I guess I am confused. Concerning the discussion of whether or not the church should call a Youth Pastor (with extended responsibilities), I have gotten some strange feedback. It is the nature of the feedback that has me confused.

        This was never intended to be divisive. Yet, in the last few days I have encountered heat. I have been told we are trying to push this down the throats of the congregation. I just sat and viewed again the video of the Business Meeting from August 21, and I see absolutely nothing that is adversarial. Things that were presented that no one wants to hear, but it was not adversarial in nature. It was made very clear that this was a proposal. A thought out and prayerfully arrived at proposal, but still a proposal. Unlike government, we have no Executive Orders that we can issue, and we wouldn't do so if that authority existed. The members of the congregation will vote on September 11, and the result of that vote will be final. That hardly seems to be worthy of anger. Yet, there seems to be anger. If you feel anger about this, please call me. I promise, I will not be angry with you.

        The other thing that bothers me is that I have been told twice now that we are not going to vote for any student pastor to come in here and mess things up. The first time I heard this I assumed that it was confusion on the part of the person I was talking too. But when I heard it a second time it made me think that someone is sharing this bit of information. At no point has that ever been brought up. Not in the feasibility committee, not in a Board meeting and not at the Business Meeting. About three years ago I did contact Huntington University with the idea of having a student come and work with our Youth, sort of like an internship. I did this with the knowledge of the Board. The idea was we would pay for their gas and a small stipend, but that was all. That went nowhere. According to the lady who arranged that sort of thing, Urbana was so far away from Huntington that no one wanted to come out here. Anyway, it ended there. That avenue was not followed. We live in an era of 'fake news,' and perhaps it has filtered down to us. Keep in mind, 'fake news' is another word for a lie.

        At the Business Meeting, Barry intended to give a visual presentation of what the feasibility committee was putting forth. Because of a technical glitch, that did not happen. So, he just delivered it verbally. However, last Sunday he announced that he had made copies of what would have been his presentation and they were in the back of the sanctuary. Very few were taken. Personally, I am all for people talking out an issue. But when you choose to do so without the facts in hand, you are doing a disservice to the people you are talking to as well as to yourself. 

        I don't recall the voting process being passed along to the congregation. But so that you will know, the Board, at the suggestion of the feasibility committee, has decided an 85% 'yes' will be needed to continue on along the path of calling an individual. It was thought that an 85% 'yes' is needed to call a pastor, so we would apply that to this situation. Our Constitution does not cover this as yet. A simple majority will not do it. If a majority was all that was needed, that would be 'pushing it down the throat' of the rest of the congregation.

        We all realize that there is opposition to this plan. Perhaps you are one of the ones opposed. That is fine. we are a congregationally led church. However, if you are opposed, what other option do you have? And, perhaps more importantly, how much of your time and effort are you willing to put out to go along with that option? Being opposed is fine. Being opposed and not being willing to do something is a problem.

        Back in June I wrote a blog on this subject. I presented four options as we saw them. First, do nothing, let the church die and do not worry about the future. That isn't being harsh. Based on the record of the last ten years and the aging of the church, that is about to happen. Second, get someone from the congregation or hire a part timer to generate something for the young people. We have tried that a couple of times since I have been here. Didn't work. Third, dismiss the Pastor and call a new Pastor who will work with the Youth as well as Pastor. Since my primary concern in life is Urbana Yoke Parish and what is good for the Yoke, I would accept that dismissal. However, it is important to note, I have been doing this for 47 years and I have only ever known one pastor who pulled that off successfully, and that was me. We often think that calling a young pastor will draw young people and that never works. You had a young pastor before me, and it didn't work then. Fourth, call someone who is prepared by Spiritual calling, education and experience to fill this role.

        If the vote is 'no' on September 11, then please contact our Board president with options, because the first option will happen. 

        When it is all said and done, there must be no hard feelings.      

            I received a note from an old high school classmate the other day. Donna. She lives about twenty-five miles from the old hometown and I live about six hundred miles from the old hometown, so we never see each other. But we do keep in touch. In the note she expressed some of her deep awe towards God. It was a very nice note, even inspiring. As I sat back and started thinking about those days so long ago, I started counting in my mind all the kids from high school who are now believers in Jesus. If we had a reunion of the believers, it would almost be our whole class. How did that happen, I wondered.

        It sure didn't start that way. As we started high school, I doubt there were a half a dozen of us that even went to church. Some of those were religious nuts. Namely David and Diana. They went to different churches, but they went every Sunday and acted like they wanted to go. That was enough to make them religious nuts. For the most part, the rest of us didn't go to church and those who did go occasionally were dragged there by their parents. It was 1970 and weird things were happening everywhere in the country and there were more important things to think about

        That year, my freshman year in high school, our high school got a new varsity football coach. Tom Duff. I wound up on the JV and the varsity teams, which was cool, but I hated Coach Duff. I wasn't alone. The man was crazy. At one point during the summer two-a-day practices, all the seniors walked off of the practice field in protest. Coach Duff never blinked an eye. When the seniors realized he was willing to play with just underclassmen, they began to straggle back. In previous years, if you were a senior, you started. Not under Coach Duff. Not many seniors started that year. His practices were brutal. At least once a week we started practice by running the cross country course in full pads. He devised ways to make us suffer while pushing us to our absolute limits. And we hit, and we hit, and we hit. I hated that man. To that point our school had been the patsy in our league for years. Coach had signed a five year contract that stipulated a league championship somewhere in that five years.

        We hadn't won more than three games in a single season for several years previous. That first year we went 4-6. Imagine people going crazy with joy over a losing season. When the season was over, the players started bragging about how hard the crazy coach was on them. We started calling him Tough Duff. One day there was a PA announcement for all the guys who were going to be playing the next season to report to the gym. We all wandered in and were met with our wild eyed coach. "TOUGH DUFF? YOU CALL ME TOUGH DUFF? HOW ABOUT THIS, GIRLS. FROM NOW ON I AM 'NOT TOUGH ENOUGH DUFF.' GOT IT? THE FIRST YEAR WAS EASY, GIRLS. THIS NEXT YEAR WILL BE YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE! 

        And it was, too. And we went 7-3. Coach had put fear in all of us, but he also gave us a feeling of confidence and pride for playing on a winning team.

        Coach never swore and he didn't tolerate it among his players. He would have moments of extreme gentleness and, in the right mood, could have you doubled of in laughter. He was a very tough football coach, but he was a caring and compassionate man. Before practices and games, he would have a short devotional from the Scriptures if you wanted to attend. To some, it seemed totally out of character. But to those of us who knew him, it seemed right in line with his character. Hardly any of us knew what being 'born again' meant, but we began to see a Christian man in Coach.

        Just before school started my junior year, Coach asked about five of us to stay after practice so he could talk with us about something. He told us that once school was going, he was going to start a Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter for our school. Weekly meetings, first one at his home. If the five of us would commit to go every Thursday night, others would come, too. One of the guys, a senior, laughed and said, "Coach, you need to get some other guys other than this group!" Coach shook his head. No, this was the group he wanted to commit to this. He was serious. No ramifications to the ones who said 'NO,' but he seriously wanted this to happen. One by one we committed to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

        And that started a transformation in the whole school. Coach was a tough coach in football, and that spread through all the sports. We began to win one league championship after another in all the sports. Our little school went from being the laughingstock to being the dreaded foe on the other teams' schedules. Yet, that isn't what I remember so well. I remember the twenty or so students who gathered at Coach Duff's home that first night and heard for the first about Jesus. It was a new concept. Everyone felt uncomfortable with it. As I said, it was a weird time, and we had a hard time relating to events from 2,000 years before in Israel. But Coach just led us along, never pressuring or pushing. He was still the same demanding coach, but he was also the one carrying the light of Christ in our school.

        That summer, between our Junior and Senior years, a couple of us attended a Fellowship of Christian Athletes camp. Both of us accepted Christ and our enthusiasm at the first Fellowship of Christian Athletes meeting of the new school year spread to others. Kids began to accept Christ. Every week one or two kids were being saved. It was amazing.

        After his initial five year contract was up, Coach signed another contract. But by this time there were parents who were very upset over his 'religious teaching' in the school. About three years into that contract, he got fired. I was in college in Tennessee at the time, and when I came home on a break, I caught up with him. I expected to see a sad, even angry man, but he fooled me. "Larry, the Lord's been leading me to the ministry for a couple of years. Now I'm going for it!" He pastored in Canada for several years and then he took a little church in Taccoa Falls, Georgia. There was a Christian high school there and he wound up as their head football coach, where he won two state championships. Yay Coach!

        So, when Donna and I connect, we can both talk about the Lord. Same with Gary and Dave and Barry and Cindy and Dollie and Deven and I could go on. A year ago this past June, when I spent some time with my best friend from childhood at the Cleveland Clinic, he told me he wasn't afraid to die because he was a believer. At his funeral a few weeks later I related that story, and I could see Karen and Kevin and Jerry and Barb and Bucky and others nodding their heads. And then there is Greg and Marvin and a few others who have already passed who were introduced to Jesus.

        One man. Not a great man in the eyes of the world. But he brought Jesus to a little school and changed a lot of lives. And those lives have changed other lives. I worked with Youth for well over three decades. I am the result of a Godly man's passion and I have passed it on. One man, folks. It only takes one man to change a lot of kids.  

My first exposure to an unforgettable musical program came in January 1975.

I had spent the first six months after high school graduation working to put together the money to go off to Bible college. In January of 1975 I first stepped onto the campus in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Visions of preaching in front of thousands, having a world wide radio broadcast and writing books were in my mind. Of course, none of that happened, but at the time I was surely excited. The possibilities were endless.

There was a church on campus. All first year students had to attend that church. After the first year you could attend a school approved church in the Chattanooga area or you could serve a school approved church somewhere. My first Sunday in the campus church was eye opening. Around 5,000 in the main sanctuary and around 2,500 in the rest of the building. Some were students, but mostly town folk and their children. I looked around and thought, WOW, this is what church is supposed to be!

Things proceeded pretty much like the church back home (a sorry excuse for a church with only around a thousand on Sunday morning) and, right on cue, the time came for special music. You weren't supposed to talk during church, but everyone started whispering to their neighbors. "Yes! It is them! They are going to sing!!!" People were really excited. A middle aged man and woman came to the pulpit. I assume they were both middle age. The man was, but the woman had so much make-up on, you could not tell her age. This was prior to Tammy Faye Bakker and I had never seen so much make-up. My mother and two sisters would not have worn that much make-up combined in a month. I would have laughed out loud, but everyone around me seemed to think the show was about to become mind blowing. I don't hear music like others do and I had never enjoyed it, but I thought maybe this time I would hear something amazing.

And it was amazing.

The introduction played and I knew it was going to be a regular hymn. I would tell you what hymn it was, but what happened when they started to sing made me forget everything else.

Imagine a hymn like "The Old Rugged Cross" being delivered in operatic style. And not even good opera. Whatever the hymn was, they hit all the high notes and held them for what seemed to be minutes. I imagined all the dogs in Chattanooga starting to howl and all the cats diving under beds and sofas. I closed my eyes and blocked my ears. I looked around thinking I would see fellow sufferers all around, but everyone seemed to have a look of pure rapture on their faces. Then the singers started to do the motions with the song. I would have laughed, but the music was so awful. As I watched, the woman's face began to change. It took me a minute to realize that her make-up was running. It was the weirdest performance I had ever seen. When it was over there were shouts of AMEN and cries for an encore, which the couple did, singing the chorus once more. I found out later that this was a husband and wife and they were the favorite singers of the chancellor of the school, who was also the pastor of the church. My roommate had explained these facts to me and then he got into one of his drawers and produced a big bag of ear plugs. "Whenever they are going to sing, wear the plugs and act like you love it. Always remember at this school you are being watched." Just horrible

What brought that little memory to mind? This Sunday, starting at 10 AM, we are having a ladies trio singing for us at the annual Church in the Grove. Word has it that they are pretty good. I am 99.98% certain they will not be singing opera. Come join us for worship.

And, just in case I am wrong, come see me. I have ear plugs.   

Before I start, I want to tell you that this is in no way an attempt to pat myself on the back. I don't do that and I don't need to have any false gratification. I believe that if you take this in that vein then it is because you feel conviction. If you don't appreciate this, please come to the office and we will talk.

I need to set the stage. Twenty five years ago I had so much energy I would have tired Ed Fitch out. Of course, twenty five years ago we all had more energy. But I was kind of a freak with it. I pastored a church in Geneva, Ohio called Park Street Church. When we went to the church, there was not a Youth group and nothing for the younger kids. Challenge! We started a Youth group called NYPC (Not Your Parents' Church, 7th grade through graduation)) and a weekly kids' group called Bible University, or just Bible U. K-6th grade. In the letter below, she is referring to Bible U. We had a very good Youth group, but Bible U was almost overwhelming. Parents loved getting rid of their kids for a couple of hours on Tuesday night. We were always packed out. Little kids would run up to us in the grocery store; "Pastor Wade! Miss Marsha!" And hugs and then telling us what had happened to them that week. Many of these kids came to worship on Sunday, often on their own (the church was in town). And I remember them. On the night of 9/11 we opened our church and many of the town folk came in, but so, too, did many of the kids. Marsha and I took the kids and we divided the adults up with our Elders. Those kids were terrified.

One such little girl was a girl named Nikki. (Actually, Nicole.) Nikki was wired. Mind racing, never walking, finishing her snacks in mere seconds. And always close by to me. Like many of those kids, her home life left much to be desired. Eventually, her parents began to keep her out of church as a punishment for little infractions and eventually, she was gone. I talked with her folks, but it was one of those situations. I would see her sometimes at ball games, but that was all.

This note came to me out of the blue this year via Facebook Messenger; 

 Hello, 

I am trying to get in touch with Pastor Wade. 

My name is Nicole Judd. My maiden name was Menser. I attended Park Street Church in Geneva, Ohio when I was younger. I just wanted Pastor Wade to know these things.

You gave me a Bible in 1998. I was 9 years old then. I still have that Bible and use it. You led a Bible Study of some sort with us and I just wanted you to know that you have had more of an impact on my walk with Christ than I had even realized until the other day. You always called all the kids up to the front of the church at some point during the service, and that made me feel complete, like you cared about the children in your congregation as much as you did the adults. As an adult I have never found a Pastor who does that to this day and I wish my children had that now. Many of my fondest memories from that time of my life came from that church and from you. Thank you for being the kind, caring man you are.

I hope you are well.

Nicole Judd 

Obviously, I got back to her. She had Googled Pastor Wade and got a bunch of them. She sent to all and here we are. I had led her to the Lord, later she introduced her boyfriend to Jesus and after they got married and had three kids, they all go to church together. Nikki has sent me videos of the oldest, ten years old, singing in church and I would love to go get her for a Sunday here. That daughter looks just like her mother did at that age. But the second child, also a girl, has her mother's personality. Nikki reminded me that I once told her that I hoped she had a child just like her. Payback! The third is their son, six years old and all boy. We have gone back and forth quite a bit. What a pleasant thing this has been.

But here is the thing. We here at the Yoke are dying on the vine. You cannot sugar coat it. You cannot explain it away. It has nothing to do with going down to one building. It has nothing to do with the people who have left because of denominational conflict or the going down to one building. It has nothing to do with the changing demographics of the area. It has to do with something else. We have a strong core right now. In five years that core will be weakened. In ten years that core will be gone. We have to seize the day now.

If the church does not add Youth and young adults in the next three-four years, it will be to late. If you were a young adult with children, you would not come to the Yoke. You would go where there is a program for your kids. Yes, it was done in the past with people from the church. But no one in the church feels they can do it now. Society has changed and technology has changed and someone has to lead who knows all about those things. 

BUT, that is not what really troubles me. In twenty four or twenty five years from now there will be a young woman. A young woman who grew up in a troubled home. A young woman with three kids and a husband, and they all drive her crazy. She will not have a Bible that some kind and caring man gave her twenty five years earlier, she will not have a desire to be in church with her family because she never went when she was a kid, she will not have a special church in her mind that makes her smile and she will not have a Savior to bring her peace and comfort.

I do not have the deep history many of you have with this church. I didn't grow up here. It would be very, very painful for me to hear this church closed. But I would get over it. However, the thought of all the young people who had a chance, except the church died would be a terrible burden. 

I know we can say that we cannot afford such a thing. The truth is, we cannot afford it. It is beyond our means. But it is not beyond what the Lord can do. To Him, it is pocket change. It can be done.

When we made the decision to go down to one worship center, to renovate Grace Church, to tear down St. Peters, we looked carefully at the money. Everything was weighed out. And we did it. Hard steps, yes, but it was done. But it was not a step of faith. It was a calculated operation. Now, it is time to trust God, to take that step, to do all we can do to save the church and, far more importantly, give a little nine year old girl or boy a foundation that will carry them through their lives.