The CTC GC delegates will be meeting by conference call next week to go through this process. I get to pick fifth and am currently working on a list of my top 5 choices, which is not as easy as it sounds because there are many areas of the church that I am very interested in. So please be in prayer as our delegation undergoes this time of discernment.

Annual Conference began with worship and teaching on Sunday night, but for me it began earlier in the day with the amazing opportunity of getting to ride with my friend Tom Harkrider and picking up our Annual Conference guest speaker Rev. Adam Hamilton. I had the most amazing time as we rode from DFW to Waco. I learned a lot about Adam and his ministry not just at Church of the Resurrection, but across the entirety of the UM connection. I was also greatly inspired and encouraged with the opportunity to discuss my call to ministry and my own thoughts about the state of our church with Adam.

The day got even better with worship. I had the privilege of getting to be a part of the processional and lead the opening litany. We then heard an amazing word about leadership from Adam and then to close the service I had to remember back to my days of being an acolyte as I had to fill in for the younger acolytes who left early because it was past their bedtime when the service ended. After worship I hung out with Tom, Adam, and many other members of our Annual Conference. The best part of the evening was walking back into the hotel between Bishop Lowry and Rev. Hamilton.

Monday morning began with the individual lay and clergy sessions. During the lay session I assisted in leading a time of dialogue and Holy Conferencing amongst the new cluster groups that are a part of our new conference structure. After this session was over we officially began the business session of the Annual Conference, since this was a voting year we began with taking a ballot and then Adam gave another amazing presentation on worship. After Adam’s presentation we dismissed for lunch which meant I had to wait several hours to hear the results of the ballot.

We opened the afternoon session with the results from the first ballot. Bishop Lowry read the lay results first and said there were three elections (this is a very rare occurence!) and I became very excited when the third name was read because it was mine! I knew going into Annual Conference that I had a pretty good chance at an election, but I had no idea I would be elected on the first ballot!

My experiences on Sunday and Monday made this annual conference session my most favorite by far. Tuesday and Wednesday contained many of the familiar reports and worship services including the ordination service, which is my most favorite one to attend of the entire year. The laity elected all of their delegates by around lunch on Tuesday and after 18 ballots the clergy finally elected the last of their alternates as the Bishop was saying Amen to close the conference.

The entire delegation (GC, JC, and alternate delegates)  met briefly at the close of the conference; I was somewhat overwhelmed as the reality of what my election meant. This will be a very exciting year as I journey to General and Jurisdictional Conferences. I haven’t blogged in a very long time, but I hope to be more consistent over this next year as I think this experience is something that definitely needs to be shared. I invite all who are reading this to please comment or contact me with your thoughts about what will be happening over this next year, and please, if I haven’t updated in a while let me know!

2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18

As I was looking over the text for this Sunday, I read the first line of the scripture and came to the word libation, and I asked myself what does libation mean? And better yet how can you be poured out like one? So I looked it up, and discovered it meant a drink offering, an offering of wine poured over the sacrifice on the altar. The wine has two significances, one signifying a generous and joyous offering, outpouring, to God, and the second is that of the wine hitting the flame and “poof”—bigger flame, lots of smoke, and the aroma spreads everywhere.

As we read today’s scripture we might hear the words of Paul telling Timothy that he is resigning. The words Paul uses in the first three verses of scripture portray Paul as finishing: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” It seems as if it is evident that in this passage of scripture Paul is turning over his ministry and passing the torch of leadership over to Timothy, but when we examine the scripture further, we can see that Paul is turning everything over to God. There is nothing of resignation in the drink offering at all, but rather of joyous abandonment. Paul is not telling Timothy that he is giving up. Rather, he is saying he is “giving over” himself fully to God, even as he believes his time of departure may be near.

Yesterday I had the privilege of attending, along with my family and a few other members of our congregation, The Centennial Celebration of the Central Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church. Isn’t that remarkable? Our annual conference has existed for 100 years, and many churches within it many years more than that. It was a pretty amazing event. Many of the local churches within our conference had tables set up with the history of their local churches displayed. There were several performances by choirs and praise bands from within the conference, and there were awards presented to the oldest members of our annual conference, in fact some of you may know Rev Hubert Foust, who was once a very active member of our congregation, was in the top three oldest clergy members of the annual conference. Perhaps one of the most spectacular parts of the event were the greeting brought from the former bishops of our annual conference. It was amazing to hear their stories, and of their leadership. The event was concluded with an address by our current bishop, Bishop Lowry. In his address, rather than dwelling on the past, he talked about the future of our church, and the things we must be doing as an annual conference to “Make Disciples of Jesus Christ for the Transformation of the World.” He said we must let go of a future that is guided by the maintenance of an institution, and enter into a future that is guided by God, where we are convinced and convicted of the fact that God’s Grace is leading us.

While the bishop addressed the future of our annual conference, the day was filled with much history on the past of our annual conference. It was very interesting learning about the early Methodists who came and developed this area of Texas. At one point in history this area was vast and people were spread far apart, but ministry still happened. Disciples were made and churches grew. The Methodist movement was strong and alive back in those times.

At first glance, someone might interpret the Centennial Celebration of the Central Texas Conference in the same way they might interpret Paul’s words to timothy. The United Methodists of the Central Texas Conference over the past one hundred years are similar to Paul. They too have “fought the good fight, finished the race, kept the faith” and turned over everything to God. It might seem as if the work of the Central Texas Conference and the work of Paul is over, but it is far from it. For just as the past members of the Central Texas Conference are passing over the torch of leadership to new leaders and setting the example of turning all control over to God, Paul is doing the same things in his words this morning. Paul gives Timothy the words of encouragement to go and do likewise. Give it your all. Pour out your best. Offer it all to God with joyous abandon. Let the fragrance of the gospel spread everywhere through you.

But we have just examined the first half of this morning’s scripture. As Paul charges Timothy to turn over all control to God, he delivers words of assurance in doing so. Paul reminds Timothy of his time of trial and points out the fact that no one came to stand by his side. Paul tells Timothy that even though no one was there by him, the Lord was. It is in these words and this reminder that I think we, the congregation of First United Methodist Church of Mineral Wells can learn this morning.

This summer I took a job as an intern in the youth ministry department at Arborlawn United Methodist Church in Fort Worth. It was an amazing experience and I really enjoyed working within such a large congregation. I’m also in college now at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Because I was an intern at Arborlawn this summer, most Sundays I had to teach Sunday School over there and I attended worship there on Sundays also, and now I worship somewhere in Dallas most Sundays, so since about July 4 weekend I’ve only worshipped here in Mineral Wells a few times. I was a little bit shocked when I visited for the first time in a while Labor Day weekend to see new things in both worship services. Our casual worship service had been moved to the sanctuary with the order of worship changed slightly. Most Sundays that I attended this/that service it seemed like there were a lot of people in worship because we were worshipping in the small space of the chapel, and now the same number of people are worshipping in casual worship, but with the move to the sanctuary there is great potential for growth in this/that service. I was very surprised however when I attended our regular traditional worship service, not because the order of worship was slightly tweaked, but because there were significantly fewer people in worship. The first time I experienced the low worship attendance I felt as if the sanctuary was slightly deserted. I kept asking myself where are all of the people? Why has my congregation shrunk?

It is in looking around the sanctuary that I think we can all rest assured in the words of Paul, “The Lord is standing by us and giving us strength,” and “The Lord will rescue us from every evil attack and save us for his heavenly kingdom.” But my brothers and sisters in Christ because we take assurance from these words, we must also take action. We too must, “fight the good fight,” we too must, “finish the race,” and we too must, “keep the faith,” so that through us the Message might be fully proclaimed. I believe that God has great plans for our congregation and that God has great things in store for our community.

In November of last year I attended Exploration, an event put on by the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry for senior high and college age students exploring a call to Professional Christian Ministry. The worship at this event was spectacular. On the second night Bishop Sally Dyke, bishop of the Minnesota Episcopal Area, was the preacher. She delivered a phenomenal sermon and she concluded with these words which I am reminded of today, as our Annual Conference looks to the next 100 years and as this community looks to its future in ministry. Bishop Dyke concluded by proclaiming, “This is the time, this is the place, we are the people!” Today as we go from this place, let us remember these words as we are engaged in a ministry that is completely done for the glory of God, not lead by the maintenance of an institution, but lead by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit, and in return we count on the fact that He is there next to us.

Amen.

Mark 12:28-31

At lunch our scripture was from Deuteronomy. We read the commandment that God gave to his people; to Love him with all of their heart, all of their mind, all of their soul, and all of their strength. After hearing tonight’s scripture from Mark, what are some similarities that we notice? Is it the same commandment? But what is different about the verse in Mark? Jesus gives another commandment. He adds Love your neighbor as yourself.

In both of these commandments we hear the word Love. How do we Love? Well if we look back and see in the book of Genesis that when God created Adam, he created him in His image. And we know that God definitely Loves us, he sent His Son, Jesus, to die for the forgiveness of our sins. So, I think that it is safe to say that God is Love; therefore, that means we are Love also. Now how can we tap into who we are? How can we live as Disciples of Jesus Christ as Love? We do it by caring for God with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength, and caring for our neighbor just as we would our self.

At lunch we discussed Loving God with our heart, mind, soul, and strength. In your discussions, I bet you all agreed that this is a really hard thing to do. We are often faced with everyday obstacles that prevent us from being in a constant relationship with him. You made bracelets with two beads on them. You were told that one bead was to remind us to Love God, and you have probably figured out by now that the other is to remind us to Love our neighbor as our self. Do you remember in the instructions to make your bracelets that you weren’t supposed to make your own, but instead, the person to the right of you? Do you see now why that was? It was a way of practicing Loving your neighbor as you would yourself. As you were making your bracelet, I’m sure you tied the string exactly perfect for the wrist of the person beside you, just as if you were making the bracelet for yourself.

I bet as you are sitting there in the pew, thinking to yourselves, “Ethan, I’m a United Methodist, our theology, the way we interpret scripture, is Wesleyan in nature, where is John Wesley in all of this, how do I love God and how do I love my neighbor as myself in a way that reflects these beliefs? Because I’m obviously not going to be on Mission Trip everyday, and I’m obviously not going to make bracelets out of string and red beads for the person who eats lunch next to me everyday. What do I do?” I am so glad that all of you are thinking this because I have an answer, tonight we get to discuss perhaps my most favorite thing about being Methodist, The General Rules, Wesley’s rules for living as disciples of Jesus.

The first is Do No Harm. This one sounds pretty easy, but is often one of the most difficult. When I hear the words do no harm, my mind jumps to awful and terrible things that might put me on the 10:00 news and in jail, but often doing no harm can be as simple as not talking about that person you don’t really care for behind their back or deciding not to sit with the kid by himself at lunch. Or even yet, avoiding the new kid that visits your youth group on a Wednesday or Sunday night.

I remember back a few years ago, I was at Annual Conference, which is the annual gathering of all the clergy and a few lay members from every church in our conference. These General Rules had just been revamped and put into a short book called Three Simple Rules by Bishop Rueben P. Job This rule was being presented to us in a time we called Holy Conferencing. We were seated at tables of 8-10 people and a rule was presented then we discussed it in context with our local churches. The presenter told a story about how they had been studying the book in her local church. After they finished rule one, they always found themselves thinking about it during casual conversation. She said that it is habitual for us to talk about people behind their backs, even at church, so when they found themselves starting to do so, they would put their hand over their mouth and say, “Remember, Do No Harm.” How often do we find ourselves in situations like this? Even at church we lose sight over Loving our neighbor as we would love our self.

The Second Rule is Do Good. You might be thinking, well these rules are a little repetitive, but I think the two are absolutely essential to one another. Yes it could be inferred from one to do the other, but I think we need reminding to Do No Harm and to Do Good. Otherwise I think we would find ourselves being complacent or only halfway loving God and our Neighbor as our self. When I think of Do Good, I think of big things, like fighting hunger in Africa, or saving a child from danger. But again we must realize that sometimes its little everyday things that show our love to our neighbor.

I was on Senior High mission trip about a month ago. My group was in Mangum, Oklahoma. I can remember getting settled into my room and a man from one of the churches we were staying with came in and introduced himself. He called himself, Brother Love, and his catch phrase was, “Too Blessed to Be Stressed.” Every time the group was gathered he would yell out, “If no one has told you today that Jesus Loves You, he does, and so do I.” Brother Love’s phrases caused something pretty awesome to occur on Wednesday of that week. As I was getting my breakfast that morning, I went thru the line, the set up group served and they handed us our utensils all wrapped up in a napkin, and as they handed me mine, they said, “Jesus Loves You!” Now, as much as I would have liked to think that I was the only special one in the line, I soon found out that I wasn’t, I realized that they were saying this to everyone. The phrase, “Jesus Loves You” was being told every morning to every person at our living center. That my friends, is an example of Doing Good. A simple act of making someone smile and acknowledge that they are loved. How easy is that? What if instead of to every person you saw everyday, you just picked one person and said, “Jesus Loves You?” That is 365 smiles a year caused by one person, and there are approximately 80 of us in this room right now, that’s almost 30, 000 smiles a year, caused by us in this room, isn’t that amazing? How awesome is it to know that you can show your neighbor you love them with three words?

The third and final rule is Attend to the Ordinances of God. Does anyone 15 and under know what that means? I didn’t think so. Let’s break it up a little bit. The word, attend means to go or to be present at, and the word ordinances means commands or orders of God. So, Attend to the Ordinances of God means to be present at or to go to God’s commands. Now this is still not very helpful, so I will rephrase it, Love God by listening to what he is calling you to do.

I remember my first Sr Hi mission trip. My living center was in Fort Collins, Colorado. The week was amazing. Fort Collins was a pretty wealthy town, so the mission work we did was not very significant and didn’t really affect me at all, but the worship we had every night was so powerful that when mission trip was over I was still energized, that warm feeling that you get inside never really left me. Over that year I began to mull over that feeling, and by the time I was a sophomore in high school, I knew that God was calling me to the ministry of an Ordained Elder in the United Methodist Church. My High School years proved that. This past June I completed my term as a member of and President of the Central Texas Conference Student Leadership Team. Through SLT I explored and developed my gifts of leadership and being able to stand here and preach tonight. In these experiences I have learned that if you listen to God, and respond to what he has in store for you then you are Loving him, you are attending to his ordinances. Even as Junior High students, ask yourselves, “How is God calling me to serve Him?” I realize that you have all answered a call to serve him on this trip, this week, but how is God calling you to serve Him with your everyday lives?

By following Wesley’s General Rules of Doing No Harm, Doing Good, and Attending to the Ordinances of God we are able to be Love. We are able to Love God with all of our heart, all of our mind, and all of our strength and we are able to Love our Neighbor as our self. And we must know that when we Love in this way, we are Loved in return, the Love we get in return is a special kind of Love, we call it Grace. The unconditional Love that God pours out for each and every one of us. This love is always constant and will never go away. It was proven by Jesus who died on the Cross out of Love for each and every one of us. Grace is so amazing that we cannot even begin to fathom it, it is Beyond our understanding. The theme of our week is Beyond Me, God’s Love is not Beyond you, it is all around you. But comprehending Love is Beyond all of us.

Amen.

Youth,

Students,

Young People,

Teenagers,

Adolescents,

Names that define people like me. Is that all the youth are, just a name? If youth are just a name, then this address can stop right now. But that is the problem, we can’t stop the address right now, youth are not just a name, we are vital members of the Church, the Kingdom of God. A fair amount of churches in our Annual Conference don’t have youth groups, and most of those that do separate the youth from the life of the church by distancing them to the rarely visited upstairs room, the basement, or in some places across the street, not even in the main church building. There are some churches in our Annual Conference that have thriving youth programs, and they should be congratulated!  But today we are addressing the fact that every church in the Central Texas Conference can have a thriving youth program that is continuously growing as more and more youth become Disciples of Jesus Christ. But this will only happen if our local churches are in constant connection with each other and if youth ministries have the full support and resources of their local churches.

It is commonly said to us that youth are the future of the church. This fact is true; however, many people who believe that youth are the future of the church are oblivious to the fact that youth are a significant part of the church now! We are important to the life of the church. How can our local churches grow and reach out in our communities if youth are not integrated into the life of the church? Often youth will bring their friends, who may not be familiar with the church to youth group events. If there are leaders in the church paying attention to who is participating in youth events then connections can begin to be made and the congregation will grow. When a new youth becomes involved within your congregation there is potential for an entire family’s involvement.

The President of the Student Leadership Team is a member of the Committee on Inclusiveness by virtue of office. Several weeks ago I received an email from the Inclusiveness Committee regarding monitoring during Annual Conference, it was an enormous email, containing seven attachments. Did you know there are people sitting among you taking notes on who is speaking? They take notes during worship and our business sessions. They monitor the age and race of speakers and the inclusiveness of the language being used. As I thought about this email, I asked myself what it would look like if we were all monitors in our local churches. Would we see youth being active in worship, in missions, and in leadership within the church? If not, then why? Why aren’t they? Have they been asked? Is there a place for them?

I think there are many common misconceptions about youth that lead to their lack of involvement within the church. Some adults believe that youth want to be isolated (like in an Upstairs Room)and completely separated from the life of the church. This idea is absolutely false. Youth want to be involved; we want to get to know the other members of our congregations. We are grateful for our separate spaces, but sometimes they are too divisive!  Some of you may also believe that all youth want to do is rebel and go crazy, this idea is also false. Youth are generally good people striving to walk the path with their eyes fixed on Jesus, just as all of you. They need role models to watch and opportunities to see you walking with God too!

As it is with each new generation, we, the youth, are a different generation, we speak and dress differently, but we are still Christians, members of the Kingdom of God, just like every other member of our church.

Every year the Student Leadership Team puts on Conference wide events for youth. The theme for our year has been, “Engaging in Ministry with the Poor,” this is one of the 4 focus areas of our denomination right now. The others are Developing Principle Christian Leaders, Creating New churches and energizing existing ones, and Eliminating Killer Diseases. At our Mid Winter, this year we focused one Mid Winter on local poverty  and one on global poverty . We invited presenters from local and global ministry groups. We had amazing curriculum that was developed by youth and youth workers within our conference.

I attended both Mid Winters, but Saturday night worship at the Global Mid Winter was most significant to me. During the week before and while I was driving to Glen Rose, I kept thinking about the traditional Prayer of Confession that is usually said before Communion. I kept thinking how amazing it would be to do this prayer at one of our worship services at Mid Winter. The prayer says this…

Merciful God, we confess that we have not loved you with our whole heart. We have failed to be an obedient church. We have not done your will, we have broken your law, we have rebelled against your love, we have not loved our neighbors, and we have not heard the cry of the needy. Forgive us, we pray. Free us for joyful obedience, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

When I arrived at Glen Lake I was surprised to see that it was already planned for us to incorporate this prayer into Saturday evening worship. We were going to do it in a really cool way, we had five speakers who were reading a line of the prayer and then reading an illustration that went along with the line that they had just read.

I was asked to be one of the five readers and I was really excited about this. Saturday night comes and it was time for the prayer. The five of us got up and read our parts. The reading went well, but what happened after did not.  As we were going back to our seats, one of the youth began to awkwardly applaud and this resulted in everyone applauding. This really upset me because I felt the point of the prayer was lost among the clapping – it felt as if the clapping was directed towards us who read the prayer as if we had put on a performance. To me, worship is not a performance, it is a time where we come together as Christians to refresh and show our many thanks to God. And this kid ruined that.  After worship, I was still so bothered by the clapping that I had to take some time to blog about it. Blogging is like a web based journal and for me when I am really bothered by something, writing it out helps me calm down and think. So I wrote about it and I felt better, I was able to make it through the rest of the weekend.

A month later I was on Facebook and I came across one of my friend’s blogs who also wrote about the same worship service. In her blog she wrote about some confusion she had during worship. She said, “As I looked around the sanctuary I could see smiles and the presence of the Holy Spirit filling all those who were worshipping, except on the faces of those I was standing by, my fellow student leaders, they were upset.” She later went on to say that she could not understand how we got so focused and narrowed in on that one incident of obnoxious clapping.

As I read her post, I felt sick. I was so worried about the properness of worship that I had doubted the presence of God and I had forgotten why we were there.  We were there to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to worship in any way we felt comfortable. And if clapping after the prayer of confession is your thing, then that’s ok.

I think sometimes the relationship between the youth and the adults of the church is just like our Mid Winter experience, a tradition or event that one group plans or does is completely misinterpreted by the other. And often we find it impossible to bridge the gap between generations. It is sometimes hard for youth to understand adults, or vice versa. We can learn a lot from each other if we open ourselves up to new experience the other generation has to share with us. Youth can offer growth in your faith just as you can challenge them in theirs.” What the Student  Leadership Team has discovered, is that the two generations need each other, and we have come up with a couple of solutions to help them meet.

One solution is to have church wide Sunday School. Pick a time to invite ALL of the Sunday School classes in the church to meet and do a study together. Invite each of the Sunday School teachers from the different classes to take turns leading the sessions. Doing church wide Sunday School would be a unifying event and would allow many members of the congregation to engage in discussion with each other.

Another idea is to create prayer partners across the generations, pair a youth with an older member of the congregation. They pray with and for each other weekly and at least once a month plan something fun together. Creating relationships with youth and older members of the congregation allows mentoring, and spiritual development to take place for the youth. It helps youth to develop spiritually and allows adults to gain insight into the world of youth.

One thing that my church has done to make Youth more included in the church is having youth led worship. We have Youth Sunday every month that has 5 Sundays. The youth work together to pick out all the scripture and hymns. We lead music and one of us gives a message. Having this time to get an insight into the lives of worship leaders at our church makes us more connected to them and planning a worship service helps us to develop our own faith and share it with the church. The congregation gets to know each youth better by being able to see their gifts and talents in action as they lead different aspects of worship. It’s really an amazing thing to see some of the things our youth group has pulled together into an awesome worship experience for the whole congregation. Our Youth Sundays have evolved to be called “Everyone’s Favorite Sunday!” and we have really grown INTO the congregation and gotten to know the adults in our church on a new level.

Once we begin to interact with the youth and realize that youth have the ability to be active members of the church, we will support their ministries and we will empower them to be leaders within our church.

Every summer thousands of youth from across the conference engage in missions, many of them through CTCYM. A couple of years I go I went to Lafayette, Louisiana to build a wheelchair ramp for an elderly man. It wasn’t until we completed the ramp that we discovered Mr. Champagne hadn’t been outside of his house in five years. My work team was able to watch him go down the wheelchair ramp and be outside for the first time in five years. The LORD truly works in amazing ways through CTCYM.

Our generation is very missional, we love to help people in need and we love going on mission trips during the summer. There are many local churches in the conference that do participate in summer mission trips. You saw over 700 youth and adults that commit time each summer to do missions at the Comissioning on Sunday night.  The Student Leadership Team thinks it would be phenomenal if all of our local churches participated in youth mission trips. It can happen through the support and encouragement of the adults and leaders within the church. The practice of going on a mission trip is the practice of Servant Leadership.

The Student Leadership Team exists to empower and encourage youth leadership across the connection. The only youth, Stefanie Schutz, on the General Church Connectional Table is a member of our Central Texas Conference Student Leadership Team. The President of the South Central Jurisdictional Youth Leadership Team, Allye Combs-Morgan is also a member of our Central Texas Conference Student Leadership Team.  We know how to make youth servant leaders! However, these youth only come out of a small percentage of local churches that participate on Student Leadership Team at the Conference and District Levels. All of our District Student Leadership Teams encourage two youth from every local church to serve on them. We are asking you to go back to your local churches and seek out youth to serve as leaders in your churches. Many youth desire to serve as leaders within the local churches, but they are never asked or given the opportunity. Invite youth to help lead in worship regularly, and invite youth serve on your various committees and boards in your church. Have Youth co-Chairs on committees or shadow-chairs.

The Student Leadership Team is very grateful for the opportunities the Central Texas Conference provides for youth to serve beyond the local church. We are asking, as we move into this next year for another opportunity to become available. At the 2011 session of the Central Texas Annual Conference we will vote for General and Jurisdictional Conference Delegates. Historically the Central Texas Conference has not elected persons under the age of 35 to serve in this capacity. The Student Leadership Team will be offering several youth and young adult candidates for consideration to be elected as delegates. We ask that the conference lay members strongly consider voting for youth and young adults to represent the conference at the 2012 General and Jurisdictional Conferences.

When youth are empowered to be leaders within the church, their time of service allows them to grow spiritually and they are able to better discern how God is calling them to be leaders within the church throughout the rest of their lives. It is crucial now at this very moment to empower youth to be leaders. The average age of a United Methodist is late 50’s, and the amount of clergy under age 35 is less than 10%. We need youth to become active in our church more than ever! And we need the leadership of our adults more than ever! Both of our generations need to learn how to lead and how to follow!

Today we have laid the foundation for what we want youth ministry to look like in the Central Texas Conference from this point forward.

We desire inclusiveness and interaction with the generations ahead of us.

The Conference and District Student Leadership Teams are making it their goal to energize and equip the local churches for youth ministry.

Our ministry will be about empowering the local church to make Youth Disciples of Jesus Christ for the Transformation of the World!

But we cannot do it alone.

My brother and I were driving to school this morning, we both had the same thought. This morning’s weather is dark, cloudy, and stormy. We both thought how appropriate that the weather is gloomy today.

Today we are also at school. I do not think I have ever been at school on Good Friday. But I’m ok with being here. For what a great day it is to be at school, I have the opportunity to witness on one of the most important days in our lives as Christians.

How are you reflecting on Good Friday?

    ^5-10 A wandering Aramean was my father,
      he went down to Egypt and sojourned there,
      he and just a handful of his brothers at first, but soon
      they became a great nation, mighty and many.
      The Egyptians abused and battered us,
      in a cruel and savage slavery.
      We cried out to God, the God-of-Our-Fathers:
      He listened to our voice, he saw
      our destitution, our trouble, our cruel plight.
      And God took us out of Egypt
      with his strong hand and long arm, terrible and great,
      with signs and miracle-wonders.
      And he brought us to this place,
      gave us this land flowing with milk and honey.
      So here I am. I’ve brought the firstfruits
      of what I’ve grown on this ground you gave me, O God.

 ^10-11 Then place it in the Presence of God, your God. Prostrate yourselves in the Presence of God, your God. And rejoice! Celebrate all the good things that God, your God, has given you and your family; you and the Levite and the foreigner who lives with you.

Deuteronomy 26:1-11 (The Message)

Today is the first Sunday of Lent! Last Sunday was still a part of the season of Epiphany, we just took in the realization that God sent Jesus in human form, now it is time to focus, to reconnect with, and thank God for the gift he gave us.

I can remember going on vacation with my family when I was little. We would always stay in the hotels with the continental breakfast downstairs in the lobby. I remember watching my dad get his breakfast and he would always choose coffee to drink. He rarely drank coffee at home because mom hates the taste and smell of it. There was one year when I decided that I was going to drink coffee too. So I got a cup and I got a stir stick and a pack of sugar and a pack of crème. I mixed these things into the coffee and took a drink. First of all it was really hot and I was well known at that time in my life for having my hot chocolate with ice in it, but most importantly, the coffee was disgusting. I took one sip and threw it away. As the years went by and we went on more vacations I kept trying to drink this beverage. When I got my driver’s license I would intentionally go to Starbucks when I was in Weatherford, I really enjoyed going into Starbucks because I really liked the smell of coffee, but I couldn’t bring myself to get a cup of coffee, I would just get a tea or one of my favorites, a double chocolate chip Frappuccino. I was in this routine until last October. I had to take my sister into Weatherford to shop for her Halloween costume and on our way home we stopped at Starbucks. I got a Vanilla Latte which is steamed milk, espresso, and vanilla; the coffee was delicious! I finally enjoyed this drink that I had been trying to like for years!

Now I drink coffee all the time. We got a coffee maker at Christmas time and I drink it most mornings before school. And I usually drink it black with just a little sugar, although I still really enjoy going to Starbucks to get a latte or a white chocolate mocha.  I think my coffee story is a perfect example of what we should be doing during the Lenten season. I took time and I acquired the taste for coffee, I learned to appreciate it. During Lent we should take time to reconnect to acquire that taste, get on the continual spiritual high of the holy spirit, so that during Holy week and Easter we will truly understand the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Deuteronomy’s instructions about the first fruits that were to be offered to God served as a ritual reminder. They were delivered from bondage by the grace of God. They had once been oppressed in Egypt and unable to claim anything as their own. They had been tested for forty years in the wilderness. Now they were in a land of plenty without slave masters or restrictions. The simple act of bringing a portion of the first harvest was a way to acknowledge that it was God who had delivered them and brought them to a better place in life. The Lenten journey provides an opportunity for pilgrims to take an honest look at who and whose they are and how they have come to be blessed.

I cannot even begin to tell you how many times I hear the words, “Man I can’t have a soda because I gave it up for lent!” Phrases like this defy the very purpose of Lent. I usually respond to my classmates or friends who say things like that with, “How is giving up soda or sweets going to bring you closer in your relationship with God over these next days?” and they respond, “Well I don’t really know, I just gave something up.” Saying you’re going to give up soda during Lent and then complaining about it and finding ways around it during the 46 days of Lent is not what God wants us to do during this time. Instead let’s give up going to sonic during happy hour every day and put that dollar we would spend on a cherry Dr. Pepper in the plate on Sunday morning. Or instead of spending an hour on Facebook or the internet spend an hour reading the bible or doing daily devotionals. Those are reasons to give something up during Lent.

I have felt the call to ministry in my life for several years. I have heard many people say they were so excited for me and I have been excited for ministry to be my vocation. But there are not many people who feel the same calling at such an early age, and I have let my spiritual growth kind of stop because there has been no one to grow with me. But during this Lenten season I am going to make it my goal to change that, I am devoting more time for scripture and meditation in my very hectic schedule, so I can live out my calling more effectively.

You don’t have to give anything up during Lent? Make an effort to focus on God. Develop a prayer schedule or become involved in intentional missions. Whatever we choose, let us all do something to become closer to the God of Love.

I think Lent is a time for personal reflection and growth, but it is also a time for congregational reflection and growth. During Lent our community of faith must take time to evaluate its ministry. We must think about how our fruit is growing. Bishop Schnase writes in his book entitled Five Practices of a Fruitful Congregation. Radical Hospitality. Passionate Worship. Intentional Faith Development. Risk-Taking Mission and Service. Extravagant Generosity. People are searching for a church shaped and sustained by these qualities. The presence and strength of these five practices demonstrate congregational health, vitality, and fruitfulness. By repeating and improving these practices, churches fulfill their mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. These are just ideas for local church growth, but what if every local church implemented them. What if every church was so warm and inviting that the hospitality they offered was radical? What if every worship service at every local church was organized, lead, and participated in with passion? What if we put very meticulous thought into the studies that we took part in during  the year and intentionally developed our faith? What if we engaged in mission without holding back so that risks were taken? And What if we gave as much as we could so that our gifts added up were extravagant? What if we did all these things? We would grow in faith as individuals and as a community, we would experience the meaning of the Lenten season.

Grace is what allowed the first fruits to be brought to God. Grace is God’s unconditional love for us. Through Grace we experience God because through Grace we are forgiven. We as United Methodists have a pretty unique view of Grace. We break it down into three types: prevenient, justifying, and sanctifying. With Prevenient Grace being the grace that we receive even when we don’t want it. Justifying Grace being the grace that we experience when we accept God’s Love. And Sanctifying Grace is the Grace we live in through our relationship with God. I think our Wesleyan viewpoint on Grace is a great way to describe the Lenten season. Prevenient is the time before the death, where we reflect and begin to prepare ourselves to accept forgiveness. Justifying is the time of Jesus’ death and resurrection where our sins are forgiven. Sanctifying is the time after Easter where we go out into the world proclaiming the good news.

Lent is the time when we focus on our relationship with God. Lent is the time where we reacquire our taste for God. Let us all focus this Lenten season and let us all reacquire the taste, so we grow spiritually, so we can lift up our fruit for God and are able to be witnesses of Jesus Christ in the world. So we are able to tell everyone that through God’s grace our sins are forgiven. So we are able to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world!

In the name of The Father, and of The Son, and of The Holy Spirit, Amen!

I arrived at mid winter a little late this weekend because I had to take the ACT and didn’t really know what was going on in our worship. I got asked to be a part of the group that led the prayer of confession at tonight’s worship service and was super excited when I saw this was the litany we were using. I had thought about this very prayer this past week and how we could use it during mid winter and was really excited that I got to help lead it.

So we started the prayer after 4 songs (which were played outragiously loud). As I was up there reading and listening, I did not feel the same excitment I did before we read, I could tell that we had failed to make a connection or transition properly into the prayer. After the prayer was over and we said Amen, a person in the audience started clapping obnoxiously, at that point I became pretty frustrated.

I’m going to sound like an old person when I say this, but I don’t care for loud music or clapping in worship, I think it creates a production rather than a service. And I guess when I’m in worship I assume those around me feel the same way.

I also wonder after tonight’s service, how do worship leaders manage that feeling when they it seems as if there is no connection from the words said in worship to the hearts in worship?

Let me first tell you a little bit about myself. I have been very privileged to serve in many ways across the connection of our church during my high school career. I’ve been a member of the CTCYM Advisory board, which helps plan the Central Texas Conference Youth in Mission mission trips every summer. And I have served on Student Leadership Team at both the district and conference level. Student Leadership Team is an organization that promotes youth leadership, and plans fun and exciting events for youth within our conference. This year I’m currently the President of the Conference Student Leadership Team, so I’ve had the opportunity to serve on many other committees and groups throughout our conference.

This last summer my youth group attended CTCYM like we do every summer. Our living center, the church that we stay at was in West Helena, Arkansas. If you don’t know, racial tension is still very existent in that part of our nation. It was a very rough community that we were staying in, each night we had to make sure all of the trailers where backed up to a fence so that no one could break into them and if we went outside during the evening we had to make sure that we were in groups of at least  five or more. Looking around the area we really saw poor at its true definition, there was no wealth flowing at all through that community. One of the clients that one our work teams was working for said that she never even goes onto her front porch after dark. During our time there we also saw some weird stuff, one day one of our work teams was at their site and a police car came by and asked if they had seen a man with a bow and arrow run by. So as you can see this was a very risky environment, but we were there doing mission work and helping our neighbors at no cost to them. Because when you go on a CTCYM the cost that you pay to go on the trip covers all of your food and things like that, but also the cost of all of the construction materials needed to complete the jobs. So when you go on CTCYM you are paying to work.

One thing that was very special about our trip this year was that our living center was not all Central Texas Conference Churches. There was my church, a church from the North Texas Conference and a church from the North Carolina conference. The church from North Carolina was special because their youth director had lived here in the Central Texas Conference for many years, she was actually at First Glen Rose at one point, but then she moved to North Carolina. The church in North Carolina had never done anything like CTCYM before and their new youth director tried to convince the church that coming on CTCYM would be great. At first their congregation was all for it, but as it got closer to the date, most of the congregation became skeptical and only three youth and two adults came from that church. Let’s look at this from the aspect of risk taking mission and service. We have a church who is scared to partake in missions because they have never done anything like it before. Part of risk taking mission and service is stepping out of your comfort zone to help your neighbor.

This past April CTCYM, the Student Leadership Team, and United Community Centers in Fort Worth came together to sponsor, A Great Day of Service. This event was one day of mission and service in Fort Worth where churches from around the Fort Worth and Mid Cities area came together and divided into work teams to help out at different community centers around Fort Worth, which are a part of United Community Centers, which is a Methodist organization that is sponsored by our conference. I attended this event with one of my friends and his mom from our church and we got to spend the day working on a flower bed, painting, and working on some shelving at one of the centers. It turned out to be a really fun day, and all it took was one day and some supplies to help out close to home. One of the things we noticed on the CTCYM advisory board and the Student Leadership Team was that we attracted several churches in our conference that don’t normally participate in CTCYM or youth activities. This year we plan to do the event again, but with locations also in the Waco and Temple areas, so more people within our conference can participate.

I think attending CTCYM and mission opportunities similar to it are great ways to get involved in missions, to sort of practice away from home. I almost think that it takes pressure away if you are serving outside of your local community. But as you grow and become more confident in your missional abilities then start getting involved within your local community, start making mission and service a part of your everyday life.

My church, as many of you know has its own food pantry which is a very vital and strong ministry of our church, we serve hundreds every month and this past year with the economy like it was, we served close to three thousand families. This year our food pantry is expanding to start a backpack ministry. On Friday afternoons we’re going to take food up and place it in children’s backpacks who may be on free or reduced lunches, so they can have food during the weekend.

My youth group also incorporates mission into its routine. Every year at Christmas time on a Wednesday night we go to Wal-Mart and pick two or three angels off of the angel tree and buy for their Christmas. This is always a really fun time for us as we go around the store and also we are being missional within our community.

Sometimes my youth group will go to some of the members of our congregation’s houses and help them out with yard work. Like after a big storm or if they have been sick we go and rake leaves or mow yards, and always doing service in a group always makes it more fun. Like I think that it is really cool that y’all are choosing to study the 5 practices as a charge rather than as individual churches. I think that when we join together we are able to accomplish more.

I really think that Bishop Schnase chose the perfect word to describe mission and service. Risk-Taking. And I think that risk taking is partially defined by stepping out of your comfort zone. And I think that it most importantly includes prayer. I’m pretty sure that that is why he did not use a word like gambling mission and service. Because the word gambling implies that your mission will be very successful or it will fail miserably. Granted Risk-taking gives room for failure, but with prayer there is no true failure. I also think it is very interesting that prayer is not one of the practices of a fruitful congregation, but after thinking about it I think that none of the practices would work without prayer. And I think that all of the ministries and missions I have talked about would not have been as successful without prayer.

Did you know that when we do mission and service, our neighbors feel an impact of the great Love that we are sharing, but we can also feel an impact as well? I can remember very clearly the CTCYM mission trip right before my freshman year. Our youth group’s living center was in Fort Collins, Colorado. This community was a total opposite from the Arkansas community that I previously described. The community was very wealthy, and you had to look very hard to see the need. It was difficult to find jobs we were supposed to work five days, but on the last day we actually went to the mountains instead of working. However, I do believe that God placed us in that community for a reason, because the worship that we shared together was spectacular. Every night the presence of the Holy Spirit could be felt around the room and I came away on a spiritual high that didn’t seem to go away. After that trip is when I applied to serve on the CTCYM Advisory board and the next summer is when I signed up for Student Leadership Team, but it was after that trip that I felt God steering me into student leadership. After that trip and in the years since I have also felt God calling me into ministry, to be ordained as an Elder in our church. That trip is why I love missions, because I have seen the environment in which mission takes place and I have seen the work that God can do through and for his sheep.

Before we leave here this evening let us truly define what Risk-Taking Mission and Service truly is and let us define the ways in which these congregations will begin to implement this practice. I think the definition and service comes from the Gospel of Mark when Jesus is telling of the two greatest commandments and a clarification comes in the Great Commission. Se we’ve decided that Risk Taking Mission and Service is getting out of your comfort zone, including prayer, but it is also Loving the Lord your God with all of you heart, all your mind, all your strength, all your soul, and loving your neighbor as yourself. Risk-Taking mission and service is making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

There are people in this room that are engaged in mission and service right now. First, I am in mission by coming here and offering my stories, and also this one is really cool. Can you see my shoes? They are called Toms and when you buy a pair, another pair is given to a child in a third world country that has none. Secondly Margie and Barry have actually taken a risk this evening, by joining you the laity of their congregations in the study and implementation of the five practices. As being part of the lay leadership within the annual conference, I can tell you, it’s time for change within our denomination, and if all of our congregations practiced these practices great things would happen within our conference and within the kingdom.

So now I ask the questions… Who are the least that Central, Graford, Palo Pinto, and Strawn United Methodist Churches are serving? How are we loving God and loving our neighbors as ourselves through mission and service? And how will we use mission and service to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world?

Amen

The first worship service was very upbeat and exciting. The theme of the service was Hear as we foccused on the story of Moses and the burning bush. After the service we progressed to our small groups. I really enjoyed my small group during the weekend, you could feel the presence of The Holy Spirit when we gathered and heard about eachother’s calls to ministry. Although with that many future pastors the conversations did last quite a while.

Saturday was a very fun and full day. We started off the morning with worship and small groups where we talked about Esther (I tweeted this interesting fun fact: John Wesley only preached once on the book of Esther) and discerning. The middle of the day was occupied by workshops that covered a wide range of ministry topics and opportunities. The three I chose were: I’m still in high school and thinking about college and seminary, what does it mean to be an Elder, and the candidacy process. All three workshops were great, but my favorite was the last one I attended, the candidacy process. This workshop was presented by the director of candidacy who works in Nashville. The competency of this lady took away all confusion about the process which I am on the tip of right now. Saturday night was concluded with worship and small groups. In this service of word and table we talked about responding and heard a great message from Bishop Sally Dyck.

Sunday was a short day, but just as great as the other two. We concluded Exploration with small groups and worship. The theme for the day was Go and we talked about the story of Jesus and the woman at the well.

I walked into Exploration positive of my call to ordained ministry and came out even more positive and the knowledge that I am not alone. There are plenty of young leaders for our church now and in the future.