Dear friends -
When I began over five years ago at River Glen, the Session was reading the book, Growing Young: Six Essential Strategies to Help Young People Discover and Love Your Church through the Fuller Youth Institute. Best practices included things like empathizing with today's young people and prioritizing young people and families in the church. I thought of this book more recently as I read a blog reflection from the Rev. Dr. Anna Hall on the Convergence website which talked about the level of burn out in parents today and how many more challenges they face then most of the population in the second half of life had when they were raising their children.
Anna wonders how many people longing for young families in the church know young families personally. You can read the full post here, but pointedly she reflects: "Some of my friends and acquaintances with young children are or have been involved with churches, and too often I hear stories of them being offered no help and support at all, while being asked to serve in leadership year after year without a break. Can you blame them for taking church off the "to-do" list?"
How is it that you are encouraging and helping young families in these challenging times? How can we be a space of care and compassion for the challenges they face? We are having a hard time finding a children and families ministries director - often it is moms, among the very people experiencing such a high rate of burn out these days, that would step into this position. Maybe it's time for us to figure out new ways to shoulder together the care our young families need. Very soon you may be asked to help lead Sunday school, be a prayground monitor, or feel the Spirit nudging you to drop a note or give some words of encouragement. I hope you'll say yes!
See you Sunday!
Jess