n my world the super serious Sunday’s just keep coming. There was Palm Sunday. Easter Sunday. Confirmation Sunday. And today is Senior Sunday. The day that the Seniors of the youth group lead worship and essentially say their goodbyes. It is always a difficult Sunday, but this day will be especially tough, because these seniors were little kids when I started working at the church. Most of them were in the preschool class. So to say that I have watched them grow up is an understatement. Especially bittersweet is the fact that my youngest niece is in this class.
There are things that I know about them that I will not share, or don’t care to share. There are things I know about their futures that bother me. I know, based on statistics, that they will discontinue going to church or be involved in any kind of faith development. That’s so hard to write and acknowledge, and hard to believe that this spiritually devoted group of people will join the labeled groups of Nomads, Prodigals and Exiles. There is a slim chance, less than 1%, that any one of them will continue in any faith tradition.
But I also know, with assurance and confidence that they will be back, maybe not to this congregation that has loved them for so long and so well, but they will be back. That is how they have been raised in the faith. They have some serious life stuff to face, and through this congregation they have an amazing foundation, once they have their feet back on the ground, a bit more settled and anchored. They will be in a church.
They are and will continue to be thin places.
searchingforthinplaces 