My Young Adult Ministry

Would you sue God?

nickwadescott — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 16:55:52 +0000

I found this article about a Nebraska State Senator who sued God to stop him from causing destruction and death in his state. The case was thrown out because no address could be found for God, so they could not serve him papers. The sueing party said that since God is omniscient, he knew he was being sued and didn’t need papers to be served. The purpose of this, to prove that anyone can be sued. I didn’t know that was disputable.

But of course this article does bring up the issue of theodicy, why does a good and just God allow bad things to happen to good people. And also is sort of reminiscent of crazy fundamentalists claiming God is actively causing destruction possibly as punishment for human sinfulness (i.e., katrina, 9/11, Iraq). Thoughts?

Monday Gathering Kickoff!

nickwadescott — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 19:44:56 +0000

As you probably know young adults are going to start meeting on Monday nights. Our purpose for meeting could vary from Bible Study, to movie watch, to hangout time, to dinner, to worship…you get the idea. No matter what we do, we will meet, build relationship and share our lives with one another.

I really hope you can make the first official Monday Gathering on Monday, October 27. We will be meeting at the Activities Center (the house across from the church) at 6:30 and then heading over to the church sanctuary for the church’s special worship service featuring the renowned reverend, Dr. Zan Holmes, and the Mt. Olive Baptist Choir. Dr. Zan Holmes is very respected nation-wide and it is a treat for us to be able to host him. Here is an article about his career written back in 2002. The service begins at 7:00 pm. After it is over I hope you will join us as we go get something to eat.

Young Adult Letter

nickwadescott — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 19:20:02 +0000

This is a letter that is going out to all young adults we have addresses for. It should be going out by the end of this week or Monday.

Dear Young Adult:

Howdy. My name is Nick Scott. I work at the church as the Director of Student Ministries.

Recently myself and other interested persons attended a Summit for Young Adult Ministry called “Missing”. It was called Missing because young adults, for a long time now, have been for the most part absent from church. There are a lot of factors involved, but one of the unfortunate ones is that the church does little to minister to this age group, me included.

At FUMC Arlington we are trying to change this. Most young adults are in an unsettled stage of transition as they make some decisions that shape the rest of their life. I think we could all benefit from being in a relation based faith community that provides support during this time. This is why there is new energy and excitement for establishing a ministry that you would want to be a part of and take an active role in. Recently young adults have been meeting together at 11:00 am on Sunday morning to discuss what we want for our ministry and how we can get there. A lot of great ideas have surfaced and here are a few:

1) Make better use of the Activity Center, make it our own!
2) Continue to meet on Sunday Mornings at 11:00 am
3) Meet regularly for missional service
4) Create a book club
5) Meet regularly on Monday nights, for Bible Study, hangout, or fun

These are just a few of the ideas we have been discussing and we would love to hear your opinions. Come join us for our 11:00 am gathering at the Activity Center (House across from the church) on Sunday mornings. If you can’t make this time join us online through our facebook group called “FUMC Arlington Young Adult Ministry is blowing up” or by visiting the new blog http://myyoungadultministry.wordpress.org. You can create, or get involved in, discussion at either of those places and I hope you do.

Last, we will be kicking off our Monday night gatherings by attending the special Monday night service at FUMC Arlington on October 27, 2008. Dr. Zan Holmes will be speaking and the Mt. Olive Baptist Choir will be leading a reviving night of worship. We will be meeting at the Activities Center at 6:30 before heading across the street. After the service we will all go get something to eat. I really hope you can make it, because it is going to be a great night.

Please feel free to contact me anytime. My information is below. I would really like to get to know all of you.

Blessings,

Nick Scott
Director of Student Ministries, First United Methodist Church of Arlington
Email: nscott@arlingtonmethodist.org
Cell: 972-951-3827 Work: 817-274-2571 ext. 237
Blog: myyoungadultministry.wordpress.com

Last Sunday…

nickwadescott — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 17:08:10 +0000

As you hopefully know, we are having discussions about young adult ministry at FUMC Arlington. We are meeting at 11:00 am on Sundays in the Activities Center (the house across the street from the church) to get to know each other and see what happens with the group. Our first meeting was this past Sunday and we had a good turnout. 8 young adults came and we talked about how the church and young adults need to do more for people who are in the transitional stage between being youth and having youth.

We also talked about some practical ways we could move our group forward. Some ideas were continuing to meet on Sundays at 11:00 am, making sure people who are out of college feel welcome, coming together as a group on Monday nights, making better use of the Activities Center, meeting regularly for serving the community.

I was very happy to see other young adults such as myself who want a faith community and want it to work. Let me hear your thoughts.

change…and interesting points of view.

nickwadescott — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:31:46 +0000

I changed the title of this blog and its address to better represent what it is, young adult ministry. I don’t want people to not come because they don’t identify themselves as college age. And young adult is inclusive of college age people anyway. Basically if you are between 18 and 30 or feel that you are, we want to welcome you.

On another note…I receive a weekly email from the Dallas Morning News that highlights their religious news, etc. from the previous week. If I receive it and I have time I like to peruse the links and see what is happening in the world. One thing they do is called Texas Faith where they pose the same question to various religious leaders from Texas. This week’s question was: Under what conditions, if any, is it acceptable for someone to vote for a presidential candidate whose social policies the voter finds morally objectionable, but whose economic policies that person favors? So basically, for example, if you, for moral reasons, staunchly oppose abortion rights, could you be justified in voting or Obama because you think he will improve our economy. There were some interesting answers that brought up more questions about the blurred lines between secular and sacred. If interested you can find the answers here.

Here is the first paragraph from Cynthia Rigby, a professor at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary:

A false dichotomy is being assumed in the question. Economic policies are social policies, insofar as they have undeniable social impact. Further: privileging “economic policies” over “social policies” is not equivalent to privileging “Mammon” over “God,” as the question implies. Avoiding such simplistic categorizations is especially important in our current political and financial clime, where people of faith who are looking seriously at candidates’ economic policies have reason to worry about paying for food, gasoline, medical care, and education. The moral ideal that drives our evaluation of economic policies is that the bread, shelter, and education necessary for human flourishing be both cherished as God’s blessing and relentlessly pursued as consistent with the self-evident truths upheld by our Constitution.

Lets talk because I am excited…transferred

nickwadescott — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:54:12 +0000

Well this is my first blog post of all time. History is being made here today, I hope you appreciate it. I have wanted to be a hip blogger for a while, and now I am halfway to my goal. Do you have any tips on becoming hip besides not using the word hip.

Anyway, I am excited. I am excited by more than this blog though, I am excited because I am not the only one excited about young adult ministry. I recently attended a summit (whatever that is) about how young adults are missing from churches. Its true, it always has been as long as I can remember. A lot of of it is natural I think. We are discovering ourselves for ourselves, seeing what is important to us. We think we have to get away from what we know to find out what we are. I think though that God, our faith, and a community of people in the same boat could help us figure all of this out. Why do we remove ourselves from such valuable resources? Well as was evident from a meeting of church staff and one caring adult, young adults, starting with college age people, are important to us and we should be ministering to you as well, because Christ is for all people. We also realize that for a ministry to work it has be for the people and by the people. I titled this blog ‘My College Ministry’ not because I want to own it, but because everyone involved should take ownership of it. I want everyone to say, “it is my college ministry”. We want to hear what you want. We want to know what is important to you. We want to facilitate a ministry that meets your needs. What are your needs.? What do you want?

I will hopefully be posting on this every week with ideas or topics for discussion. As we begin they will be a lot about what our ministry should be, as this one is. I hope you come back and take an active role in this community. If you want to link your blog, let me know.

We have Sunday School at 11:00 am every Sunday in the Activities Center, the house across from the church. The next few Sundays, or until further notice, the topic will be ourselves and where our ministry is going. I hope you come and voice your opinions. If you want to contact me personally, send me an email at nscott@arlingtonmethodist.org.