There was a time when I thought, after each major Christian event, i.e. Christmas and Easter, there would be ‘down time.’ Oh, that is so not true in the life of the church. “Easter comes late this year.” was a statement I heard several times at the beginning of the year. And that may have been true, but there did not seem to be anything late about it. It was here before any of us were ready. Maybe part of that was due to the crazy weather during February and March, or the fact that we are all just too busy with too much to do.
Here we are, it will soon be the first of May and from there confirmation is just days away. You know what they say about confirmation and its participants? Once the youth are confirmed we never see them again. I once hear a pastor say, I should confirm all the bats in the belfry then maybe we won’t see them anymore. As I write this entry into the blog, I am thinking about what we can do to keep the youth encouraged and engaged in the life of HUMC. The word intentional continues to float around in my mind. We must be intentional in reaching out, inviting and engaging these new members to the family. We must support their interests. We must continue to show our love for them at this stage of their lives as much as we did when they were in the early years of our Sunday School program. We cannot let the business of the activities of the church get in our way of continuing to interact with the youth.
My wish for Confirmation Sunday is that all the members of the church will show up and show support for the newest members of the church.
