National Youth Sunday is in early May and provides congregations the chance to experience and celebrate the faith and creativity of their youth within the context of worship. In other words, it’s a chance for youth to “take over” worship from the adults, offering their own perspectives and leadership in many forms.
Registration for FaithX (formerly the Workcamp Ministry) will open this Monday, March 15, at 10 a.m. (Central time). The registration form can be found at www.brethren.org/faithx.
A calendar of online events for youth and young adults has been announced by the Church of the Brethren’s Youth and Young Adult ministry. The events were shared in a letter from director Becky Ullom Naugle to youth advisors and pastors (https://mailchi.mp/brethren.org/youth-young-adult-ministry-2021). Information also is being shared via Facebook at www.facebook.com/BrethrenYYA.
With COVID-19 concerns still looming large, we are not able to meet on the Bridgewater (Va.) College campus as usual for Roundtable 2021–the annual regional youth conference hosted by the Interdistrict Youth Cabinet at Bridgewater College. We have had to pivot to a new idea for Roundtable in order to reach the most youth and still provide a fun, meaningful experience in person and online.
The Youth and Young Adult Ministry has launched a new initiative called the Youth Fellowship Exchange, which aims at providing pandemic-safe fellowship opportunities to youth from all over the country. Free and fun, youth groups can find renewed energy for forming relationships and engaging with “the other.” In a time when opportunities for cross-congregational fellowship are limited, this is a fresh and easy activity.
The tagline for the Church of the Brethren is “Continuing the Work of Jesus. Peacefully. Simply. Together.” Because of COVID-19, the “together” part for the 2020 National Young Adult Conference presented a difficulty in our ability to create a sense of community. Young adult conference favorite activities include playing late-night board games, singing hymns and campfire songs, gathering for meals, dissecting the scripture in messages and in small groups, and generally just being together.
Seven interns are serving as a part of Ministry Summer Service (MSS) despite alterations to the program due to COVID-19. Instead of meeting in-person for a week-long orientation and then spending nine weeks serving alongside a ministry mentor in a local setting, interns are meeting weekly for education, formation, and fellowship sessions via video conference. Interns offer leadership to their home congregations, as possible given local COVID-19 guidelines where they live, or to another congregation through technology.
Two days before George Floyd’s murder, National Young Adult Conference (NYAC) participants gathered to watch Drew Hart present on the systemic racism that was about to once again become front-page news. But for far too many of us in the church, particularly those of us who are white, it is all too easy to ignore when it doesn’t dominate the headlines.
By Hannah Shultz The Workcamp office is excited to announce that we will be holding seven weeks of virtual workcamps this summer! Virtual workcamps will be held from 4-5 p.m. (Eastern time) every Monday from June 22 to Aug. 3. Each week will focus on one of the daily themes from our workcamp devotional book.
By Linetta Ballew “Love is something if you give it away, give it away, give it away.Love is something if you give it away, you end up having more.It’s just like a magic penny, hold it tight, and you won’t have any.Lend it, spend it, and you’ll have so many, they’ll roll all over the
