, new friends, and the like. A tissue box was always ready at hand and friends often dragged each other up. Campfire was the final remembrance of a Spirit-filled week and it was the chance to say thank you to friends, mentors, and to God. Open mics have been a regular way for large groups to tell their story: FBC has its thanksgiving mikes every fifth Sunday. Cal AACF had sharing nights as well as Senior Sharing during its yearly retreats (a chance for the seniors to pass on the wisdom of their 4, 5, or 6 year tenure at school.)

I would like to propose a large group setting that is based on celebrating God's story over the past week. This can be done in three ways:

A) Open mic: Planners would take the time to ask 3 people to share in advance. The rest of the time, encourage people to just come up and share their story.

B) Written testimony: Every week, compile a list of letters, poems, pictures, essays, stories from the group as another outlet to share about God's presence in our lives. A copy of each written program can be photocopied for every person to take home.

C) Song: run 2 or 3 sets of music through out the night. The highest priorities would be to keep it (a) contemplative and worshipful, but also (b) informal. I favor the combination of worshipful and relaxed to promote a tone of sanctuary. Less about the production values, more about being a glue between testimonies.

Proposed scheduling:
Either once a week or once every other week. Preferably Saturday or Thursday night. Every other week is to free people to do other stuff during the week: Like maybe hang out with non Christians? or friends who are at other churches? (fyi: here's a cool post about the YA life) Also, having it every other week might give people more time to compose a story.

Also, I would suggest keeping the program short: 1 hour to 1.5 hours max. The idea is to create a focal point for people to share about God. Then, since young adults are busy, diverse, and sociable, to allow them to come together and hang-out in their own way and with their own initiative. What do you think?

So here's a draft of the program:

7:30 pm MC Welcome, Opening prayer, Share some highlights from the written testimonies
7:40 pm Worship set I (15 to 20 minutes)
7:50 pm Open Mic: 1st Scheduled sharer + open mic. (20 minutes)
8:10 pm Worship set II 10 minutes (shorter, 2 songs?) (10 minutes)
8:20 pm Open Mic: 2nd Scheduled sharer + open mic. (20 minutes)
8:40 pm MC reads one of the testimonies to close, last call for open mic (5 minutes)
8:45 pm Worship set ( closing song )
8:50 pm Closing prayer
8:51 pm Dismissed

I would happily play the editor and ask people to write testimonies... ooo and to do the programs: I have a special combination of laissez-faire and visual design that makes it especially enjoyable for me to do. (And I have work experience, I was responsible for an entire school year of programs.)

Community

What is community? I've been thinking a lot about that mainly in regards to the church as a whole and to the Home Group ministry. Community must be 4 things as I see it (and I mentioned these briefly at the Annual Meeting):

• Common - it must meet frequently and consistently. We can't build community by only meeting once a month. There's no time to build any kind of meaningful relationship. Yes, there are occasions when we a stranger and feel unusually connected to them, but that is rarity. Meeting together must be a common occurrence (as opposed to uncommon).
  
  
• Caring - the people in the community must take a caring interest in those amongst them. There must be openness, vulnerabilty, the ability to share our hurts and the ability to help in the healing process. There is also laughter and celebration. It's a bummer when there's something to celebrate in our life and no one to celebrate with. It's even worse when there is a struggle and no one to share with. A healthy community is a place where people can release everything to the care of the community.
  
  
• Contributive - this is something that a friend of mine who is a pastor in California shared with me last month. When their church was trying to figure out what they were to be about, they prayed and determined their place was to be "in the community for the community." They are a church that recently purchased (actually in the process of purchasing) a building in the middle of town. Being that they were now located "in the community" they needed a way to minister to the community. Greg (my friend) believed strongly that a strong community was built on the principle that everyone had something to contribute, and that community would not be built on merely giving away. With everyone contributing (revealing the value of each person), community was a constant giving and receiving where people's needs were met and people gave as able. There's something to be said about a community that values one's presence and they feel needed in some respect. We laugh about food being a common theme that unites a community, but there's something very powerful about the picture of a potluck where everyone contributes to make for a good time.
  
  
• Christ-centered - a strong, biblical community has Christ at its center. He is what unites us. He is the reason for our community in the first place. He is the One who enables us to truly contribute and care. He is why we do what we do. Therefore, everything we do must have as its purpose to glorify Christ through the inner and outer workings of the community.

What does this look like in this group of young careers?

I think first it has to meet often enough to build community, and even beyond a formal meeting, it needs to expand to natural relationships throughout the week. I would meet weekly as a formal meeting (but with casual atmosphere).

I think it must be a place where people can talk about life and faith. There is a tag line I am considering for our church's new website (being developed) that says: "where real faith meets real life". That should be what this time is about. Create an atmosphere of fun, relaxation, friends getting together that will enable "faith talkers" to come out. I have a video that our Home Group went through that expresses this very thing except it was done on an outreach level. Very, very compelling. I must find a time to show it to you.

In terms of contributing, we need a way for people to give back what God has given them. A variety of service projects that suit the giftings of the community is needed. There is perhaps nothing more bonding to a community than serving something outside of themselves. Contributions by everyone at the gathering is even better (hence, the potluck :))

And lastly, as Christ as its center, we must see this gathering as one rung on the ladder of spiritual growth. That is why it is so important that small groups continue. It is the place where one learns the truth of Christ. People experience the love of Christ in the community , but there is so much more to know about Christ than just a gathering of believers. The early church was devoted to the apostles' teaching because it was there they truly understood who Christ was.

Gifford, you have asked some difficult questions regarding who should this group be for. I think you start with who we have and let the community attract who it will. You don't need to worry about a 50 year old entering the group, because he/she's simply not going to relate. For the sake of promotion, just say we're a bunch of young careerers on a journey to know and experience the love of Christ.

The primary goal of this particular meeting is to develop community. That's it. How you do that needs to be determined, but frankly, that's the easy part. The hard part is actually reaching across to make it happen. I have some ideas to jumpstart that idea...

Finally In

Hey, I finally got in. Giff, you were right, the invite was in my junk mail folder. At any rate, I've a few thoughts, but am seriously wondering if anyone looks at this blog. I'll monitor comments and see... ;)

Generations

I suspect that the little planning party that we had is not necessarily composed of the people we want this grand shabang to reach out to. Or at least that is my take on it. Some of us are on the way out of the young adult stage, some of us are not long for Seattle itself. Why should the leadership be in the hands of the elderly? (Yes, Nate, you are right: I am an old man. Damn, middle-age came so fast.)

Of course you can disagree with me. Maybe I am the target population: 27, single lifestyle, etc... whatever our points of view, we ought to nail down the profiles for who we are serving. And, if they aren't us, be eager to hand over the leadership reins.

Oh and I got excited about an idea. I'll write it up later. It has to do with campfires.

Faith-talkers

You know these people. Their conversation is seasoned with their faith. They have integrated their belief system so deeply into how they live that they cannot help but talk about spiritual things.

It is always refreshing for me to talk to these people. Very quickly, we are plunged into conversations of the heart. It is at once encouraging, challenging, and sincere -- void of pretentiousness, pride or sarcasm (not that sarcasm itself is wrong). Often, I am lured into giving away my most secret ambitions and I catch a glimpse of another person who is, honest to God, in a relationship with God.

I would propose that one vision for a Christian young adult community is to become faith-talkers that spawn faith-talkers. I think I would very much *heart* that.

There are caveats, but we can chat about that later...

Never-ending story

Ok -- so, out of our meeting, one thing we pointed out about the young adult ministry is that its members are at the beginning of an unstructured life. They no longer structure their lives according to an academic calendar. This creates a strange effect on YA ministries: they don't have an official ending point. What I have seen is this: people join a small group and, like a waterfall, the years fly-by, as if without milestones or markers. Sometimes, this makes it difficult for people to leave the group. Often, when they do leave, the group lacks a sense of closure.

I thought, hell, here are some ideas:
(a) create a group that has regular re-evaluative milestones: give people a chance to leave. Or give the entire fellowship the chance to dissolve. This might be healthy. Dragging a good idea out leads to service in the name of tradition.
(b) and in the same vein: have official appreciation/send-offs once a year. After a member has been in the group for 2 years, celebrate what they have been to the group with an appreciation/send-off and they can decide to leave or not. Maybe this will give people the chance to leave.
(c) also, hand off the torch. Transition the leadership on a regular basis. This is probably healthy anyways for other reasons.

So that's my pitch for now. A fellowship that always says hello and good-bye, so that no one sneaks out with regrets... *shrug*