I'm so excited....and I just can't hide it! (#Explo11)

I’m excited.  Yeah…if you know me, you know that it doesn’t actually take a whole lot for me to be excited!  I tend to run pretty optimistic about things, but today my excitement is warranted, I’m sure of it!  J  I am in Saint Louis preparing for Exploration2011, an event that the General Board for Higher Education and Ministry directs for young people to explore a call to ministry, specifically ordained ministry, in the United Methodist Church.  The Design Team has reassembled for the event, after starting work on it a year and a half ago, and as we met tonight and shared our prayer requests and expectations for the weekend, I was awash with excitement about all that God has done, is doing, and will do in the lives of the people who will be here and those whom they will serve.  We talk so frequently about the challenges in the church and in the world and hypothesize on how we are going to see our way forward.  I’m convinced that what we will see this weekend is a glimpse of the way forward.  We have young people who are gifted, called, and have a passion to serve in the world.  Hundreds of them have committed to being available to God this weekend to spend time in intentional discernment.  I’m praying, and asking for the prayers of anyone who reads this, that God will continue to draw them deeper into relationship and that out of the overflow of that vital relationship would result a passion to serve God in making disciples for the transformation of the world. 

So forgive me if I’m pretty excited!  I don’t think that it gets better than this!

PS  You can follow the Twitter feed of #Explo11 here.

Praying for Exploration 2011

A year and a half ago, I was asked to serve on a Design Team for Exploration 2011.  I quickly said yes, as I was excited to be a part of an experience that will be a “spiritual marker” for some who attend.  Exploration is an “event” (though it seems shallow to call it that—it is more than an “event,” it is potentially an encounter with the Living God in discerning what may be a call to ministry) for people aged 18-26 to explore what it means to be called to ministry, specially related to ordination as a deacon or elder in the United Methodist Church.  Representatives from the 13 United Methodist Seminaries will be there, along with leaders who can articulate various important aspects of ministry. 

I attended Exploration 1996, which seems like a lifetime ago.  It was the first time that I understood what ordination was and was particularly interested in the new order of the deacon (which I would be ordained as in 2010).  I honestly don’t remember many of the details that happened at the event, but I do know that I left that “event” being confident that God had called me to something, even if I didn’t know all of the details.  I look back on that time and realize that it truly was a “spiritual marker” of sorts, as much for setting aside the time to go, but also for verbalizing to others that I had a call to ministry.  (I wrote more in detail about that here). 

Exploration is a time to set aside the other things on the schedule to listen:  to others who are sensing a call to ministry, to the equipping opportunities for ministry, but most importantly to listen to God.  This fall, on 11/11/11, hundreds will gather in St. Louis, and even as the final preparations are approaching, I would love to invite you to pray with me.  The things that I’m praying for in the days ahead are:

• People registering—that God would bring people who are open to the work that God may want to do in their lives
• Speakers and workshop leaders—that they would articulate what it means to live out one’s call to ministry
• Churches and Campus Ministries who are “sending” people—that they would nurture the call of ministry well before Exploration and upon return home

The theme for this year is “Passion and Possibilities” and we are eagerly anticipating all that God will do in the lives of those in attendance.  I work with college students in campus ministry, in fact, 8 of my students will be joining me in St. Louis this year.  They are full of both passion and possibilities.  I am excited for all that God has in store in the days ahead.  And I’m grateful for your prayers joining in for this “event.”

Imagine No Malaria

I was listening to NPR yesterday and heard a snippet from a story that they were doing about polio and how it is nearly eradicated. Now, don’t forget “nearly eradicated” fits pretty well along the lines that “close is only good in horseshoes and hand-grenades.” Nearly eradicated means that the world is not done yet with the disease and until every case is gone, the disease still rages. I’m thankful that polio will “soon” be eradicated, but I soberly realize that there are many other preventable diseases that are also on our list. Take malaria for example.

The website for Imagine No Malaria puts it this way

This is a Fight We Must Win, Because…

…every 45 seconds, a child in Africa dies of malaria.

…malaria claims more than 1 million lives each year.

…infants, children and pregnant women are at greatest risk.

…90 percent of malaria deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa.

And…did I mention that Malaria can be eradicated and thus, is preventable? I am so proud that the United Methodist Church has joined with other organizations and people who are working to eliminate malaria by 2015. Something that has caught my eye is the Imagine No Malaria initiative and the House Party idea. They suggest having a get-together that is aimed at educating people in our circle of friends about malaria and giving them an opportunity to donate toward the cause of education, prevention and treatment of malaria. This is a great opportunity for Campus Ministries or Sunday School classes to be involved with! There are lots of ideas, resources, and other help on the www.imaginenomalaria.org/houseparty website. I’m going to talk to some students soon and see how we can participate. I hope that you’ll join me.

To be continued...

On Friday, April 30, a group of campus ministers, college students, and ministry and church leaders joined together for a day of teaching about prayer, praying and preparing for an upcoming season of prayer. The season of prayer is twofold: we are calling the United Methodist Church to pray for college campuses and we are calling college students to enter into a life of prayer. The prayer faculty for the day represented people who have demonstrated a life of prayer. Vance Ross of the General Board of Discipleship, Margaret Therkelson of Lexington, KY, Tom Albin of the Upper Room, and Dana Hernandez and David Blackwell from Campus America shared various perspectives on prayer. Their sessions were recorded and will be available for free at a later date. The day represented partnerships by The Foundation for Evangelism, The Upper Room, The General Board of Higher Education and Ministry, and UM Communications.

One of the themes that arose from the day of teaching and prayer was that God is stirring in the hearts of the Church for the people of our college campuses. It is our intention to remind the people of God to be intentionally prayerful on behalf of college students. The intentional season of prayer that we are calling for will last first for 40 days—August 23-October 1—but really is to usher us into a life of prayer. We’re asking campus ministers to demonstrate a life of prayer on their own, but also to prepare their students for the Holy Spirit to teach them to pray on their own. The life of prayer is not one for the faint of heart. Rather it is one that requires sacrifice—of time, of personal agendas, of self-interest. But it is a life that we are called to as Christians, and as Methodists, as we seek to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

There is more to come, but if you're a person who prays, would you add this prayer effort to your intercession? Would you pray for our campuses, for our campus ministry leaders, for college students whom you know? Pray for God's Spirit to capture this generation of students to live lives for God's glory, reaching out in ministry to all the world. And pray that the Church might come alongside the millions of young leaders who are heading to the college campus this fall to be a witness of Christ's transformative power. To God be the Glory!

To be continued...

A Timely Lunch

Today I had lunch with Dr. Forrest Robinson, a longtime UM pastor in Kansas. His wife is in a nursing facility, suffering with Alzheimer’s disease and he asked me to join him because he doesn’t like to eat alone. We went to a local restaurant, where everyone who works there knows his name. Likewise for the after church crowd who also eat there. Forrest, a well-known figure in Kansas as much for his presentations on World War II, a war in which he served, as for his ministry in various places around the Annual Conference, is a master storyteller. We shared lunch, him over his standard chicken fried steak, me with a Fattouch Salad, and both of us with Cokes. Tomorrow I will go before the Board of Ordained Ministry in the Kansas West Conference, so the idea of committing one’s life to ministry was not far from my mind through our conversation. I was struck by the irony in our lunch date—him having served for many years as an elder in the UMC, and me just beginning, having served three years as a commissioned candidate for deacon. Forrest shared a story that captured my attention.

He and his wife were in their mid-30’s when he got a call to serve in ministry. After a series of events, he found himself enrolling at Drew University for seminary. His pregnant wife had to fly to their new home and he drove himself, all their earthly belongings, and their dog to the Catskills in New York, where he would soon assume pastoral leadership of three small churches. He said that as he drove the long drive by himself, preaching as he drove, even the dog was tired of hearing him preach. He had plenty of time to get nervous as he realized that he had never really preached a “real” sermon, and he soon would be responsible for three per Sunday. He woke up early the Friday before he would have to preach on Sunday, and decided “to pull a John Wesley,” and open up the Bible, asking God to show him a passage of Scripture. His fingers flipped open to 1 Corinthians 2 and he read, “And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power” (1 Cor. 2:1-5). He recited these words, verbatim, revealing to me of their permanence in his mind and heart. He identified that while he had been feeling insecure about his role as a preacher, he certainly could preach about Christ. He said that he vowed right then that this passage would be the text of his first sermon at the churches, his last sermon at those three churches, and he hoped that it would be the text of the last sermon that he preaches. The power of this Scripture slowly began to sink in to me as I sat in the booth of the restaurant thinking about the task that lies ahead for me. Despite the fine seminary education that I received and the decade of ministry experience, I find myself in weakness, with great fear and trembling. In fact, I’ve noticed, that the more that I have “learned,” the more fearful I become. Not in the respect of being scared to act, but in the sense of recognizing my own inability to communicate the Gospel, except through the power of the Holy Spirit. As I sit before the Board of Ordained Ministry tomorrow, I think that this is a good thing. I don’t want to have wise and persuasive words in my own strength. I seek to know Christ, and him, crucified. I’ve seen that as Forrest’s ministry, and I desire that for my own.
What a gift my lunch with Forrest was! He’s the example of a minister who served churches in cities and in rural areas, in the church-related college, and even for a while, in state government. He’s a presence now of a Christian life that though he has endured difficulty, he’s still preaching Christ. Forrest, I don’t know what the text of your last sermon will be, but the text of your life is indeed 1 Corinthians 2. And this Christian is so grateful.

"I'll be praying"

“We should have lunch sometime!” “I owe you one.” “I’ll be praying for you.” These well-intended phrases often flippantly roll from our tongue without much thought. I remember when a good friend taught me about the power of phrases like this.

“We should have lunch sometime!” I said casually.

“When?” she
asked specifically.

Well, truth be told, I didn’t really have a day in mind. I was just being polite, expressing that I’d had a good time hanging out with her and her friends and I hoped they invited me to hang out again. But her request reminded me not to throw around comments like that, devoid of intention. Such it is with the phrase: “I’ll be praying for you.” When? What will you pray? For how long?

Today is Day 1 of an intentional, shared, and specific prayer campaign set aside to support United Methodist campus ministry in prayer. My friend, Creighton Alexander, and I, along with 38 other people who care about campus ministry, have written prayers that provide an answer to some of those questions.

• When should we pray for campus ministry? Starting today.
• What will you pray? A prayer written by someone who cares about campus ministry.
• For how long? 40 days.

Each day the prayer will be made available here. If you are on Twitter, follow us at: www.twitter.com/collegeunion and we will send you a link to the prayers daily. Finally, if you would like to download the entire collection of prayers, you can download it here.

We ask you to join us in these prayers, lifting up in general the ministries for college aged young people around the UMC connection. We also ask you to specifically pray for the ministries or young people with whom you are acquainted. Let them know that you’re praying for them. And if through your prayer time, you feel inclined to do something, do it in the knowledge that you are being sustained by the power of the Holy Spirit. We don’t have a hidden agenda for these prayers. We simply want God to bless the ministers and students of our college campuses around the world. And we think that it is important enough to involve others in this season of specific prayer. Won’t you join us?

School's Starting--Let Us Pray

When I was in high school, I took up running. It was mostly in rebellion to the volleyball coach, as I quit the team my senior year and said that I was going to run cross country, but in this act with less than noble intentions, I learned a valuable lesson. I learned what it means to have a daily commitment to a formative practice in my life. While running is of some value, spiritual training has value for this age and the age to come.

Prayer is one of those formative practices. But it is often something that we take for granted as a Christian practice. It is just something that we “do.” We learn prayers when we’re young, we stand in a circle holding hands and offer our thanks or share a request, and we add prayers to the prayer chain. But I, for one, have felt a sense of inadequacy in my prayers from time to time. When I was in seminary, I was a part of a prayer group that started each week with the questions, “Lord, teach us to pray.” Since that time 7 years ago, I have learned a few things about prayer. I have learned many things about prayer since that time, but want to briefly identify three.

1. I have learned to appreciate the prayers of others.


2. I have found consolation in the rhythm of prayer at different times throughout the day.


3. I have enjoyed a sense of praying (even if not physically) with others the same prayer.

I am excited to now be a part of a prayer initiative that unites all three of these particular lessons.

I’ve written about this project before, but as we approach the launch of 40 Days of Prayer for Campus Ministry, I want to once again invite people to participate in sustaining the collegiate ministries in the United Methodist Church in prayer during the first 6 weeks of the fall semester. The prayers are written by pastors, campus ministers, administrators, professors, general board officials, and even a couple of bishops. They are honest and passionate pleas to God on behalf of the 17 million students who will head to college in just a couple of weeks. Since I’m helping to compile the prayers, I’ve had a sneak peek at them and am thrilled at the way that they show a glimpse into God’s heart for college students (and the church, too, by the way).

The prayers are going to be posted daily, starting August 17, at www.CollegeUnion.org/prayer and will last until September 25. After August 10, we’ll have the entire prayer book available for download at the same website and we would like to encourage people to share the prayers with their congregation, board of directors, district superintendent, students, or local pastors. Those lessons that I learned in running—daily, ongoing, sacrificing actions—are applicable to prayer. I do hope that you’ll join me in prayer.

Remembering Why I Love Church Camp!

I have about 539 ideas for things about which I want to blog, but don't have much time to get it done. However, I'm taking the time to write about 1 of them quickly: high school leadership camp (called LDW for Leadership Development Workshop) put on by the Conference Council on Youth Ministry under the direction of Justin Lefto).

A couple of months ago, I was asked by a friend if I would be an "adult volunteer" at the camp which would be held in July. I waffled for a while, worried about a busy summer and being afraid to give up a whole week in close proximity to a new school year. I felt a sense of remorse about it and really wanted to work it, but just was afraid that I was too busy. First mistake.

The Wednesday before the camp started with Sunday training, I got a phone call from a student who is working at Camp Horizon and spoke with my friend. Between the two of them, they convinced me that I just HAD to spend the week at camp with the CCYM and the other high school kids who would be there. Man, I'm glad I said yes.

I haven't been to a week-long camp for a couple of years and I haven't spent an extended amount of time with the CCYM for, oh, about 10 years. During the week that I was there, I was the "adult volunteer" in a student led small group and stayed in a cabin. Those were great opportunities and I enjoyed the students I met there. The best part of it was some of the incredible opportunities that high school students had to fellowship with one another and to really be able to "soak" in what it means to live a life in relationship with God.

The theme for the camp was Connect4 and gave students a chance to connect with God, self, friends and world. Barry Dundas (pastor from Salina) and Ted Bannister (lay person aptly dubbed "Farmer Ted) challenged students to take deeper steps of faith in God. They were challenged in a ropes course (where they were joined by Bishop Jones for a morning), were instructed in LeaderShops taught by the CCYM and had fun in water and messy games. They even learned some of the hard truths of hunger around the world from the "surprise" Hunger Banquet on Thursday noon.

Nearly 90 people were a part of the camp. I had the sense during the week that we will continue to see leadership of the UMC from within this group of young people. I got to have 4 conversations with students who had experienced a call to ministry, some that week, some earlier. Of course I want to do my part in nurturing their faith and I'm praying that others will, too.

Despite my early objections, I had the best week of my summer (isn't that often how it is?). Now I'm praying that these students continue to see how God wants to connect with them in the other 51 weeks of their lives.

Would You Join Us in Prayer?

I am often asked, “What do you do in campus ministry in the summer time.” I understand the enigma that campus ministry may be to some, but I usually answer, “Plenty! I have time to plan, to read, to recover (!), and to prepare for a new year.” This summer, I’ve also been answering that I have time to pray…well, planning to pray may be more accurate. As far as I’m concerned, prayer isn’t really an option anytime during the year, but this summer I’ve been setting about an intentional way of praying for the coming school year.

Last spring, I participated in a 40 Days of Prayer effort that was headed up by Ben Simpson and some young clergy in the UMC. It was a blessing to me as I prayed the prayers written by others who want to see more vividly the work of God in the United Methodist Church. I got to write a prayer and join with a network of others who prayed for the UMC during the “season” of Annual Conferences.

In the context of the 40 Days of Prayer, I also had a conversation with a campus ministry friend of mine, Creighton Alexander, about a website for which we are co-editors. He was talking about his passion for campus ministry within the United Methodist Church and how much potential he sees within campus ministry in general. As we spoke, I tossed out the stories of some of the people I’ve met through the 40 Days of Prayer Initiative and other efforts of the UMC Young Clergy. At about the same time, we had the idea to issue a Call to Prayer for the UMC that would start in August, at about the time that school starts, and lead us through the first month of classes. The ideas emerged quickly and within a few short minutes, we decided to do several things:

1. Pray as we moved toward soliciting others for prayer.
2. Write a letter to be posted on the website of College Union.
3. Create a Facebook group of people who were called to ministry in the United Methodist Church through campus ministry.
4. Create a space on College Union to host prayers for the Prayer Movement to begin August 17 and last until September 25.
5. Invite some people that we knew to write prayers to be included in a prayer guide.

The Facebook group, “United Methodist Campus Ministry—Raising Up Christian Leaders,” exploded to over 200 members in the first 48 hours and has now settled in at about 500 in the first 3 weeks. We have now invited the members of that group, along with some other ministry leaders, to write 40 prayers to be included in the prayer guide. We have also heard the “call” stories of some of the group members and seen pictures of campus ministry across the country. We are more and more convinced and inspired to continue on in providing a challenge to the UMC to pray for our students, our colleges, our campus ministers, and our churches as they begin a new school year. We are also convinced that the there are future church and world leaders in campus ministries of UMC-related colleges, Wesley Foundations, and local churches right now who need to be lifted in prayer.

And so…I’ve been praying, as I usually do, but I’ve also been working toward prayer, especially in enlisting others to this important responsibility and call. If you would like to write a prayer to be included in the prayer guide that we’re building, drop me an email, ashlee.alley@sckans.edu. If you were called to ministry, as a lay person or as clergy, through your campus ministry, join our Facebook group. If you are interested in joining in the prayer effort, visit the website. And above all else, would you join us in prayer?

Learning to ask the right questions

"Leaders do not need answers. Leaders must have the right questions," so says Lovett Weems. And that is exactly what a group of folks who love the UMC are trying to do...develop the right list of questions. Andrew Conard, a provisional elder in the Kansas West Conference who is currently serving in the Kansas East Conference, is spearheading a project to identify what the 6 best questions are for various groups within the United Methodist Church. Those groups are anyone from church members, to Bishops, to General Boards. No one is excluded (a sign of true Methodist spirit, eh?). As of 5 p.m. CST on the day of the launch of this project, 53 people have submitted 286 questions and cast 1,577 votes. Not too shabby for day 1. If you have an interest in the future of the United Methodist Church, you can have a voice in shaping this conversation. Go to the website and add a question. Or vote for some of the questions that have already been submitted. The future is being shaped by what we do today. These questions could have an impact on that.

Want to hear from Andrew about this vision? Check out his blog here.

Three Months with Twitter

Been almost 3 mos on Twitter. Enjoying the connection w others w similar interests & levity thruout the day. Resisting addiction! :)

The paragraph above represents what I will say in the next several paragraph in Twitter-speak. Just shy of 140 characters, I’ve learned brevity in my first 100 days with Twitter.

It was late March when I signed up for an account on Twitter. I had begun noticing @ signs in status updates on Facebook and decided they must have some relevance. I’ve never exactly been an early adopter of new technology, but I like to stay somewhere near the front of the pack, so I began to investigate. I discovered that they had to do with Twitter. My first real exposure came at a meeting in Nashville of 10 young UMC clergy and a “liveblog” conversation. Several others in the room had Twitter accounts and I saw people joining in from all over the US simply because they had been invited via Twitter or Facebook. Several weeks later, some from this group had a live blog bible study where we used our Twitter accounts to sign in. This finally provided the motivation I needed to sign up. I followed a couple of the UMC young clergy folks and then they started introducing me to their followers. I found a couple of folks that were connected to circles that I was interested in and started following some of the people they followed, and voila, suddenly I had dozens of followers and I was following dozens of people. Initially, I tried to figure out how Twitter “works” by watching what others did.

I went on a mission trip in May and daily gave an update on Twitter (which also updates my Facebook status). My students ridiculed me for not being able to step away from Twitter, even during our trip. I didn’t see it that way. I did it on the off chance that someone might care the first day and then got quick notes from folks who told us they were praying, they enjoyed our updates, they were with us in spirit, which motivated me to keep tweeting. I’ve run into folks from Twitter or Facebook all over the area that have asked about our trip and it’s been a great chance to share about the good work that we did. Perhaps it was a shallow or vain connection, but it doesn’t feel that way at this point in time. I know that some believe that Twitter is almost too transparent. Who cares what my friend ate for breakfast? However, my stance has been that I only share what I want to share. If someone only wants to read my more “substantial” tweets, they can (which usually includes a tinyurl link). If someone wants to read my short movie review, then great! I can, however, see how Twitter can be addictive. Occasionally I find myself checking Twitter a mere 15 minutes from when I checked it the last time. But, as it is with anything, boundaries are important. I have found that Twitter can be addicting, but that it is not inherently a time drainer.

Twitter became a whole new ballgame for me in May when several others whom I follow were tweeting during Annual Conference. Given some responsibilities that I had during conference, I was not able to use my computer to follow the hashtag #kswumc, but I followed along on my phone when I could. I was amazed when I realized that people from other annual conferences were following along with the “transcript” being provided from about 10 different people present at AC. Amy Forbus of UMR even blogged about it after day 1. Since we were one of the earliest Annual Conferences, other people on Twitter began to generate interest in their own AC’s. Andrew Conard compiled a running list of conferences that would Twitter. The most interesting thing about this to me was the transparency that was a result because of the multiple eyewitnesses giving their perspective of conference. People often showed their allegiances by offering commentary on items of debate. Comments by Bishops, preachers, or delegates on the floor have now had their words “heard ‘round the world.” I’m actually a fan of this type of accountability. Sure, things can be taken out of context (but that can happen regardless of whether a running transcript is happening), but Twitter provided a clearness of communication that has heretofore been delayed by time or simply lack awareness of the information. After my experience with Annual Conference, Twitter became a place where action “happened,” as opposed to a place where what happened was being reported.

Twitter has become a diary of sorts and is filled with the important and the mundane. There are times when my important things can possibly be of interest to another fellow journaler. And there are times when I just take solace in knowing that my friend sometimes gets stuck in the slowest grocery line, too! The humanity revealed by Twitter has been a comfort to me. I’ve seen a bit of personality behind a name that I might know from the articles or books that they write. I’ve been clued in to subjects of interest from a link that is provided. I’ve even seen a picture of my friend’s toddler as he grows up far away. Twitter has become a medium to connect. Some have argued that it is a shallower connection. Perhaps that’s true. But the connection that has been made possible via a series of 140-character notations has allowed for a sense of camaraderie, a place for education, and dare I say, even inspiration, as people are given a new way to connect. And connecting is a good thing.

Young Adults: In Their Own Words

I'm working on several projects right now that have to do with ministry with young adults/college students. Earlier this week I posted this question on Twitter and Facebook:

What is 1 thing that the church can DO/BE to reach out to young adults?

I was very pleased with the response that I got from a variety of different people who range from age 19-late 30's. I've edited their responses only for clarity. Here is what young adults say to the church in their own words...

• DO: Take care of children well. BE: Authentic instead of showy.
• Young adults want community and a vision of God's Kingdom changing the world now, not just in eternity.
• Don't meet at churches for small groups. Create programming that does not require young adults/college students to be Christians already or intense Biblical knowledge otherwise they may not want to attend. Be open minded to all different types of people & not judgmental of the way the dress, live, etc.
• Get them out to fun events in the community.
• Ask what they want to learn from a program/small group. Rarely ever are we asked what we want to learn about or any questions about the church/faith.
• Um... food... lots of food :P
• Ask them what they want! Then be willing to throw away your own entrenched ideas to make a place where they will want to come and worship. Meet at non-traditional times and places, because we all know God is not only present in church buildings. If you sincerely show them you want to meet their needs, I think they will get enthused and be active.
• I think community and receptiveness is key to reaching out to young adults. Community can definitely happen through small groups. Small groups need to be about community through bible study and prayer, but they also need to be about fun and fellowship too. I also think they need dedicated adult leaders and a church body who wants to see the young adult population grow. As far as receptiveness goes, young adults need to be heard. They have a lot of ideas and need to be told that it’s okay to speak up. Then, when they do, their ideas need to be seen as important as everyone else’s.
• Be real with them. Young adults can see through facades very easily!
• I work in a congregation of over 200 where the median age is 29. We have small groups that meet at the church and outside the church, but more importantly across the board there is the repeated message that people can come where they are - questioning, confident, searching, skeptical - whatever. All are welcome and to question is not a bad thing.
• Be authentic.
• I think all you really have to do is something different. Don't do small groups at a church. Hold it at a hot spot... maybe a park or inside a restaurant. It's more expensive but it's not the same old boring thing and it intrigues them to actually come out and do it. Think of a youth group format. You usually have an activity and then a sermon. Take the activity to the next level. And rather than having a sermon, do a discussion table. Young adults get lectured at enough. It gets boring. Let them have just an equal of a voice as the leader. Oh and don’t do it in the morning…and weekend nights are packed too. I would suggest like a Saturday lunch or early dinner time.
• Talk about the hot topics of today - for singles as well as married persons. My Sunday School class doesn't want to do a traditional Bible study for the summer, so this week I'm bringing my People magazine with a dozen questions regarding current day situations.
• Well, my church has only been a church since September and we have drawn young adults out of the woodwork. For us, it has been very important to be real...casual, relevant, and challenging during worship services. Then, life groups meet in homes and are the heartbeat of the church. Everyone who goes is encouraged to volunteer with something...from parking lots to worship band.
• Walk the walk. Get rid of the gimmicks and simply walk the walk. Outreach. Get involved. Do. Walk the walk.

Since I work with college students every day, I wasn't surprised by the desire for connection, for a faith that is sturdy enough to carry them through hard times, and one that even requires something of them. May we, as the church, be willing to listen--to the Holy Spirit, and to the young adults in our midst--to show them that there is a satisfying answer in the person and work of Jesus.

Resources for Ministry with Young Adults

I have decided to start collecting some online resources for ministry with young adults. If you know of something that should be added to this working list, please feel free to post it in the comments section of this blog. Thanks!

UMC Resources
-UMC Young Adult Network
-General Board of Discipleship, ministry with Young Adults

Research
-"Pockets of 'Youthfulness' in Aging Denomination"--report by The Lewis Center for Church Leadership
-"Survey of Campus Ministers"--report by The Lewis Center for Church Leadership
-Generation Me, research by Jean Twenge about people born after 1970
-After the Baby Boomers: How Twenty- and Thirty-Somethings Are Shaping the Future of American Religion, Robert Wuthnow
-Demographics on Adolescent and Young Adult Health
-Ivy Jungle's 2008 report: "The State of Campus Ministry"

Campus Ministry
-College Union, a website for United Methodists in Campus Ministry
-Ivy Jungle, an association of people who minister to college students.

Resources
-Reading List for Campus Ministers
-Young Adult Network Resources
-Review of First Year Out, a book about the first year after high school by Tim Clydesdale
-"A Long Adolescence in a Lame Direction," by Chris Kiesling. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

A Call to Prayer

I have always been a strong believer that prayer "works." I remember as a child, praying nightly the same memorized prayer that my sister and I "developed," including a prayer for all of our family and friends by name and also a prayer for the "whole wide world except for the bad people." Well, my prayer may not have been theologically coherent, but the intention was pure--by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, to present my requests before God. I remember that understanding growing as I learned different ways to pray, through journaling, through reading Scripture, in groups and alone. I also grew deeper in my faith as I read Richard Foster's book Prayer and Bill Hybel's book Too Busy Not to Pray. I read of believers across time who have prayed and then the impossible became possible, such as Peter's miraculous release from prison in Acts 12, even when the church who prayed for him so fervently didn't believe it when he was released! Prayer is a means of connection to God, but also has become a lifeline to me, as through prayer I have experienced God's love, the love of community, and even sometimes the challenge of being corrected. That's why this is so important.

Starting on May 18, a prayer effort for 40 days will be beginning. It is not an "official" action by any group, but rather a response by some folks to an Open Letter that was posted by Ben Simpson. The result of the Open Letter is a prayer campaign that has involved clergy, young and not-so-young alike, who are interested in lifting the UMC up in prayer in an intentional way. The hopes for the prayer effort include a sense of witness of the work of Christ in our lives individually and also in the UMC. Would you be willing to pray with us?

You can find the prayers here. They are being hosted on the UMC Young Clergy website that has just been officially launched! I do hope that you'll join me in prayer.

Why I stay in the United Methodsit Church

Several weeks ago now, Jenny Smith posed the question, “Why do you stay in the United Methodist Church?” Many others have posited their answers and I’ve decided that it’s time for me to throw mine out there.

1. Wesleyan Theology is the actual reason that I became United Methodist. I actually grew up American Baptist in a congregation that was probably more like a Southern Baptist congregation. Undercurrent themes of “once saved, always saved,” “right” (or righteous) behavior and God’s omniscience permeated the faith of my childhood and adolescence. Unintended though it may have been, the faith of my youth was one that was pretty focused on doing the right things. Sure, I saw love exhibited, but my developing spirit identified this to be a love that was conditional on the right behavior. As I went to college, I chose a small United Methodist college that had an excellent biology program, as that was my intended major. My mom was all for it! She had grown up Methodist and had actually wanted to attend Southwestern when she was my age. The first Sunday that my twin sister and I were away at college, we decided to attend one of the local UM churches with some of our new friends. The second Sunday we were going to go alone to the American Baptist Church (which is right next door to FUMC, even sharing a parking lot) and when we discovered that it had already started, we went instead to FUMC which started 5 minutes later. That Sunday was youth Sunday and I was hooked! I saw that the youth had a ministry within the church and were willing to share of their faith. Before long, the youth pastor had asked me and several other students to start working with the youth group and I have been a regular worshipper at a UM congregation ever since. Fast forward a few years from the fall of 1994 when I started attending a UM church and you’ll find me in seminary, still worshipping in a UM congregation, but not claiming that I was United Methodist despite the fact that I loved the idea of prevenient grace (which was what I identified to be the most distinctively Methodist theology at that time). It was not until I took a class on Wesleyan Theology that I realized that I actually loved the theology of John Wesley! Every sermon I read was my favorite…until I read the next one! His “heart-warming experience” warmed my heart, too, especially when I realized that he could bring together my own understanding of the importance on doctrine, personal piety, and love for others, especially the outcast. In studying the theology of John Wesley, and then later, UM Theology, I realized that I had truly been “home” all along. Though sometimes I’m jealous of someone with a long Methodist heritage, I feel blessed to realized that inasmuch as I feel like the UMC found me, I feel like I found the UMC. I still make that choice today.

2. I feel called to the United Methodist Church. During a time right after college, I was working for Fellowship of Christian Athletes. I was on a plane coming from an FCA training event when my seatmate, who was reading the Bible when I settled into my seat, started talking to me about my faith. He asked what church I went to and I told him that while I wasn’t a member, I worshipped at a United Methodist Church. He very loudly said, “You aren’t a lesbian, are you?” Flustered at both his pointed-ness and his decibel level, I stammered, “Uh, no! Just because I’m Methodist doesn’t mean that I’m gay!” You see, once again, we had just been in the news for our tension over homosexuality in the church. I was disheartened to hear that while there was much that the news could have reported that the UMC did that was positive, this man (who I’ve affectionately dubbed Fred Phelps’ cousin in my memory banks) pulled out what is certainly not one of our prouder distinctives—our ongoing struggle about homosexuality in the church. However, during that conversation I found myself defending that while we have our struggles within the UMC, on our best days, we are committed to staying in relationship with one another, despite the fact that our diversity causes us pain. I acknowledged to F.P.’s cousin and still do today, that our diversity is not without its challenges. There are a few things about the UMC that grieve me, but among the worst is when the world to which we are witnessing sees us fractured, exposed, and fighting. Looking back, it was in this conversation close to 10 years ago that I can begin to see God calling me to the UMC. I remember thinking (strangely) that I wanted to help the people of the UMC through these challenging times. I am certain that I did not have an overestimated sense of my own contribution, but somehow I felt in that moment that the challenges of the UMC were my challenges, too. For me, the beginning of being called to the UMC happened in that weird conversation on an airplane.

3. I see great hope in the people called Methodists. Now, I must qualify that remark. I see great hope in potential of the people and I see that the people have great hope. However, I am not blind to the fact that our numbers in the American UMC are diminishing and that sometimes we lose sight of the stated main focus of our church (to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world). Some make take exception to my last statement, but I often think that we’re pretty caught up in issues that are not central to being disciples and making disciples. However, when I read Eric VanMeter’s latest commentary in the UM Reporter, I was reminded that while I’m inspired by the heritage of the UMC, I’m more interested in the legacy that we could leave.

If the best things we’ve inherited, however, become tools to infuse new life into the United Methodist Church, then our heritage will continue to thrive. Our spiritual fathers and mothers passed down to us a concern for the poor, a heart for service, a commitment to holiness and the courage to confront our problems with wisdom and creativity.

Still, the best things about us as the United Methodist Church are not found in our tradition. They’re found in our trajectory. Our life is not tied to the heritage we’ve received, but to the legacy we leave.

Amen, brother! I see the stirrings of people all over the church, people who sometimes challenge us by making us confront our failures and people who, with a theology rooted in grace, remind us that we have much work left to do and we can actually start to make an impact. We do have a wonderful heritage. But I for one think that our heritage must impel us forward into that trajectory that is rooted in Scripture, articulated in our Methodist doctrines. It is a faith that is not intended to stay in the church service on Sunday morning, but is sturdy enough to carry us into the streets, schools, boardrooms, and even the bars. There are many who have this hope and I hope that the many will respond. I may be particularly biased in seeing this hope. I now get to work in campus ministry at my alma mater with college students who exemplify that hope every day (and a few who even want to join us in ministry in the UMC).

I could go on with other reasons why I stay in the UMC such as the connection that I’ve experienced locally, nationally, and globally or the concern for the least, the last and the lost that permeates our work in the world. There are many other “family resemblances” that I could name, but the theology, the call, and the hope are what got me here, and will keep me here. God is at work in the UMC and I’m so glad that I get to be a part of it!

An Experiment and a Plug!

I'm posting this below as an experiment (I guess I'm still a scientist at heart!).

Kevin Watson at http://deeplycommitted.com has started an experiment to see how much social capital Methodist bloggers have. This experiment was prompted by the feeling among some Methodist bloggers that United Methodism does not always do as good of a job as it could at getting the Wesleyan message out there, particularly on-line. So, he wants to see how many views a YouTube video can get if Methodist bloggers work together to promote it. The experiment is to see how many hits the video will receive in two weeks.

If you want to participate you can: First, watch the video below. Second, copy and paste this entire post into a new post on your blog and post it. Third, remind people about this experiment in one week.

Based on the results of the experiment, Kevin will get in touch with the folks at Discipleship Resources and let them know the ways in which Methodist bloggers are often an underused resource.

Here is a link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ISKTrScpzQ

Watch the video...the resource is a good one!

My new favorite blog

A couple of years ago, I started reading a blog that was probably one of the first that I ever read with any regularity. It was called WesleyBlog and was written by Shane Raynor. The blog went silent for some time but has now been resurrected in a new form. Here it is...enjoy!