This past
Sunday, we celebrated Youth Sunday at Church of the Holy Communion. It is
always a wonderful Sunday when the youth have a chance to show what they are
able to do when given the spotlight. On
a normal Sunday, you will see the youth still involved with the service,
typically as the acolytes and occasionally serving as a Eucharistic
Ministers. If you turn around, you may
even see our one teenager who sings in the choir. But one Sunday a year, the youth are given
the keys to the service and asked to take over.
Even though
this youth lead service would not take place until April 2016, work on this one
service began in December 2015. Through
the months of January and February, our youth worked with the clergy of the
church to learn about the Prayers of the People, the Eucharistic Prayer, the
Lectionary, the liturgical calendar, how to select music for a service,
vestments, you name it, we have learned about it. Why?
Because that is what we need to know in order to prepare our
service. After learning about the
Prayers of the People, the middle school class wrote their own. After learning about the different parts of
the Eucharistic Prayer, the high school class writes their own before sending
it off to the Bishop for approval.
Seriously, how many high school students do you know that can diagram
the different parts of the Eucharistic Prayer?!
And of course, there is your senior in high school youth preacher.
We also not
only choose the music, but perform the music.
Over the past few months, a group of incredibly talented youth have
worked together to learn all of the music the service, and perform it
fantastically! When was the last time
you were moved to tears during the music at church? When was the last time the congregation
paused Communion to turn and give a round of applause for the music?
Youth Sunday
is always a very stressful yet amazing day.
By the end of it, I always breathe a sigh of relief, and am thankful
that I have another 365 days to prepare for the next one, but am also completely
amazed and humbled by the experience. Every
single time the youth is tasked with a large job to do, they always seem to
exceed expectations and watching them succeed at everything they are challenged
with, makes me so proud….but it also makes me wonder…
Why do we
only do this once a year?
Why are we
only acolytes?
Why do we
only have a handful of youth who serve as Eucharistic Ministers?
As our youth
preacher pointed out in his sermon this past week, it is believed that the
disciples of Jesus ranged between the ages of 12 and 18. And what did they do? They helped establish the largest religion in
the entire world, with 2.2 billion followers.
Here at Holy
Communion, you are considered a “youth” in the church when you are in grades 6
through 12. The average 6th
grader is 12 and the average senior in high school is 18… hmmm
Jesus started
with 12 teenagers and changed the world…. We have 120, what can we do?
