Where do we fit in?

Recently I have been so amazed by the impact that young people have had. Particularly young Christians. I had the privilege to take part in 3Generate (Methodist Children and Youth Assembly) which just demonstrated how passionate and enthusiastic young people are to change the world we live in. Then following on from that we saw the Twitter Remembrance service, born and nurtured into a full service in under 24hours!

I was very disappointed to then find that there was no coverage of MYA in the Methodist Recorder following the weekend. I appreciate that there was a lot of hard work by a lot of people, but would it have been difficult for the MR to send a journalist?

It did make me wonder where young people sit in our priorities. This is not intended to be a dig at anyone. I should make that clear.

Methodist Recorder managed to send someone to report from the World Methodist Council and Conference in Durban, but couldn't get anyone to report from Kidderminster the Youth Assembly. A project that Conference have ploughed so much money into.

And that is so encouraging. The fact that Conference is prepared to take so much risk in young people, and provide such a powerful and supportive weekend for us. It is quite clearly high on their priorities, and I have witnessed this through my involvement in Conference and Council. But is this reflected in our churches, and communities?

There is so much bad press around young people today, but actually I don't believe they are the problem. They have no role models. Their parent's are part of the problem. We have let society slip, we aren't their challenging people's language, and action. People do not realise when they offend a white person. Or a Christian. Yet as soon as another faith or race is offended, we do all we can to resolve the situation.

Do we as Christians still have a voice in our communities? Do we look to the future, do we take risks. Or do we just let other people take the risks, and ignore what we can do? Should we have a louder voice, tell people how we feel? Should we scream when we don't like things? Or should we keep everything as it is?

Where do we fit in?

In my involvement in Youth Assembly, and other Connexional Meetings I have been so convinced the Methodist Church is up to something. Combined with phrases such as 'Revival Generation' and the feeling of the spirit moving amongst young people, I can't help but wonder. When we will challenge people?

Where do we fit into our world today?

Edit - I am aware that a report will feature in the Recorder on 17/11/11