Bob Green is the head of the evangelism work group at Christ United Methodist Church of Youngwood, Penn., and is a lay delegate to the Western Pennsylvania Annual Conference. He was awarded a Harry Denman Evangelism Award by the Conference in June, 2011. He and his wife Heather have lived in Youngwood for more than eight years. [...]
By Daniel Gómez Pastor de Las Naciones and Trustee of The Foundation for Evangelism This past July members of our combined youth group attended YOUTH 2011 in Sacramento, CA. Our church is University United Methodist Church in Las Vegas, NV and we are also known as a “church of congregations”. We have the original (English [...]
Beginning September 6, Pray40 will once again invite The United Methodist Church to pray for students on our nation’s campuses and universities as they head back to class. Coordinated by College Union (www.CollegeUnion.org), the purpose of Pray40 is two-fold: to call the Church to pray for college students, and to help college students to learn [...]
As the youngest person from the North Texas Conference to be elected leader of the lay delegation, Ricky Harrison is part of a new generation of delegates to the General Conference of The United Methodist Church. A 19-year-old sophomore at McMurray College, Ricky’s election made history at the 2011 North Texas Conference. He was elected on the first ballot.
Ricky Harrison has been active at First UMC Richardson and was previous chair of the Conference Council on Youth Ministry. He is the son of Charles Harrison, a trustee of The Foundation for Evangelism, and Executive Director of Youth Worker Movement. In an interview, Ricky told us about himself, his goals, and his future as a lay delegate.
Ricky Harrison
My name is Ricky Harrison and this past June I was elected by the North Texas Annual Conference to co-lead the North Texas General Conference Delegation. As a nineteen year old college sophomore studying at McMurry University I am excited about this opportunity to engage in meaningful leadership with the North Texas Delegation. I have been involved extensively in Church leadership as a young person for the past six years. I’ve served at many levels of church leadership including at my local church, District, Conference, Jurisdiction, and in the Global Church where I was elected to serve as a voting delegate to the Global Young People’s Convocation in Berlin, Germany last summer.
Colin Knapp speaks of his ministry, his understanding of evangelism, and his appreciation for Dr. Stephen Gunter and Dr. Laceye Warner at Duke Divinity School. “WikiWorship is a very different way of looking at evangelism. What we have done is invited those with questions to gather within the Christian community to struggle together with the difficult questions that all of us have. In that struggle, we can see the authenticity of the gathered community –– while at the same time, allow everyone to be a part of the direction the discussion goes. We are allowing those from outside the Church to come in and have a real impact on the way the worship service goes. Our intention was not to go out into the community to tell sinners that they were in need of a savior, but rather we invited those from the community to come in and to participate in our faith community.”
The Apostle Paul wrote two letters to his young disciple and son in the faith, Timothy. His encouraging, yet challenging words to Timothy speak to the truth that the young man had a place in the story of God and the building of Christ’s body, the Church. It was critical that Timothy not neglect the gift that had been entrusted to him (1 Timothy 4:14); that he fulfilled his ministry. Two thousand years later, these words ring true for this generation of young adults.
For the most part, we are all concerned about the decline of young adults in the life of the Church. Much can be (and has been) said about the direction and actions of older generations; the need for the Christian community to engage culture and become a relevant voice in society. But the full weight of decreased involvement of this generation in the local body of believers cannot be placed on our parents and grandparents. Indeed, there is and has always been a specific call on the lives of twenty-thirty somethings. Maybe we never knew it. Maybe we have been demotivated. Maybe we got distracted. Regardless of the why, it is still our responsibility to “set an example for all believers”. It is time for young adults to RECLAIM their place and become the Church that the world needs for the glory of Jesus Christ.
In the summer of 2008, God gave four youth leaders and myself a vision for a ministry to youth that was outside the box. We had an average youth group size of about 12 regulars that at times would be 25 to 30 on a Wednesday evening. The vision was to find a place in a neutral location outside the local church building. This is not because we are against the local church in any way, we just realized that we needed to reach a group of teens who had no background with church and the traditions that so many of us have come to know and love. We found a storefront building in our small downtown community and negotiated a rental agreement with the landlord.
by Joseph McBrayer, Director of Emory Wesley Fellowship At Refresh 2010, this past December 14-16th, in Kansas City, KS over 150+ other United Methodist Campus Ministers gathered at the Church of the Resurrection to engage in the practices of reflection, worship, dialogue, and prayer about ministry with college students and young adults. The three days [...]
Author Dan Kimball shares the misconceptions and grievances that non-Christian 20 and 30-somethings have with the Church. In this article from Outreach Magazine, he shares concepts and research from his book They Like Jesus but Not The Church. Read The Article at Churchleaders.com>
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