NEWS FEATURE: In an Aging Methodist Church, the Youth Search for a Voice

c. 2000 Religion News Service CLEVELAND _ Adam Webb has been so busy with 15-hour days full of committee meetings and worship sessions that he hasn’t had time to crack his high school government, chemistry or statistics books. Webb, an 18-year-old high school senior from Ames, Iowa, is a delegate to the General Conference of […]

c. 2000 Religion News Service

CLEVELAND _ Adam Webb has been so busy with 15-hour days full of committee meetings and worship sessions that he hasn’t had time to crack his high school government, chemistry or statistics books.

Webb, an 18-year-old high school senior from Ames, Iowa, is a delegate to the General Conference of the United Methodist Church, the denomination’s quadrennial policy-making session meeting here this week. For Webb and about 40 other young delegates, homework has taken a back seat to doing God’s work for 10 grueling days.


With learn-as-you-go lessons in legislative maneuvering and parliamentary procedure, the young delegates to the Cleveland meeting have had a crash course in church politics. Depsite their ages, these delegates take their job seriously.

But even more important, church leaders are taking these delegates seriously. There is a growing sense in the church that for an aging denomination, the youth who represent the future of the church should be a part of the church’s decision-making.

“Many people say the youth are the future of the church, but many of us believe we are the church right now,” said Raul Francisco, a 19-year-old reserve delegate from Little Ferry, N.J.

This year, the young delegates have their own lounge where they can kick back and plan strategy. Church leaders also gave the youth delegates an orientation session in writing, submitting and passing legislation.

One youth delegate, Jay Williams, is a freshman at Harvard and leads his delegation from Western New York. Another, 17-year-old Ana Kelsey-Powell, is part of the northern Illinois delegation; she was a member of the church’s Board of Global Ministries at age 13.

While young delegates are slowly gaining a louder voice in the church, only about 40 of the 992 voting delegates are under the age of 30. A full 70 percent of the delegates are over the age of 50, a figure that mirrors the general church population.

Raising their presence is the main legislative priority for the youth caucus at the Cleveland meeting. On a recent afternoon during a break between legislative sessions, Francisco was huddled around a computer with several other youth delegates writing a bill that would encourage the church to increase the youth representation to 20 percent at future conventions.


“The church will die if it doesn’t start paying attention to the youth,” Francisco said.

That’s a fear shared by many in the United Methodist Church, the nation’s largest mainline Protestant body with 8.2 million members. Faced with 30 years of declining memberships and a graying population, the church is looking for new ways to keep the pews full and to attract younger members.

“The under-representation of youth and young adults (at the convention) may be an issue that needs to be addressed if the denomination wishes to develop mission and ministry to reach out to this population of society,” said a report prepared by the church’s General Council on Ministry.

As part of addressing that issue, the church will be asked to approve a $3.4 million plan to develop youth programs and strategies for reaching the under-30 crowd over the next four years. In addition, church leaders will ask for $20 million to fund a glitzy ad campaign similar to the commercials produced by the Mormons to attract more members.

It’s a struggle faced by religious groups of all faiths. As the faithful World War II generation slowly dies off, the Baby Boomers remain religiously ambivalent and the younger Generations X and Y struggle to find a faith environment they can call home.

“Just by sheer numbers, this is going to be the largest generation in this country to date,” said Angela Gay Kinkead, executive director of the church’s National Youth Ministry Organization. “If the church is to reach this population, if the church is to involve that generation in the next couple of decades, they need to have a voice.”


The young delegates to the Methodist meeting show what issues are on their minds as they try to be heard. The United Methodist Church has been wracked by the issue of homosexuality since 1972, and much of this week’s meeting is expected to be dominated by bills on gay ordination and same-sex unions. For many of the youth delegates, the gay question is mostly a non-issue.

“I don’t see any reason why a homosexual should be restricted to spread the message of God,” said Webb, the Iowa delegate.

Jeff Sitts, a 23-year-old delegate from Minnesota who bemoaned the “gray and balding” heads on the convention floor, agreed.

“God gave us two commandments,” Sitts said, “to love God and to love our neighbor. The closest way we can be moving towards God is to find love. When two people find that love, it should be rejoiced.”

For these delegates, the church should spend less time on internal disagreements and be more focused on evangelizing to the world. There is a strong sense of frustration, also shared by the older delegates, that the gay issue is taking up too much time.

The young delegates, much like their non-Methodist peers, are searching for a church that is relevant to their lives, speaks to their needs and is open to discussion on hard questions. Whatever the issue, these delegates say they just want to be heard.


“What I love about this church is that … we realize that as times change, and people change, the church also needs to evolve,” said Francisco, the delegate from New Jersey. “This is where that happens, and that is why we are here.”

DEA END ECKSTROM

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