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*

Getting Started

Hey guys,

I this is the place to throw out ideas or thoughts. Keep things in prayer and be honest. Everything is on the table. Even the table itself.

Jr: "So what's the table on?"

Sr: "Another table."

Jr: "What's that table on?"

Sr: "... it's tables all the way down."