A parishioner shared a blog entitled “Grow Christians” to pass on to the families who receive our Children and Youth weekly e-mail updates. The title is intriguing, and perhaps so are the images that it conjures up for you. The blog is directed at how families go about living out their faith in their homes in our challenging times. But what exactly does it mean to grow a Christian?
From the Children’s Ministries perspective…I have found the members of the Redeemer community of all ages to be an important part of that growth for me – I hope that it has been that for you as well. Less than a year ago, Paul and I were given the opportunity to grow even more by taking on the challenges of the roles of Director of Children’s Ministries and Director of Youth Ministries. It has been and continues to be a powerful experience. Every day I get to think about how to share with our children in some small way the love of Christ and the richness of our tradition, as well as opportunities to think about how to be their best selves. Right now, our Sunday School classes are looking at the story of “Joseph and His Brothers.” What a compelling story! It is full of opportunities to talk about families, feelings and forgiveness, how God acts through all our brothers and sisters and how we can choose in any situation to be our “best self”.
And from the Youth Ministries perspective…While many of our families with older youth are feeling overwhelmed by the culmination of school, sports, extra-curriculars, and all the other events that seem to pile up in May, we encourage our youth and families to embrace the chaos together. Redeemer will contribute to the number of activities by celebrating our children and youth this weekend, by welcoming our confirmands into the church next weekend and then sending off our RYG seniors!
Speaking of seniors, a coach I worked with early in my career shared a nugget of wisdom that has stuck with me through the years, which was, “Players never get another senior year.” I’ve aspired to uphold that standard and the accompanying responsibility when leading youth. I’m excited that our youth programming is becoming more and more engaged with our own community, as well as greater Baltimore, and that our youth are making the connections between faith, action, service and love.
Our hope is to continue to grow these ministries, and we also hope that the families of our parish will find them to be a help as they go about “growing Christians”. If you agree about the importance of this task, we would love to talk more with you – there are so many opportunities to volunteer!
The latest “Grow Christians” blog by Rachel Jones begins, “You know that old saying about how it takes a village to raise a child? It doesn’t just take the hands and feet of the village – it takes the love and prayers and best hopes of a village to raise a child, too.” This Sunday at 10:00 during our Children and Youth Service, we will acknowledge and celebrate the youngest members of our parish. Let’s also celebrate the village of Redeemer – all those who love them and pray for them and place their best hopes in them. We look forward to seeing you there!
~Kathy LaPlant and Paul Smith