The Word

Micah 6:8 – For what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God?

Down the River

As spring turns to summer, you decide to take a nice long walk outside. The sun is shining. You walk through the park, smell the blooming flowers, bask in the shade of the trees. You decide to walk over to the riverfront to cool off, and you notice something in the water flowing downstream. What could that be? You take a closer look and… is that a puppy? What the heck?! You jump in and grab the puppy as it floats downstream and you yell for help. Someone comes over and tends to the needs of the puppy, another pets it, and yet another feeds the puppy. Someone else looks for future care, housing, family. What a stressful moment! Thank God that’s over with.

Until…

Someone notices another puppy in the river. You pull the puppy out and repeat the pattern of care. And then another. And another. Soon, more and more puppies are floating downstream and the whole town has come to pull them out. They are caring for them as fast as they can. The patterns of care begins to get organized. Donations come in, rules regarding care get put in place, volunteers come from around the area to help.

As everyone busies themselves in the rescue efforts, a few townsfolk start to run away, up along the shore of the river. “Where are you going?” you shout, “We need everyone’s help to save these puppies!”

“We are going upstream to find out why this is happening and stop whoever is throwing them in.”

What does the Lord require of you?

This story is a way to begin to think about the differences between justice and charity. Charity is the meeting of immediate needs – rescuing and caring for the puppies floating down the river. Food banks, shelters, donations of clothing and assistance with other actions needed to maintain life in our communities. This is necessary work in the world we live in. With rampant systemic inequality, there are a lot of needs to be met and people to help. Justice is working to change the system. Finding out why these puppies are floating downstream in the first place. Looking at policies and legislation and systems in place that are creating these immense divides and inequities. How can we advocate for change to ensure that people’s rights are protected, and their needs are met – before they float downstream in the first place?

Many faith communities do amazing charity work, meeting immediate needs in their communities. Again, this is important and necessary. But what would it look like if more churches took up the fight for justice? If people of faith joined together as a collective voice for equity, for peace, for sustainability, for love? What if they used some of the resources, the connections, the stories, the relationships made from providing these direct services to inform their work in advocacy and justice?

Do Justice.

In July of 2018, I began the ELCA Hunger Advocacy Fellowship. This fellowship comes from a partnership between ELCA World Hunger, ELCA Advocacy, and statewide public policy offices across the United States. It’s a 12-month program that combines leadership development with impactful advocacy – working together to end hunger and poverty by engaging directly with local, state and national governments, and equipping people of faith to seek justice and equity. There are 6 of us around the United States this year! My placement for this fellowship has been at Faith Action Network, an interfaith advocacy nonprofit in Seattle that works in coalition with individuals and faith communities from a multitude of different faith traditions and backgrounds. We fight for justice, we advocate to and for our neighbors, and we walk together in solidarity.

ELCA World Hunger Fellows 2018-2019

Through this fellowship, I’ve learned about community organizing, creating connections, and leading meetings. A lot of our work culminated during the Washington state legislative session – I did outreach and research, watched committee hearings, analyzed and tracked legislation, and encouraged folks across the state to take action on important bills and legislation. I’ve attended rallies and marches, met with elected officials both in Washington state and congressional folks in Washington DC, and spoken at youth gatherings on the importance of advocacy. I’ve lead workshops and adult education hours on social change and how a bill becomes a law. I’ve gotten to see faith communities literally practicing what they preach – loving their neighbors by fighting for change. I’ve seen churches and people of faith have a voice in advocacy. I’ve gotten to see real change take place along the way.

Love Mercy, Walk Humbly.

This year has been a breath of fresh air. I have seen kindness and love pour from the hearts of so many people working to enact policies that’ll protect and bring life to those around them. Laws and policy can protect and preserve, ignore and neglect, empower and inspire, suppress and marginalize. Creating policy from a point of love and care can be the key difference between these dichotomies.

Sarah participating in public action with her Fellowship placement site.

Humility is often regarded as putting yourself below others, but I think humility can also be the simple understanding that no one can do this alone. There is much work to be done, and we must work together. This fellowship has been transformative in my understanding of justice, love, and humility. The church can be a powerful voice for change in our world, to help others. To humbly walk up the riverfront, working to change the systems that create inequalities. I hope you will take up this call to advocacy and justice as well. Together let us go to the river – a collective voice shouting for change.

Sarah with colleagues from her Fellowship site in Washington State

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There are many placements for the fellowship this upcoming year! If you want to learn how to speak out for change, how to move people of faith to care for one another, to fight for policies and legislation that will make this planet a better (and/or livable) place to be, please apply here:

ELCA Job Board

Reflection Questions:

1. Where do you see charity or justice being done in your community? In your community of faith?
2. What was a time you participated in / received each of these (charity and justice)?
3.  Sarah shared a passage that is meaningful to her, Micah 6:8. How do you understand God’s call to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly in your own context?
4.  What are some other passages / quotes / texts / songs that inspire you to listen to / work alongside / care for your community?
5. What are some specific gifts YOU bring to the world? How might you “humbly walk up the river” with those gifts to address the root causes of issues in your community?
6. How do you hear the Spirit calling you into the community inside and outside the church today?

Sarah is the Hunger Advocacy Fellow at Faith Action Network this year. Growing up in the Seattle area, she has a deep love for the northwest, and continues to fight for legislation to improve her state for everyone in it. After four summers working at Flathead Lutheran Bible Camp in Montana, and a year in South Africa with Young Adults in Global Mission, this Fellowship has helped her discern her next step to begin law school in the fall! She’ll study public interest law at Gonzaga School of Law. Sarah’s passionate about intersectional feminism, comedy, playing the cello, the Good Place, Carly Rae Jepsen, strong coffee, hoppy IPAs, and sour candy.

What Was?

Throughout my youth, I was very involved in the church. In my home congregation, I regularly served as an usher and a worship assistant. I was very active in our youth group. As high school went on, I became heavily involved in the Delaware-Maryland synod Lutheran Youth Organization (LYO) and spent many weekends during the school year at church retreats or meetings. During these times my faith grew deeply as the many resources and support networks for youth in the church helped me to explore my questions and doubts about faith. I deeply loved the community of faith in which I felt a sense of belonging and acceptance from my peers.

What’s Possible?

Then, I graduated from high school and asked myself the question, “What’s next?” While I knew that I would still have the network of friends and mentors who had supported my faith development, I also recognized that my graduation meant that I was no longer a “Youth” of the church. Instead, I was a “Young Adult” of the church.

Other than campus ministries, I didn’t know what networks or resources existed to support young adults in the church. I had always seen many more active youth in the church than active young adults, and I wasn’t sure what sense of community existed for other young adults in the church. I knew of many friends who had not remained as active in the church as they transitioned from being a youth to a young adult, but I knew that I wanted to continue to be as active with my faith as possible.

What’s Next?

I moved into college and started going to the weekly student services of the Lutheran Campus Ministry at University of Maryland. There I discovered a world of opportunities for young adults like me to experience love and support in church communities. In campus ministry, I’ve been encouraged to explore questions and grow in faith with the small, loving group of 30 or so students that regularly gather together for dinner and worship.

The Humble Walk: Lutheran Campus Ministry at UMD

Students from The Humble Walk gather at the end of the semester

Over the past year and a half, I’ve also been blessed with the opportunities for spiritual growth and discernment in the loving and supportive community of Practice Discipleship, a Young Adult Ministry of the Delaware-Maryland synod. In this community, I’ve come to realize that my fears in the transition from being a youth to a young adult of the church are not unique to me.

Every spring, Practice Discipleship hosts a retreat of young adults in our synod. In addition, Practice Discipleship hosts opportunities for community service and fellowship for young adults. Recetly we spent fellowship time with our Bishop playing board games and eating pizza at our synod office.

The Delaware – Maryland Synod Young Adult Group gathers for pizza and fellowship

What’s the Word?

A passage of scripture that has been especially meaningful to me in my experiences with young adult ministries is found in Matthew 18, where Jesus says:

“For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am also.”

In this passage, I’ve come to realize that the continuity between communities of youth I was a part of and the communities of young adults that I belong to now. It is the presence of Christ in those communities. With Christ present and active in the communities that we belong to, we are empowered to live as disciples of Christ in whatever our daily contexts we experience as young adults.

As it is recorded in Romans 12:

“For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”

Discussion Questions:

1) Where is young adult ministry happening in your community? Your congregation? Your synod?

2) How does your ministry context present a welcoming environment to young adults?

3) Can you think of any obstacles preventing young adults from getting involved within your community? How can your community be inclusive to the various gifts and backgrounds that young adults bring to ministry contexts?

4) How can you connect graduating youth in your context to a young adult ministry?

Adam is a sophomore at the University of Maryland, where he studies History and Spanish. His home congregation is Grace Lutheran Church in Westminster, MD. At UMD, he serves as a Resident Assistant and on the leadership team of Lutheran Campus Ministry. He’s also a member of the congregational council of Hope Lutheran Church and Student Center. He is passionate about community development, service, and interfaith work. In his free time, Adam enjoys to exercise, read, and travel.

We Show Up

In November I attended the first ELCA Young Adult Discernment Retreat. This retreat was an incredible opportunity to find a rare space of reflection, prayer, and worship with peers, and a space to be ministered to. With what feels like decreasing numbers in the ELCA young adult demographic, it may be surprising that young adults have an interest in gathering together to discern in community. I have some news for you: young adults show up! With over 50 of us in attendance and the wait list in the hundreds, young adults throughout the ELCA sent a message: If you make the space, we will come.

Young Adults at the first ELCA Young Adult Discernment Retreat.

Info from the first ELCA Young Adult Discernment Retreat.

The Word

…When Esther’s words were reported to Mordecai, he sent back this answer: “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”…(Esther 4:12-14)

A Season Of Hope

When I heard this reading for the Second Sunday of Advent, I reflected on my time at the Young Adult Discernment Retreat and I was filled with so much hope. Each of us, like Esther, came to our position “for such a time as this”. And like Esther’s faith community, the young adults of the ELCA came together in support of one another in holy community for the sake of the world. The peers I was surrounded by are ready to be leaders. The space to discern our next most faithful step was vital to stewarding those gifts of leadership. If we remain silent, change will come but we won’t be part of it. We were created on purpose for this moment, in this time, in our unique positionality, and we need “Mordecais” in our life to remind of us of our call. My hope is rooted in the sound of this reminder resonating with the 50 young adults I was surrounded by and our peers around the world.

Young Adults at the discernment retreat being anointed for service in the world!

Savanna Sullivan, the Program Director for ELCA Young Adult Ministries, addressed the attendees of the retreat as “prophetic young leaders”. This was my first “Mordecai moment”. God is speaking through young people and it’s time to listen. The second came as another attendee shared her writing during our final worship together:

When I think about call, I think about Hagar
the runaway slave-girl turned single mother.
The most vulnerable in her community
When the angel of the Lord comes to call her he asks her two questions.
Where do you come from and where are you going?

So I asked myself, where do I come from?
I am standing on the shoulders of those who stood up for me.
Ancestors, mentors, teachers, friends.
I am standing on the shoulders of those who stood up for me.

So I asked myself, where am I going?
I am called to stand tall so others can stand on me
because like Hagar in Genesis 16:13,
I have seen the One who sees me.
(Claire Embil)

A Season of Action

My identity as a young person in the church has been particularly salient to me lately. It’s hard not to feel strength in identities that hold less power when reading Claire’s words. Young people need a place in our church and we need young people to be in positions of agency to create those spaces.

Last month I was nominated for a position on my congregation’s Vision Team (Church Council). This is my opportunity to ask “Who’s not at our table” and take steps to create opportunities for all people to show up as their fullest self. This doesn’t stop with age. As I looked around our retreat, I saw a room full of God’s people across all identities that are ready to be “prophetic young leaders”. I have to trust that God is preparing our church to be ready for us.

Discussion Questions:

1. How did the season of Advent bring hope into your life?
2. How can you better ask “Who’s not at our table”? What’s the best way to invite them?
3. Who are the “Mordecais” in your life? What are they saying?
4. How can you better create space to listen to young people share new ideas?

Daniel serves as a lay leader for children’s ministry at New Heights Lutheran Church and is an active member of the South-Central Synod of Wisconsin – ELCA Youth & Family Ministry Network. He is a gymnastics coach, a substitute teacher and spends his spare time playing nerdy board games. Daniel has been a part of several different ministries’ strategic planning efforts and finds joy in dreaming with organizations about systemic ways to be radically welcoming.

The Word

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God…” (Romans 12: 2)

“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest? He said to him, “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind,’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Matthew 22: 36-38)
___

Kyle’s Story

I turned 18 in the summer of 2008, as the race for the presidency echoed on every newsstand and network. That fall, on one rainy September afternoon, Obama’s calls for hope & change rang across my small college campus, where 26,000 gathered to watch him speak. Street corners burst with signage for national and local political leaders. I spent hours watching debates, reading articles and having conversations with my classmates, all in preparation to cast my first ballot.

As is the case with many young people, most of my voting has been done by absentee ballot as my schedule often finds me away from home on Election Day. I still feel a surge of pride when I drop my ballot in the mailbox. I am grateful for the opportunity to be part of something bigger than myself. However, voting in person provides a visceral connection to this imperative responsibility of being a citizen. We walk or drive or bike through our neighborhoods on the way to the polls, passing those affected by the policies that we elect individuals to uphold or reform. Scripture tells us that whatever we do unto the least of these, we do unto Christ himself. In this way of seeing, we immerse ourselves in a community where Christ is our neighbor. We must not look away.

Called to Renew Our Minds

We are called in faith to be active, informed participants in the communities of our lives – our churches, our neighborhoods, our country and our world. When Jesus charges his disciples to love their neighbors as themselves, he asks us to consider the neighbors that don’t look like us, or speak like us, or attend the same churches as us. The gospels constantly remind us that the community, the KINdom of God, is vaster than we allow ourselves to imagine. We are called to constantly be “transformed by the renewing of our minds”. To me, this renewing looks like a call to pray & discern, to do our research, to become informed about the issues that impact our neighbors here and abroad.

Luke, a former Lutheran Outdoor Ministries staff member and LVC volunteer, participates with Kyle and #elcayoungadults in #elcavotes by answering the question “Remember the first time you voted?”

Sarah, a YAGM alum and ELCA Hunger Advocacy Fellow, participates with Kyle and #elcayoungadults in #elcavotes by answering the question “Remember the first time you voted?”

Lifting Our Voices, Lifting Our Votes

The privilege to vote is one of the most active ways we as people of faith can take our hopes and prayers for the world outside the church walls. When we open our eyes to the concerns of our communities, listen to those whose voices are marginalized by political systems and consider the way our government impacts individuals, we are striving to be the type of neighbor Jesus describes in Matthew’s Gospel. Repeatedly throughout the gospels, Jesus challenges assumptions about the disciples’ roles in community, calling to their attention the ways they can step outside their personal circles to be better servants in the world. Still today, Jesus challenges our assumptions and calls us out into the world every day.

Study, listen, pray, discern, lift your voice, and lift your vote – the world needs it.

Discussion Questions:
1. Have you taken time to listen for the Holy Spirit in your life lately?

2. How are you making space for the Holy in your daily life?

3. How are you actively engaged in your community, locally & nationally? How is your church or ministry engaged in the community outside its walls?

4. How do you understand the relationship between your faith and your vote? Why?

5. Do you have a voting plan? Make time this week to read up on your midterm ballot initiatives and candidates.

Kyle Lefler serves as the Program Coordinator at Flathead Lutheran Bible Camp in Lakeside, MT. Her work at FLBC includes overseeing year round retreat programming, onsite summer camp operations & making sure all the ice cream in the canteen is fit to sell, among other things. Kyle is passionate about working with young people in God’s Creation and striving to create intentional community spaces where they are unconditionally loved & accepted, empowered & advocated for. She loves early morning lake swims, handwritten letters & the Avett Brothers.

The Word

Isaiah 55: 1-5

Ho, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and you that have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
² Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
³ Incline your ear, and come to me;
listen, so that you may live.
I will make with you an everlasting covenant,
my steadfast, sure love for David.
⁴ See, I made him a witness to the peoples,
a leader and commander for the peoples.
⁵ See, you shall call nations that you do not know,
and nations that do not know you shall run to you,
because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel,
for he has glorified you.

A Place for You

I have to constantly remind myself, “There is a place for you within the Church.” A few years back I was entering a suburban Lutheran church for worship. I had never attended that church before.  I didn’t know anyone, and I did little to no research. I only knew that close to where I was staying there was a Lutheran Church and service started at 9 am. As I made my trek in this seemly normal Sunday I was confronted with why I have the reminder: “There is a place for me.” As I arrived at the threshold a congregant informed me that this wasn’t the Baptist Church, and the Baptist Church was not located far away. I assume my dark melanin skin warranted this halt and questioning of my place within their space.  I kindly informed the person I was aware that this was a Lutheran Church and I was indeed there for service. I took the bulletin and sat down repeating the mantra I learned to grasp close in times of adversity, “There is a place for you.”

While our experiences vary, feelings of inadequacy, uncertainty, trepidation, and unwelcomeness hit us all at points when we cross the threshold or sit in the pew. I am here to tell you, “There is a place for you within the folds of the Church.”  The Church is not a set of independent buildings, but an assembly of ALL Gods People. The Church is a place for the people on the margins peering in.  The Church is a place for the people whose identities don’t necessarily coincide with what is “normal”.  The Church is a home for everyone with a fire and desire to walk through the doors.

A Place for All

The 55^th chapter of Isaiah boldly invites everyone who is thirsty, hungry, and poor not only into the Church but to the waters of abundant life. This inclusive invitation is given to seemly normal people who come from all walks of life, whose hunger is deeper than the pits of their stomach, whose thirst cannot be quenched with mere water, and whose lack of riches is not monetary but spiritual. This invitation is extended to people regardless their color, sexual orientation, gender, socio-economic status and political preference. The chapter is the covenant made between Christ and us.  It is a display of God’s unyielding grace and compassion.

Jesus’s arms are outstretched for all who are weary, discouraged, broken, thirsty or in need of something more. There is a place for you even when we don’t think there is. The Church is made on the pillars of sinners, saints, believers, skeptics, and everyone in between. “There is a place for you,” because Christ is the place. Christ invites a shell of a person with their stuff, their baggage, and their brokenness. We are then called to carry our stuff to God and unload because then we are forgiven. Regardless of where we are in life, who we are, what we do, and how we act there is a place for you. You are perfectly imperfect and you are a child of God.

An Open Invitation

So, the next time you are confronted with difficulty, uneasiness, and doubt I want you to know that you do not stand alone. Behind you stands the Assembly of the Church, a kaleidoscope of hues and shapes that are the People of God. I want you to know that the doubt will pass with the waves of life and calm will prevail. I want you to know that nestled in the book of Isaiah there is an open invitation to come to worship God as you are. I want you to know that “There is a place for you.” Just as I found my place in that pew unapologetically so many years ago, I hope you find yours.

Discussion Questions

1. What time have you felt that you did not belong? How did you handle it? Did you leave the situation?
2. Where is God amidst this trial and tribulation?
3. Where do you see your place within the Church?
4. How can you tell others they are needed in the Church?

Blog author Ralen Robinson is a Seminary student at United Lutheran Seminary at Philadelphia seeking a call to be an ordained minister. She is currently interning at the Lutheran Church of the Holy Communion and offering chaplaincy at major hospital in Philadelphia, PA. Ralen believes faith and a good pair of heels can take you a long way.

I was born into a dying church.

My parents and grandparents were born into a wider church in the United States that was growing and thriving, but for as long as I can remember the mainline church in this country has been dying.

A story that always helps me frame this reality is found in Mark 5: 21-43.

The Word

In this passage, a man – Jairus –  tells Jesus that his daughter is dying and Jesus goes with him to his house. On the way, a member of Jairus’s house comes and tells Jesus and Jairus that his daughter has died.

Jesus says. “Do not be afraid, just believe.”

When Jesus got to the place where the little girl was, he insisted that the child was “not dead, but asleep”. Jesus took her by the hand and said “Little girl, get up!”.

And she did.

Young Adults at the annual Lutheran Student Movement meeting over New Years

The Reality

I wonder if Jesus might say the same about our church right now. I wonder if he would say that, though dying, we are not dead – but asleep.

It seems poignant that the character in the story who is raised from the dead is a little girl. Her youth and gender made her pretty voiceless in society, but Jesus works through her to perform one of his greatest miracles. Jesus shows us that her story is important.

I don’t for a minute believe that it’s coincidence.

It’s almost as if God knew we’d need the stories and voices of young people to upend the power structures and assumptions of the world. It’s almost as if the stories of the young are presented over and over in the Bible because God knew we’d need them to discover the truth about ourselves and God and the world around us.

It’s as if God knew young people can help the church “get up”.

Volunteers with the ELCA Young Adults in Global Mission Program

The Response

That’s why I’m excited about this blog.

The Young Adults of this church have stories to tell. The Young Adults of the ELCA have stories about this church – of love and lament, of death and resurrection. We have stories about God – of knowing and doubt. We have stories about ourselves – of discovery and rejection and fervent hope.

We have stories of faith.

Historically, the voices of young people have been quashed by the power of institutions and folks who are “more established” and who “know better”, but I hope and believe that the ELCA, like Jesus, believes that the Spirit of God shows up just as fully in the young as the not-so-young.

So this blog will be a place that young people can share their stories. A place where they can help the church wake up. I hope that these stories help equip young adult groups and not-so-young adult groups with material for further theological reflection, conversation, and prayer.

Faye, a young adult and 2018 Summer Intern with ELCA Global Church Sponsorship

Graduated members of Lutheran Campus Ministry at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Each post will include a story from a Young Adult, a bible passage, and some reflection questions or links to more educational materials.

The Call

Young people associated with the ELCA today found their way into a church in decline. They have never seen an institutional church that was growing, thriving, and fearless.

But it was also Jesus who said in John 20:29, “Because you have seen, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

So many Young Adults believe in the ministry of this church in all its fullness, even if they have never seen it. They believe in a radical God who recognizes the church isn’t dead, but a God who also won’t leave us asleep.

Join Young Adult Ministries in this blog and on Facebook, twitter, and Instagram @ELCAYoungAdults to hear God speak new life through the stories of young people.

Come hear the stories of young adults who, with Jesus, are calling us – the church – to “get up”.

– Savanna

Bible Passages:

Mark 5: 21 – 43

John 20:29

Processing Questions:

1. Where have you seen death and new life in your community? Ministry context? In your own life?
2. What are some stories of young people in the Bible that have inspired you? What is meaningful about them? What about stories of young people in your life or the wider world?
3. What do you hear God saying in the Bible about the contribution of young people to ministry?
4. What do you hear God saying about your contribution to God’s family and church?
5. In what ways so you think the church needs to “get up”? How have you vocalized / acted on that? How have your actions been met by others in the church or the world around you?

Savanna is Program Director for ELCA Young Adult Ministries at the ELCA Churchwide Office in Chicago, IL. She has given workshops and presentations around the country to ELCA and ecumenical groups about Young Adult culture and empowerment in the church. She recently spoke at the 2018 ELCA Youth Gathering in Houston, TX. She is passionate about helping young people seek the Divine in themselves and pushing the church to equip, amplify, and respect the voices of young leaders. She loves banana pudding, the Clemson tigers, and memorizing poems.