Church and youth are hot topics - especially when you put them together! In my ministerial group up here in the north, ministers and youth directors alike understand the importance of nurturing youth in our churches. It is synonymous with nurturing growth. And it is commonly known that young people are leaving organized church in record numbers.*
So when the Student Center Foundation asked me to give their keynote address for their Annual Meeting and asked it to be focussed on cherishing youth, I jumped on it. It went beyond finding ways to attract youth to church and directly to appreciating the youth in church today and to see the youthfulness in us all.
If the spiritual qualities behind youth are innovation, energy, progress, and flexibility, then Mary Baker Eddy's definition of church is one of the most youthful definitions of all!**
Madison's Student Foundation Center's Board members did a great job of putting excerpts of the talk on their site. Click here to check it out on their site.
Notes:
*Comments on Barna research; Other studies: ( simply google "why are youth leaving the church" to get over 7,000,000 results)
**CHURCH. The structure of Truth and Love; whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle. he Church is that institution, which affords proof of its utility and is found elevating the race, rousing the dormant understanding from material beliefs to the apprehension of spiritual ideas and the demonstration of divine Science, thereby casting out devils, or error, and healing the sick. (from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy)
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