Youth Sunday at 2PC

I'm not sure how much I've talked about my Nashville church home so far, so I'll start this particular post with a few words about Second Presbyterian Church (also known as 2PC). All of the YAVs in Nashville are funneled through 2PC's Nashville Epiphany Project (links to the right, if you're interested). So the basic, concrete facts are that the church provides my housing and writes the checks for my stipend every month, in addition to employing our lovely site coordinator Susan. (Technically, home sweet Toolshed resides on their property and I must say, the Peaceable Playground makes for a pretty sweet backyard.) On the intangible side of things, Second Pres is a welcoming and inclusive congregation full of incredibly talented and friendly people.


Anyway. Speaking of talent, and the reason I started this whole post... this morning was Youth Sunday at church. I feel like I should preface this with the fact that I'm fairly certain most of the high schoolers in Nashville are way cooler and talented than I will ever be. I say that with no great lack of confidence in myself or anything, but seriously! A whole handful of musical youth shared their talents with the congregation this morning...one of my favorites was a song called "All Who Are Thirsty." We've sung it at PSF once or twice and it's really just beautiful. In case you've never heard it, here are the words at least:

All who are thirsty

All who are weak

Come to the fountain

Dip your heart in the stream of life

Let the pain and the sorrow

Be washed away

In the waves of His mercy

As deep cries out to deep

Come Lord Jesus come

Holy Spirit come

As deep cries out to deep

Here I am again, finding God in music. But seriously folks. He was there and really speaking through the youth leading worship this morning. He was in the joy you could see on the faces of those sharing their music, and in the hearts of those of us listening and singing along. I mean all I'm saying is it takes a lot to get Presbyterians to clap. And we clapped more than once. 

The Old Testament reading for the day was Deuteronomy 15:7-11, the last verse of which reads: "There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land." One student that gave part of the sermon commented that this verse has hardly (if ever) been debated; it's pretty black and white. "God doesn't ask us to be openhanded. He commands us," he said (or something like it). 

I think the thing that hit me the most about this morning was that there are all of these young people in our denomination committed to loving others and being open in general. And by "young people" I mean youth in churches of course, but also other young adults...the 60-or-so YAVs currently spread across the globe, a whole bunch of YAV alums, and plenty of other young adults not officially associated with any certain program. Eventually people my age will be the leaders of churches and denominations. If only we can spread that love and openness, some wonderful things could happen.

Love,

Allison.