GENERATIONS: PROMISES TO THE FUTURE (Part Two)

Acts 2:17-18

For a few years, I was a volunteer at the Indian Creek Nature Center on the south east side of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, doing nature programs for pre-schoolers and school-aged children.  The center has wetland and prairie restoration projects.  Up until my time there, my concept of what a prairie was was something out of "Little House on the Prairie."  Did you know that of all the midwest prairie states, Iowa was the only one completely covered by tall grass prairie?

There are a few other things I learned about prairies, including what is needed for a prairie to be vital.  One is diversity of both plant and animal life.  Prairie fires helped with that, in order for the prairie to flourish, it needed two other things, well animals to be precise.  One is buffalo.  These big animals pawed up the ground and created wallows.  Where they broke up the sod, seeds from various plants were given the space and the sun to sprout and grow.  The other animal, and this may be hard to believe, is the pocket gopher.  We see gophers as pests, but in a prairie, they help turn over the soil, bringing seeds and nutriments up to the the surface.

These days, naturalists look for indicator species, plants and animals that are signs that a prairie has been restored to vitality.  If the prairie has everything they need, they return to it.  One of those species is the Prairie Chicken, so, if you see one, you know healing and restoration has taken place in it's natural habitat.

Come to think of it, a church is a lot like to a prairie.   Vital, fruitful churches are diverse, both in types of people and in in ages and stages of life.  Its spiritual soil also needs to be turned over and stirred Church adapt to changing times and remain faithful to the mission of God and the ministry of Christ.  The Gospel always remains the same, but Jesus calls us to new places and to new ways of witnessing to it.

An indicator species of the vitality of a church are young adults, the early thirties, twenty-somethings, whom, I'm sad to say have been given a bad rap.  They are accused of being lazy, unfocused, and antisocial.  What we fail to understand is that ipods and smart phone are not just gadgets, they are meaningful ways in which young adults connect with the community of their peers.  They're no different than the radios, newspapers and letters of the greatest generation or the televisions and internet of the boomers.

What they are is a generation who doesn't put trust in institutions but rather seeks out communities of charater and meaning -- people who talk the talk, walk the walk and have a deep, loving concern for one another.  They believe their lives have meaning and purpose and have a passion for getting involved and making a difference in their communities and the world.

Young adults don't want to be spectators, they want to be active participants.  The gifts they offer are energy, vision, and the ability to organize, work with people and get things done.  They also will hold us accountable to be living examples of the Gospel, because if the church is not Christ-centered and missional, if it is not offering meaningful, faith building worship and spiritual growth opportunities, if the people of the church are not open to making room at the table for others different from themselves, they will go elsewhere.

Young adults don't interact with the world or connect with God quite the way the older generations do.  Like their elders, they do seek meaningful relationships and experiences in communities of character and love.  Like all of us, they are seekers of the truth.   And no matter what age and stage of life, is always is and always will be, one Lord, one faith, one baptism.

So, I guess it comes down a really hard question -- what are we willing to do for the love of Christ and the ongoing mission of God and the church to make room for these young adults in the church so that they may grow into the people God has created them to be?  What promises are we willing to make to the future?