Story in the song “Hold on Tight” – www.kylematthews.com

“I won’t have to hold you so tight if you’ll hold tight to me. I’m trying to give you help that could save you all cause I love you, can’t you see? I won’t have to hold you so tight if you’ll hold tight to me.” – Kyle Matthews

Deep within our theology of baptism is the understanding that our children are not ours once they’ve been sprinkled, dipped, or in any way touched by the Holy Spirit. Even as infants, they are introduced to the church community as a brother or sister, an equal in Christ. We must let them go, but we don’t just leave them like a lamb for the wolves – it’s up to all of us as the family of faith to raise them with wisdom and understanding, with counsel and might, with knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

Proverbs reminds us to “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge God, and God will make straight your paths.”

It doesn’t help for us to cling in love – love is teaching the freedom of releasing each other to God’s care. We do this as we feed our children the spiritual bread of God’s Word that tells them over and over again – “I love you so, so much.” As teens we encourage them to remember this truth as the world tries to tell them otherwise. We lead them to the quiet waters, but it’s ultimately up to them to drink their fill. And as they move into adulthood, we do our very best to give our young people choices and independence – praying that they will hear the call to follow God’s paths – knowing that it is Jesus and not us who will protect them as they are lured hither and yon, just like we all were.

You may not have thought it through before now. What is it that our church really teaches its young people about growing in their spiritual maturity? You know that we have Sunday school and fellowship programs. You may know that we feed them, literally, when they and their friends come from the high school for tacos or chili on Friday afternoons. You may have heard today about the importance of having a Vacation Bible School, not only here in Oak Ridge, but as a mission to the rural church of Lancing in one of the poorest counties in Tennessee. You know they go to summer conferences, and white water rafting, and you may have suspected that these relationships are reinforced when you see them hanging out together here and elsewhere.

But in all this activity, is there purpose? Does it do more than keep them busy here rather than somewhere else? I think we’re doing far more than just the average church fluff of simply meeting the expectations of parents hoping to get some religion into their kids before they leave home. Christian nurture, real care, and the love of God are present here. You ask me how I know. I know because our kids wander off to college looking for that same connection in Presbyterian Campus ministry programs or local church commitments – surrounding themselves with those who will be “real” with them as they ask their poignant questions about life and death, about war and peace, about God’s justice and love. They volunteer for mission trips that matter knowing that service somehow feeds their soul even more than a “spring break” trip to Florida.

We have story after story of our kids taking amazing steps in their faith:

*Kate Swift Spong starting not where we expected her to in a challenging engineering program, but volunteering with Borderlinks in ministry with those looking for a new life in the United States,

*Jessica Sweden giving her time to Vacation Bible School even though she can’t be here on Sunday mornings because of her job at Shoneys,

*Claire Harris serving on one of the most difficult committees of General Assembly and saying she preferred that to being one of the Youth Advisory Delegates with more time to play in Birmingham,

*Ben Terpstra having the life changing experience of getting acquainted with Rick Ufford-Chase, former moderator of the denomination because of a curious question,

*and numerous anonymous high school students, be they Catholic, Jew, or having never stepped into a church before who form the opinion that we are a welcoming church by eating here on Fridays – no strings attached.

Our kids are learning to pray, and trust, and love. Donna found this out the hard way by having a car accident during the week she was running the Lancing Vacation Bible School this year. It turns out she brakes for groundhogs! As her car was towed back to the church to unload all the VBS stuff, one by one, the kids told her – we heard and we were praying for you, that you would be OK. This came even from a young person who quietly confessed that it was the first time he’d ever prayed.

So today, we thank you – for caring about the kids, for funding a staff person that can do the planning and organizing involved in pulling this off, for the teachers who teach, for the parents who drive and make brownies and let go so that they can be nurtured somewhere else other than just home and school. And I thank Donna for being the kind of person that the kids trust with their joys, and fears, and their very tender hearts. Not just anyone can do youth ministry. Young people smell out the fear. You have to be willing to be real with them, or they will quickly turn somewhere else.

And learn today from scripture – trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own insight. You won’t have to hold on so tight – if you hold on tightly to God.

Amen.

Charge to Youth Minister Donna Hoppestad: (On the occasion of her graduation from the “Youth Leadership Ministry Initiative” of Columbia Theological Seminary)

Donna, remember your baptism. It is in being touched by the Holy Spirit that you are able to touch the lives of others. God has called you to equip this church in its ministry of education and Christian nurture. It is not your job to do it for them, for us, but to open all our eyes to the joy of a curious question, or an honest prayer, or to the goodness of the restless energy of being 4, or 7, or 12, or 18 years old.

I pray that as you work with the young, you will:

encourage their enthusiasm;

show them God’s light when the way seems dark;

give them a reason for hope, not fear;

and earn their trust, guard their confidences, and always treat them with respect.

Also, as a minister of this church, I pray that you will:

gently but firmly remind us that the young are not to be separated from the rest of the congregation as though they were a disease – but that they are fully and wholly members of the Body of Christ

I pray that you will continue to equip and be a resource for our youth leaders and Sunday School teachers, and help us all to see how awesome these children of God are.

Remind us, be we young or old, new to the faith or a fifty year member, that we are never completely through with our Christian Education. There’s always more to learn, and no matter how much we think we know, we do not know it all.

I charge you to complete the book that you’re working on with your colleagues in Youth Ministry from around the country so that the insights that you’ve shared with me can be shared with a much broader audience. Make this your promise to the future of God’s church – that children will be honored with dignity and blessed with knowing God’s love for them.

Charge to the Congregation: To the congregation, I charge you to welcome Donna’s leadership, to trust her skills for ministry, to respect her gifts and honor her limitations. Yes, we all have limitations and need time apart as well as time together, and that includes cell phone time.

I charge you to challenge her to new growth and a deeper faith.

I thank you for compensating her fairly for her work and committing your part to furthering her education so that she can be a long-term resource for you.

You can, without a doubt, trust your children to her care and the care of this church.

Let us sing together and honor the ways in which God calls us all so we can respond, “Here I am, send me.”