I’m so Proud of My Church

Today was youth Sunday at Westminster Presbyterian. What that means is the youth of the church run the whole church service. They have Pastor Alex as their leader, but he does not write, or read or preach. The kids do all of that.

For the record we are a church whose motto is Micah 6:8 “Do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God.” It’s a tall order, but one we do not swerve from. These days I feel like there are a lot of “Christians” in name only. To be fair, they may not ever hear the teaching of the Jesus who took care of the poor and the sinners if those Christians have preachers who cherry pick the Bible and divide rather than unite people.

Loving all people is a tall order. Trust me I am not good at it, but I do believe that Jesus taught us to take care of those with the least.

Getting back to the service today…seven young people who are all seniors in high school were given the task on preaching the lectionary today which was from Luke. It was a difficult passage, but each one rose to occasion. Of the seven one was a trans child of god and the other non-binary and they spoke their truth without apology. It made my heart happy that in this time when anyone who is considered “other” can easily be persecuted, but at Westminster they are loved.

These people are children of God, just all any other and as I have been taught at Westminster, “God didn’t make any junk.” So none of us humans should cast dispersions.

After the service the youth served a lunch and we had the “cake” auction to raise money for the youth group. We had to add tables so many members came to the lunch and auction and we raised a great amount of money for youth programs because we all know that the things these kids learn in youth group are making the next generation of leaders for our country of kind, caring and loving humans.

I am proud of this place where all are welcome and know they are loved without reservation or qualification.