I had a great experience last night with the youth of our church.  I was invited to join the United Methodist Youth Fellowship for a “Meet the New Pastor” program.  The first part of the program was set aside for the youth to ask me questions on any topic. Our youth directors, Scott and Lisa, were ready to jump in with some pre-planned questions if we were  met with total silence – questions like “What is your favorite pizza?” 

We didn’t need them.  The youth immediately jumped in and asked some very deep and thoughtful questions.  “How do you write your sermons?”  “Do you ever have doubts about God?”  “How do you deal with others of different faith traditions or who don’t believe in God at all?”  No questions about my pizza preference at all !  It was very encouraging to hear how articulate and nuanced the questions were from our youth.  That should give all of us adults a dose of much-needed hope for the church!          

The second part of the program was the challenge.  The youth were invited to randomly throw out different words that I would have to include in my sermon this week (Oct 11th).  The suggestions included words like “Jello”, but only five made the final cut (”Jello” was not one of them).  I’m not going to reveal the five words yet; you will have to listen to the sermon and figure them out yourself.   It won’t be easy, but I’ll work them in somehow.  It’s the least I can do for such a bright group of youth.