Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Investing in our youth

The following is an article from Grace-Red River's June newsletter concerning the recommendation of the councils to hire a full-time staff position for ministries in the first third of life, aka a "children, youth, and family" position.

Church budgets are a funny thing. On the one hand, we are not a business. Not only are we non-profit by law, but there is also a kind of moral obligation to treat the offerings of the church with expediency. Nobody wants to think that their money is hanging around in the accounts of the church for a rainy day. On the other hand, there is a natural tendency toward preservation in light of the “what ifs” of the future. There are plenty of worst-case scenarios out there. It’s natural to want a safety net.

There are many different kinds of investments we can make. Recently, Grace decided to put a significant sum away to accrue interest. Those funds are still liquid (we can access and use them as we will), but nonetheless it is money set aside to make more money. That is one, very straightforward means of investment.

Other investments are harder to see in part because they are not investments that are familiar to those in the for-profit business world. This month we are faced with one significant investment, which is a full-time staff position to address the younger members of our church body. This is an altogether different investment than putting money away in the bank. It’s an investment in giving our young people (children, youth and young families) a reason to belong.

I am very aware when I craft a newsletter article like this of who my primary readership is. There may be a few of you who are youth or young adults in your 20s and 30s; there may be a couple young families; but my primary audience is folks who are parents or grandparents or great-grandparents of our youth. For those of you in that category, I want you to put yourselves in the shoes of a ninth-grade Confirmation student. We have sixteen of them being confirmed in the fall. Sixteen new members. Full members in the church body. How huge a blessing is it to consider sixteen new members!

Of course, if we're being honest and realistic about this most of those Confirmation students will show up less or hardly at all after their Confirmation date. It's really a stunning loss to have year after year, so it behooves us to reflect on why this is happening. It requires you, as I said before, to put yourselves in their shoes. To this point, they have come out of obligation. Most of them have to go through Confirmation, because that’s what’s expected out of them by their families and the community of the church. Come Confirmation day that will be over, and what compelling reason do they have to stay active? In truth, not much; at least not nearly as much as they had up to that point. Confirmation should be the exact opposite of graduation, but unfortunately the two are nearly synonymous. Confirmation should not be the moment you head off into the world but the moment of confirming your membership in our midst.

So what do we do?

I don’t want to cater to the lowest denominator and focus only on ways to keep younger people entertained. I don’t think that’s a legitimate or faithful long-term strategy, and besides that, other organizations are simply going to do a better job of it anyway. I don’t think church membership is ever—or should ever—be like a sports team. But I do want to think about what is unique about the church as a place for young people to belong. I have some hunches on this subject: the church can be a safe place for organized activity, it can be a place to honestly explore questions about God and meaning in life, it can be a place to turn in the face of uncertainty, it can be a place of inter-generational relationships, and it can be a community open to everyone. Also, believe it or not, participation in church activities, outreach ministries, and worship can be fun.

Hiring a full-time staff person to help steward those conditions for our young people is a first step. It’s also a big step, because it’s the step that involves committing money to the cause. I don’t want to sound crass but money tends to be the stumbling block, even (perhaps especially) when there’s plenty of it. However, if we get past that stage—if we agree to commit a sizable portion of our budget to this staff position—then our real job is to decide how we are going to help create that space for young people to feel welcome.
These are important questions before us because we have sixteen ninth-grade confirmands about to step up and take their place as members of the church body. The question is whether we’ll see any of them this time next year.
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