This week’s devotion…
“Strength”
I Love you, O Lord, my strength. -Psalm 18:1
Yes, I know there’s a crisis in The Church. I know young people are staying away in droves.
But can I tell you about Strength?
That’s the name of the Young Adult class we started at University Church in Topeka, about four years ago. It began with just me and one college student, and now more than 30 have participated, with an average of 8-12 most weeks.
What a group of people! Young professionals and undergrads. Nursing students, law students, single moms, and single dads. Shy people and anything-but-shy people, all with just one thing in common: Struggling to make their way in the world–looking to God and each other for strength.
We studied the Bible, jumping around from passage to passage. We talked about issues, and current events. We spent weeks investigating varieties of spirituality. You name it, we talked about it.
Every week we checked in with each other without ever calling it “checking in”. We joked and teased and laughed with each other. On a few occasions we got really motivated and accomplished some great things, too, like a new worship service that grew out of the class’s efforts.
I’d love to write a how-to book based on the Strength class, but I don’t think it would make any sense. We never followed a set curriculum, never pushed ourselves too hard, and never took ourselves too seriously, but we always came away with something new to think about, and we always had fun.
I’m writing about the class in the past tense here, but I assure you it’s alive and well. Feel free to visit it some Sunday morning at 10am. The class isn’t leaving…I am. This Sunday was my last at University Church in Topeka, and I had to say goodbye to the class. Come July I’ll be starting in over at First Church in Lawrence.
I’ll miss a lot of things about University Church, but perhaps I’ll miss the Strength class the most. I look to those amazing people and I find myself not so worried about the future of the church.
You see, these young adults have become a strong force at University Church. From this group has come church staff members, chairs of committees, members of the choir, liturgists, candidates for ordained ministry, and all around active participants in the life of the congregation and the community.
Yes, Church, we may have some weaknesses we still have to overcome…
But let’s be sure to celebrate our Strengths.
Have a Good Week,
Mitch
