Ten minutes before worship Ethel hands me a yellowed newspaper article taped onto the back of a flyer. The article features a picture of me at 17, standing with Mike Johnson the founder of Shekinah, a 70's Christian band. The flyer announces the "First Annual Festival of Joy - a Christian Woodstock."The Festival of Joy did not become an annual event, but it is forever remembered by the four teenagers who organized it, me included. It was poorly organized, poorly attended and I think we wound up in debt. But nothing empowered us more than having an idea and being allowed to run with it.
One mistake we adults make in ministering to teens (emerging adults, I call them), is not seeing nor helping them to see the enormous potential they have. I remember saying one last goodbye to the couple that had hosted our weekly youth group meeting for years. I was off to college, and Mrs. Ferguson stopped me at the door to say, "You will succeed in anything you do."
I've forgotten most of what was shared during those meetings, but I have always remembered that last encouragement. And while I haven't always been successful, it has been enough to know that someone thought that I could be.
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