May 7, 2015

 

Dear MLEPC Members and Friends:

 

Yes, I realize that last Lord's Day was Youth Sunday, and thanks to Andy Hromoko and our youth for leading us in joyful worship. And yes, this Pastor's Letter usually looks forward to the upcoming Sunday worship services. This week, however, I want to look back over the shoulder to the theme of our youth and Youth Sunday.

 

You see, I became a follower of Christ when a 9th grade student in the Gateway High School District in Monroeville. I was fourteen years old at the time, right in the middle of the ages of our youth who led worship last Sunday. God through Christ by the Spirit became vividly real and alive to me for the first time in those days, now rather long ago. I can recall participating in Youth Sundays at St. Martin's Episcopal Church--the one you see on the Parkway East with the sign above it that reads, "Jesus Is Alive." It was an inspiring experience to stand with other middle and high school students representing the Living Jesus to that dynamic congregation.

 

Youth Sundays were far from the only thing that made an impact on me in those first years of Christian Faith at St. Martin's, however. I recall Sunday night youth groups, led by two adult members of the church. I don't think either of them was a natural youth leader, but they both had huge hearts for us. They prayed for us. They listened to our troubles. And more than occasionally, they put up with our silly immaturity. I'll never forget the love that Carl Merola and Bobbie Brown sunk into my life and the lives of other teenagers. It changed us.

 

I further remember Alan Sandford. I took an interest in the middle of his three daughters, a girl named Cindy. And Alan took an interest in me as a new Christian who did not have a strong personal faith background. For the better part of two years on most Sunday afternoons, Alan would pick me up in his Buick Electra and take me back to church. There, he taught me the basics of knowing and living our great faith. He was my first and perhaps most formative mentor in walking daily with Christ.

 

Friends, I know that the world we live in today is much different than the world of the 1970s. Times have changed. Youth grow up faster. The world is at their fingertips through those magic boxes we call smart phones. Social mores are even broader now than they were in the aftermath of the Woodstock era.

 

But a few things remain the same. Young people are open to hearing and believing the life changing message of Jesus as much now as they were then. And they need Him just the same as I did. Youth need the chance to lead the family of God in worship today, as back then, even if their style of music is a tad different than that of most adults. Teenagers long for a safe place to gather with loving adult role models. And they thrive when a caring and godly adult invests deep one-on-one time with them in growing toward a vital and transforming trust in God.

 

Carl Merola, Bobbie Brown, and Alan Sandford were people who loved the Lord by pouring themselves in youth. I benefited from them in ways that they'll never know on this side of heaven. Our youth at MLEPC today need a new generation of Carl Merolas, Bobbie Browns, and Alan Sandfords. They are waiting for us to reach into their lives with the mind and heart of Jesus.

 

Are you one of these people? Would you like to become one of these people? If so, have a talk with "Mr. H"--Andy Hromoko, our Youth Director. He's on the lookout for you!

 

Let's invest ourselves heavily in the rising generation of youth, so that they may change the world for Christ when their time arrives.

 

Pastor Tim

 

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