Urbana Yoke Parish is a church in trouble. If you have ask ‘what kind of trouble,’ you are not paying attention.

         On any given Sunday you can look around at the congregation and see that attendance is down. You say to yourself, “We used to have twenty kids come forward to hear a Children’s Story, we used to have teenagers, we used to have young adults! Where are they?” That is a good question.

         The answer is simple, really. We have had our share of deaths over the last couple of years. We also have some people who have transitioned to being shut-ins. That could change for some of those, but for now it is a fact of life. And as far as the young adults and the kids, most have left because there is nothing for the kids.

         I have been told that those that have left should suck it up and create something for the kids. Maybe twenty years ago, maybe even ten years ago. But that doesn’t work for today. The world has changed. It is hard enough to raise your own kids. Unless you have a calling for it, working with the kids of other people is a high stress endeavor.

         How does this make Urbana Yoke Parish a church in trouble? Although financially stable right now, that will begin to change over the next little while. A few more deaths, a few more shut-ins and the whole aspect of the church will change. Without younger people, the generation that makes up the Yoke now, will be the last. And that will be the result of what this generation does or does not do. You don’t have to go very far to find churches that have failed. We can say that we are not the only ones, but it doesn’t have to be.

         A Feasibility Committee was appointed by the Board to look at the problem and come up with a recommendation. That has been done and will be presented to the Board at the July meeting. From there it will be decided how to proceed and that will be brought to the congregation. But it has been established that there are four major options we can pursue:

1.) Do nothing. Let the church die and do not worry about the future.

2.) Get someone from the congregation or hire a part timer to generate something for the young people.

3.) Have the Pastor resign and call a new Pastor who can and will work with young people, as well.

4.) Call someone who is prepared by education, experience and Spiritual calling to fulfill this role. It would involve Youth, Education, maybe music for the younger ones. Plus whatever else can be given to them.

For the first one, that is the easy way. But to go that route means that all the work put into the building is wasted, all the money spent is down the drain and all the history of two churches is done.

On the second one, no one in the church has the desire. And don’t feel badly toward anyone. Remember, you aren’t offering either. Getting a part timer. Well, I have personally worked on that. Part timers usually come from within your own church. If they were from another church and they were  interested in working with kids, they would do it in their own church. Manchester University does not have a ministry division, per se. They do offer a pre-ministry course. It doesn’t look very impressive for what we need, especially as it includes ecumenicism in their offering. They also offer a diversity and inclusiveness course to go along with pre-ministry. Draw your own conclusions. Manchester is a very fine liberal arts college, but they are no longer the religious school they were two generations ago. Two years ago I contacted Huntington University. The job was posted, but I was told there was no interest because the church is so far away from the school. Seriously. Besides, that, would someone who is going to be here for a short time (six months to a year) really fill the need?

The third option involves my resignation and finding a Pastor who will do both jobs. If the church chooses this option, then I will resign. But finding a Pastor who will do both and do it well is very problematic. That is a special calling and there are very few out there.

The fourth option is calling a person to fill the position. That requires a financial investment. It requires a level of commitment the church has not had to reach before. It requires the ability to change our thinking. Although, with everything we have been through in the last five years or so, this church has gotten pretty good at changing the thinking.

Several have raised the question of why do we need someone for Youth if we have no Youth. Let’s envision something. A huge grocery store is going to be built right in Urbana. Big place. It is going to have everything in the way of food. A discount pharmacy. Special parking for tractors. This store is going to be great. Lots of buzz about it. As it begins to be built everyone, including you, is getting more and more excited. Finally, the big day comes. You come early to get in first. It was OK because they had the outside of the store air conditioned and it was comfortable. People are ready. Finally, the doors open and the crowd, including you, surges in. And everyone stops. Every cash register is manned, music is playing, shopping carts are all new. But there is not one single grocery item on the shelves. Everything is bare. The manager is standing there beaming with pride and you ask him, Where is the food? He replies, Oh, we had to wait until we knew we would have customers. Since we have customers, we will go ahead and order the food. It will get here one day.

OK, that is silly, I know. But it is really the same idea as why have something for Youth when we have no Youth. A young family sees a church that obviously cares for its appearance. They want to change churches and go to a non-denominational church. They decide to give the Yoke a try. They come in with their three kids, six years old, nine years old and thirteen years old. They see no children and assume that all the kids in the church are off somewhere in their own part of the church. The Mom asks you where her kids go. What do you say to her? Do they ever come back? And that is not silly. It is just profoundly sad.

Choices, options, the future.