Thursday, 20 of June of 2013
Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada
It’s hard to think of a time in which parents have been more focused on their children – providing them with the best opportunities, the best chance at a good education, the best extra-curricular activities. The term helicopter parent describes this new perspective: moms and dads flying around and over their kids making sure they are getting all the benefits. There are many factors behind this trend: Read more »
Have you thought recently about the lessons you’d like to leave with your kids, or the other young people in your life? Here’s an excellent sampling of some parental wisdom, that even adults could stand to remember. This letter from a mom turning 40 has gone viral online. (And by the way, if some of the lessons sound familiar – tomorrow is a new day, help someone else, set priorities – it could be because we’ve all read them somewhere else already. The best advice is still about 2,000 years old.)
Everybody’s feeling more stress these days. Our lives are busy, and demanding, the expectation we place on ourselves and others growing. What’s the impact of all that adult anxiety in our youth? In fact, all the stats suggest they are also more anxious and stressed than previous cohorts of teenagers. That’s something we need to keep in mind – both in how we might be transferring stress down the line, and in ways in which we might use the time we spend with our own kids and other youth to help reduce the anxious messaging that they get from society. Here’s an article on anxiety by a certain writer I know at the Globe and Mail: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/health/conditions/why-are-todays-teenagers-feeling-so-anxious/article7604612/
Greta Conrads at an Eastern Synod Congregational AGM
This July 3-7 twenty young adults will form a youth delegation at the first ever Anglican-Lutheran Joint Assembly in Ottawa. Four of those youth will be delegates from the Eastern Synod. There was a conversation on the floor of our last Eastern Synod Assembly where we talked about the importance of the youth voice on the floor of convention. In a previous post I commented:
We heard these same sentiments from our youth at Assembly this past summer. Our youth are tired of the tokenism we offer them in the life of the church. They are tired of the entertainment slots we give them at our gatherings. They want to be integrated into the life and purpose of the church the same way everyone else is. They don’t want to be ‘youth delegates’. They want to be delegates.
Consider the motion on the floor of the Eastern Synod Assembly this past summer that spoke to increasing the numbers of youth at Assembly. I spoke against that motion. We do need a larger young adult contingent at our Assemblies. But changing a number in a constitution will do little to make that happen. I applaud the energy and excitement people have for youth, just as I applaud the motives of the mover of that motion on the floor of Assembly this past summer. We need that energy, excitement and positive motivation to move youth and young adults more fully into the life of the churches we are a part of. That takes work. But imagine what our communities would look like if our youth and young adults were leading worship regularly, leading committee work, serving on council, elected as delegates to Convention and Assembly.
Many congregations are getting ready for their Annual General Meetings. This is the time that we vote for delegates going to Assembly this summer. This is your moment as a congregation. Will you vote in the same old warm body? Or will you actively seek out that young adult in your midst who represents that change so many of you called for on the floor of our Eastern Synod Assembly last summer? This is a choice. It will take work. But it is God-pleasing work that needs to be done if we want to fairly represent the demographic that exists in this Evangelical Lutheran Church of ours. Be the change that wants to happen. Like Greta, there are many of our young adult Lutherans watching and waiting for this kind of opportunity.
Why do we put our youth in a box? On Thursday night, I attended the opening of the 131st General Assembly for the Ottawa diocese, and heard Bishop Chapman’s charge to the synod. He had some interesting comments to make about the presence of youth in our churches. To distill it down, Read more »
It’s the second week since school went out, (and for many families what therefore feels like the beginning of the summer), and consider this question: What have you done with your time? Apparently, what our kids most want – as some experts are suggesting – is not more summer camps, and schedules activities. They want the adults around them to just rest easy for a while. Read more »
Looking for an explanation of Good Friday for young children. This video, which is led by the voices and artwork of children, is a wonderful way for families to remember the journey that Jesus made. What a great way to initiate a discussion about our faith and the journey that was taken to get to Easter. http://vimeo.com/39437796
