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Commentary
GEN-X RISING: Young church leaders plan grassroots event Andrew C. Thompson, Mar 19, 2007
Andrew C. Thompson
One challenge for young leaders in the United Methodist Church is simply how to get in touch with one another. Small in size, the young leadership of our church is spread across a connection that stretches from ocean to ocean.
At the School of Congregational Development in San Diego last August, a group of Gen-X pastors was sitting around brainstorming about this very issue. They played a game where each person had to list the three things he or she would most want to change about the church in general. And they found they were of a similar mind on many issues.
After everyone shared their thoughts, they came up with a joint desire: to provide a place where young adult clergy could connect and form relationships, so that the building of the church's future could begin.
Now, this little conversation could have gone the way of a lot of conversations at convention workshops - nowhere. But through individual inspiration, group tenacity and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, what began as a casual conversation soon turned into concrete planning.
The result is an upcoming, grassroots event called "The Gathering" for United Methodist Gen-X/Y leaders, May 23-26 at the Mount Sequoyah Retreat Center in Fayetteville, Ark.
After being privy the past few months to e-mail conversations about The Gathering, I have become convinced that it will be one of the most intriguing leadership events in years. I called the Rev. Mark Long, a pastor who was a part of that original conversation in San Diego, to get more details.
Mark is a Gen-X'er and pastor of the First United Methodist Church of Trenton, Texas. He has been dubbed the "chief instigator" of The Gathering and considers it his personal mission to instigate a new form of community for young adult leaders in the church - a community where real Wesleyan connection can happen and where the future of the church can be shaped.
Mark told me his initial desire to have an event like The Gathering arose out of his realization that Gen X and Y leaders - both clergy and laity - can be agents of change here and now. He is tired of hearing how Gen-X'ers and Millennials represent the church's future. He wants that future to begin now, and realizes that young adult leadership will not flourish without real connection among the leaders themselves.
Mark shared some aspects of The Gathering that carry a decidedly Gen-X feel. For one, each day's schedule will begin with the celebration of Holy Communion. The organizers don't want to approach this event with only a nod to sacrament, with only an opening or closing Communion service. Instead, they want the entire event to be sacramentally clothed. Such an approach, Mark says, points to the desire for unity and discipleship as thematic emphases of the event. A focus on the Lord's Supper "allows us to truly be a community of Christ," he adds.
Another aspect of The Gathering that stands out is the large amount of free time built into the daily schedule-time that participants can use for conversation, meditation or recreation. "Sometimes not having an agenda is the best way to get things accomplished," Mark says. With plenty of freedom, he hopes space can be made for community to grow.
The Gathering is for any interested Gen-X or Y person across the connection: pastor, layperson, seminarian or aspiring leader. That means anyone with a heart for the church. The speakers - nationally recognized emergent church leaders Tim Keel and Doug Pagitt - promise to make the learning sessions invigorating.
So check out the Web site at www.generationxy.org to register. And mark your calendar.
Remember, Generations X and Y: You are the future. And the future is now.
The Rev. Thompson is a doctoral student at Duke Divinity School. He blogs atwww.genxrising.com.
Andrew C. Thompson
