Author: The Rev. Andy Greenhow

When people ask what the typical volunteer in children and youth at BMPC is, that person is hard to describe. They range in age from 9 to 98. They’ve been connected to the church for their entire lives or for just a few months. Some have formal backgrounds as educators or pastors, and others are still looking in the table of contents to find books of the Bible.

There are the stalwart volunteers who commit to a particular role and lead every week, with rare exception, and the volunteers who fill in during an emergency.

There are the discipling volunteers who commit to a particular student or small group and walk with them through the year.

There are the behind-the-scenes volunteers who are prepping, tending, and putting things in action.

There are those who come early to set up spaces, and those who stay late to check in with a particular family or student.

There are the teachers who are comfortable at the front of the classroom and the ones who make sure everyone has the supplies they need, hanging out on the side or in the back of the room, making everything run smoothly.

There are the volunteers who are always ready for a game or a surprise, and those who have their lesson plans memorized before class begins.

We have volunteers who are up with the most recent slang, movies, and episodes of Bluey, and others who are happy to learn about the current culture from our students.

There are the volunteers who love a good art project and the ones who endure them.

There are volunteers who respond to a text a few minutes into the worship service to help in a classroom, and others who have their schedule worked out a year in advance.

We are grateful for these volunteers who show up every week and bring themselves, just as they are, for young people in the church; for these volunteers who are willing to teach what they know and share their wisdom, who are willing to learn something new alongside a young person, and who are willing to learn something new from a young person.

We are grateful for these volunteers who embody the variety of gifts that we all have to bring and that make up the body of Christ. Meaning, they teach the rest of us that if you feel a little too wiggly to sit in worship every Sunday, there’s still a lot you can contribute to the life of the church.

We are grateful for these volunteers who don’t try to fix the intensity, candor, or curiosity that young people bring, who are able to hold the tough questions they’re asked, who, in so doing, are in real community with young people.

Our programs would not be possible without these incredible people sharing their time, energy, love, and faith with our children and youth. You create the foundation and the framework that allow our students to continue building the church Christ calls us to be.

Thank you. And if you want to be part of this team next year, let us know!

This Sunday, May 3, is a celebratory day for young people in the church at three different pivotal ages, and I hope you can be there to support them.

During 10:00 a.m. worship, 5th graders will receive their own hymnals and then “step up” into the youth program. They’ll attend their last-ever children’s moment, then walk out with the youth who will welcome them to the gym and to the next step in their lives as young people walking in faith. I’ve loved getting to know the 5^th-grade class this year, and I’m looking forward to them being in my care in the years ahead. I cannot wait to see the future that God is preparing for them.

For our confirmands, this Sunday’s Confirmation Expo is the chance for them to show off their capstone discipleship projects. They have spent the last year wrestling with the big questions of the faith, connecting with each other, and developing relationships with caring adults like their mentors and teachers (special shoutouts to Kathy Fisher, Michael Giampetroni, and Ariel Gonzalez!). The session will examine them this Sunday and then, should the way be clear, vote to extend membership to the class. Before and after 10:00 a.m. worship, you will have the chance to review their discipleship projects and ask them questions. They’re an engaging group, and I hope you take the time to get to know them and show them the sort of caring, supportive, and inquisitive church community they’re joining.

Finally, during the children’s moment, Pastor Rachel and I will pray for all the seniors by name as they move on to the next phase of their lives. As you saw on Youth Sunday, our seniors are impressive, and I cannot wait to see where they will go next and what they will do.

In each of these cases – 5th-grade hymnals and Step-Up, the Confirmation Expo, and senior recognition – there is a chance for us to fulfill the vows made to these young people at their baptism. In various ways, we have a chance this Sunday to raise these young people in the nurture and teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ and to be the community that gathers around them. I hope you can join us!

When this date for the pastor’s column first came up, I wanted to write about why youth should register for the Montreat Summer Youth Conference, the deadline for which is this Sunday. And they should do that! But I’m calling an audible. Melanie Hardison is being installed this Sunday at 4:00 p.m., and I want to tell you what it means to be installed as a pastor from my perspective as the last person to be installed as a pastor at BMPC.

From one perspective, the installation of a pastor is a bit of administrivia, the fulfilling of all righteousness with our partners in the Presbytery of Philadelphia. And sure, that’s true. There is nothing innate that changes as a result of a pastoral installation – my work with youth wasn’t different before and after my installation. It formalizes a thing that’s already true and, in that way, it’s easy to dismiss.

But I do think there is something special that happens at these services. At my installation in September, my dear friends Vincent Kolb and John Francis came to preach and to sing. They got to meet you all, and you all got to meet them. The installation commission was made up of diverse people from the Presbytery, from my own vocational life, and from this congregation. This mashup of places, spaces, and times led to a sense that we were really finally getting to know each other. The initial awkwardness of mixed company gave way to small-world moments, personality insights, and a-ha realizations about why we are the way we are and why we are such a good match for each other.

Don’t go to Melanie’s installation service this Sunday because you think something magical will happen or because you think you should. Go because it will help you see who she is and how she will be your Associate Pastor for Congregational Care. Go because you’ll see how connected we are and how small the world is. Go to see what makes this such a remarkable community.

Also, youth, please register for Montreat by Sunday. Pretty please!

This Sunday, February 8, is Youth Sunday, and since December, the BMPC youth have been hard at work dreaming, praying, planning, learning, and writing. Youth Sunday at BMPC is a high holy day, and they can feel it. These are extraordinary young people, and I am so proud of them.

A month ago, I met with the preachers – Peter McConnell, Finley McGuirl, Andrew Quigley, and Elizabeth Rothman – to discuss their initial ideas and desired scripture passages from which to preach. They did their best work, and so did the Holy Ghost, by which I mean a theme emerged almost immediately: God is with us. God is with us in worship and music, in our various identities, in our suffering, and wherever we go from here.

From that theme, the middle and high school Sunday school classes got to work throughout January, writing the call to worship, an affirmation of faith, pastoral prayer, and prayers of dedication and illumination. Our Wednesday night Student Serve crew wrote the prayer of confession and met with James Kealey to select hymns and anthems that would support this central message.

Meanwhile, the preachers got together every Wednesday to run their sermons, offer each other supportive feedback, and find their voices in the pulpits of the chapel and sanctuary. They met with John Willingham to learn more about the task and craft of preaching every single Sunday. Last night was our dress rehearsal, and they are ready.

I’m going to repeat myself: the youth of this church are extraordinary young people, and I am so proud of them.

Come to worship this Sunday to support them, to learn from them, and to meditate on all the ways God is with you.

There is one more thing: The youth specifically asked to sing “Crowded Table” by The Highwomen, which has become one of their favorite songs over the last several years. And so, it will be our offertory anthem at the 10:00 a.m. service this Sunday. If you love this song (you should!) and want to sing it, join the one-time-only Youth Sunday Mass Choir. We are rehearsing in the sanctuary at 9:20 a.m. on Sunday, and we would love to have you.

Dear God, source of all things, seen and unseen, your people are gathering to celebrate and give thanks.

Some of us are gathering with family, and so we give thanks for parents, grandparents, children, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, siblings, and cousins. We give you thanks for our familial bonds, and for the way we learn to see and love ourselves in the love we find among family. Comfort those among us for whom time with family is painful. Heal the wounds of estrangement and empower processes of reconciliation through forgiveness and repentance.

Some of us are gathering with friends, and so we give thanks for the family we choose. We give you thanks for those bonds in which we are free to be ourselves and to keep only the best parts of the traditions. Strengthen the bonds of community among friends.

Some of us are not gathering with anyone. We give you thanks that you are found chiefly among the widow and widower, the friendless, the outcast, and the lonely. Empower us to enfold all your people. Enrich our communities through the reintegration of those who have been cast out.

Some of us are gathering but find little to celebrate. We are mindful of the complicated origins of this holiday – empower us in our convictions to find reasons for gratitude. We are mindful of those who celebrate without loved ones who have died or who have been disappeared – empower us in our grief and heartbrokenness to heal your world. We are mindful of retail, service, travel, and hospitality workers working on the holiday – empower us in our solidarity to be kind… and to leave big tips!

We ask you, the one who became incarnate in the midst of all these things, to give us a spirit of gratitude and thanksgiving. Amen.

This Sunday, September 14, at 10:00 a.m. in the Gym, is Youth Kickoff. It’s a chance for 6^th to 12^th graders and their families to hear about events in the year ahead, play games together, meet the caring adults who will be looking out for the youth this year, and for adults to sign all the necessary paperwork. I won’t want to pontificate more than necessary at Youth Kickoff, so I think I’ll use this venue to share a bit about my hopes for the BMPC youth program – and for us.

Many of us will remember exactly where we were 24 years ago today. It is hard to believe that there can be people with their own ideas, dreams, ambitions, and opinions who weren’t even born yet on that day, but that’s our youth. They have only ever known the world after 9/11, with all the fear and uncertainty that we as adults feel and unwittingly impart to them.

Likewise, you may remember where you were when the early adopter in your friend group showed you their smartphone. I remember my friend Mark showing me an app – what is an app? – that could listen to music and tell you what song was playing. They changed everything, and our youth have only ever known a world where adults are buried in their phones.

Finally, our youth have spent at least half of their life in the political and social realignment that began in 2016. For those of us with longer time horizons, the normalization of violent rhetoric, which we saw again this week, will inevitably lead to acts of political violence, feels brand new. But for our youth, it is a fact of life – it has always been this way.

So, what does that mean for the youth program at BMPC? My prayer is that youth at BMPC spend time with caring adults who try hard to set aside their own fears and uncertainties and instead center the ideas, dreams, ambitions, and opinions of the youth. I pray that the BMPC youth ministry models something like an analog community, where people are present with each other and hang in there with each other, even when it would be much easier to escape into our phones. And I pray that the BMPC youth ministry is a place of peace, where the ambient violence of our culture is kept at bay.

I’m looking forward to kicking off another year on Sunday at 10:00 a.m. Join us!

Early this Sunday morning, nine youth and three adults will hit the road for Charlotte, North Carolina, for this year’s youth mission trip with our partners at CROSS Missions. Throughout the week, these young people will have the opportunity to meet people completely different from themselves, serve their neighbors, grow in their own faith, and develop community with one another.

When I think back to my own experiences of mission trips as a young person, I have very little recollection about what good I was able to do for others. I’m sure I painted something or poured some concrete – did I assemble pews at one point? More than any of that, I remember meeting new people from totally different contexts who challenged my past understandings of the world around me.

These trips helped me understand that God’s world was so much bigger than I could imagine. That God had created a world filled with diverse people, with vastly different experiences, in wildly divergent cultures – and that God loved and was in the midst of all of it. Having encountered all of this, I could then imagine something of the love God had for me.

When these youth return from Charlotte, ask them who they met, where they saw God, and what they know now about how God is operating in their own lives as a result. They’ll do good for others, sure, but more than that, they’ll encounter God at the edge of their own understanding of the world God has created. Thank you for keeping us in your prayers.

Earlier this spring, I went on a mini-retreat with a group of high schoolers to start considering spirituality in college and beyond. I gave them three questions to wrestle with throughout the day, questions that I think are core to faith development in emerging adulthood.

Who are you?

Who are you in God?

Who are you in community?

It won’t surprise you to learn that their engagement with these questions was thoughtful, engaging, and enlightening, and I’ve been thinking since then that these aren’t just questions for young people going forth into the world. These are good questions for us all to wrestle with as things change in our own lives.

Diagnoses, job changes, deaths of loved ones, relocations, changes in our communities: these are all good times to ask again, “Who am I? Who am I in God? And who am I in community?”

The school year is coming to an end. Seniors are moving on to the next phase of their lives. Their lives are very much in flux, but so are ours. So, during this graduation season, I thought I’d reprise the prayer I offered in worship a few weeks ago, which is adapted from a prayer for leaving home in Call on Me: A Prayer Book for Young People by Jenifer Gamber and Sharon Ely Pearson. Let this be a prayer of blessing for seniors, and for us, as we all discern who we are in God and in community.

God of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Leah, and Rachel, you call us to new and sometimes unknown places with the promise of a full life through your grace and mercy.

We pray today for those leaving home for a new place. Empower our bodies, minds, and spirits to receive this new journey, and give us a spirit of anticipation and delight.

Take away all the fear of the unknown, for whatever lies ahead, for you will be with us.

We pray that you sharpen our ears to hear your call. Clear our eyes to see your path. Strengthen our hands to do your service.

Protect us from the perils of this world. Grant us wisdom to make good choices. Fortify our faith to take risks to do your work.

As we leave this familiar place, help us continue to grow in love and service to you.

We make this prayer of many names, in the name of your son, Jesus, who was born, who grew up in a faith community, who left home. Amen.