Chapel of the Cross, Chapel Hill, NC

AcolytesX EYC X Junior and Training Choirs X Pre School Chapel X Church School X Youth Inquirers' Class X Boy and Girl Scouts X Vacation Church School X Lay Readers X Chalice Bearers X Greeters X Altar Guild X Summer Mission Trips X Special Events including: camp and conferences throughout the diocese and beyond, Bible studies, outdoor adventure, and pilgrimages to our National Cathedral and mother church in England.

Youth Ministry focuses on engaging the children of God who range in age from 3 to 18 by enabling them to live fully into their baptismal promises. It is a significant part of what this parish does whether consciously or not. The list you just read is but a sampling of how this community forms Christians of this age. As I make the transition into working with the university community and in particular 18to 22 year olds I am more acutely aware than ever of how important a task this is, for now we are receiving the results of that endeavor from other faith communities. I get to see what kind of job was done and wonder how our youth are faring outside of these walls. Other questions emerge too: Will the young people who are now entrusted to us find this community up to the task of teaching them how to be disciples? Will their faith sustain them in the days ahead? If not, how shall we work at supporting them as they (and we) grow into the full stature of Christ's work which knows no age limitation?

This is an important time of transition in the parish as job responsibilities shift. We have an opportunity to examine what we have been doing and why we have been doing it even as we receive the fruits of others' work in the arrival of college students from all over the state and the nation. Somewhere in the midst of it all is the hope that God takes what has been done and does something with it that is beyond what we could desire or pray for. I am hopeful that there might be an invisible seam that runs between the ministries of youth and young adult, and adult and middle age, and newly retired and senior citizen, and elderly and those headed home to the new Jerusalem. For all of us together make this work and it takes the collective wisdom shared to honor the truths that emerge in our lives together - truths like:

If you want your child to have faith, you are going to have to pass it on.
If you want your child to go to church, you are going to have to go to church.
If you want your child to have Christian morals, then you are going to have to practice those yourself.
If you want to send your children out equipped to do the work that God has given them to do, then you are going to have to model that in their presence.

If that didn't happen, don't despair; someone will be there to pick up the slack in communities of faith along the way just as we are doing for those who come to us from the university seeking Christ known and unknown. Surely there is a good dose of grace for all of us even as there is some incentive to continue the good work begun and make it even more
fruitful.

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The deadline is the first Thursday of the preceeding month.