A New Year, A New Step
January 6, 2011
Last Sunday was the first meeting for our new young adult Sunday morning class and it went really well. The class – which will probably get a name at some point – is aimed at giving young adults (both single & married) and college students a place to connect to one another and to God’s work in the world around them. We meet at 11am in room AB236, also known as the Leadership Room. Emily Dukes, Hilary Hunt and Bre Oberdick have agreed to facilitate the group.
As we finished 2010 and took a look at how we’ve been doing ministry with young adults we felt like it was time to do something new. Ekklesia started as an experimental worship experience and did a lot of great things. One of the best things it did was create a place for all of our young adults, from recently graduated students to married couples with children, to come together and work on becoming more like Christ. But we were also honest that some parts of it weren’t perfect.
So we came up with a two-fold plan for 2011. 1) Offer a place where the good work form Ekklesia can continue. That’s what the new Sunday morning class is about. 2) Create a new worship experience that will draw more young adults into life-changing relationships with God. Even in just the initial conversations, this is really exciting and you’ll be hearing more about it soon.
So what is the class like? Someone humble enough not to attach their name to the quote once said, “Christians should live with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.” They meant that following Christ means both knowing God’s word and being aware of the world around you.
That’s what we did last week. There was a story in the New York Times about a Methodist Church in Brooklyn that houses both a shrinking Hispanic congregation and a quickly growing Chinese congregation. [article] The two were not getting along. We talked about why that might be, what we might do in the same situation and what Jesus might say about it. Then we looked up scripture passages that talked about conflict, humility, unity in Christ, and loving our enemies. I was really impressed to see the wisdom and grace expressed by everyone in the discussion. It makes me excited for the future of the class.
So, if you fit any of the descriptions above (college student, young person, single, married, Chinese…) I hope you’ll join us. Add your wisdom and grace to our group. Help us shape the future of First United Methodist Church, Broken Arrow.
