It's Been a While // Meet Eutychus

Remember me? I'm sure you do, but maybe not how I write. It's been a busy few months. To explain why I didn't write in the end of 2009, let's just say I was writing other things. And now it's March 2010 and it's been a whirlwind of a year so far.

This semester I'm taking a class on Ministry with Young Adults. I find it interesting because I am a young adult. My question going in to each class session is such: How do people imagine they need to minister to me and to my peers? For me, ministry with young adults is peer ministry, but for many of the professors and pastors and parents with whom I interact, young adult ministry is often understated if mentioned at all.

In Acts 20:7 Paul is speaking to a group in the upper room of a three-story house. It's getting late, almost midnight, the heat from the many lamps in the room make it stuffy and everyone is drowsy. The windows are open in the hope that fresh air can enter the room. Sitting in a window is a young man by the name of Eutychus. My study Bible says that Eutychus means fortunate. I would disagree. As Paul continues to preach, Eutychus falls asleep and slips out the window, falling three stories to his death.

This morning I attended a lecture by a Princeton Theological Seminary professor who spoke on issues surrounding the lack of young adults and teenagers in American churches. She cited information from the National Study of Youth and Religion, as well as personal stories from other students and youth workers. She raises concerns that the church treats their teens and young adults like Eutychus, letting them sit in the room with the preacher, but not really paying them any mind. Youth are pushed to the fringe, to sit in the windows, to not be engaged and kept awake or attentive. This story from Acts is often used as a warning against boring preaching, but we don't know that the others in the room fell asleep. Maybe it was just boring to the youth.

However, Paul and Eutychus' tale does not simply end with the youth's fall out the window, out of the church, and out of sight from his faith community. In verse 10, Paul goes to Eutychus (in the Greek, Paul throws himself on the youth, the way the father throws himself on his protigal son) and declares that there is still life in the fallen. So Paul goes back upstairs, has a cup of coffee and a donut, and goes back to preaching, business as usual.

Wait, what?! Paul resurrects this young man, only to go back and preach more? A miracle has taken place, the fallen has been raised, the lost found, and the youth made the focus of the community. Our lecturer this morning said that this is business per usual for Paul. As she put it, "The Church's business is resurrection!" It's fine and dandy to minister to the people in the pews, but that's essentially preaching to the choir. As Jesus said, the healthy don't need the doctor...

So where does that leave me? The fact that more and more I wonder about my calling to minister to children, youth, and their families in the church. It's the last part that I struggle with most at this moment, "in the church". The more I learn about congregational ministry (always, always aimed at pastoral candidates) the more I think parachurch ministry is where my passions lie.

According to the National Study of Youth and Religion, via the speaker this morning, only 8% of American youth are highly dedicated to the Christian church. I might not like math, but I know that 92% of American youth are not highly dedicated (nor involved), but that 75% of American youth consider themselves Christian. That's an enormous community of youth that have some affiliation with the Church but are not in church.

Where do I fit in to that, as a young adult, and as a youth worker? Where can I meet Eutychus today and how can I help prevent him from falling to his death?

Joy of Joy,

K.