Staff Sharing

Rev. Julie Kline, Pastor of Youth Ministries

Rev. Julie Kline Youth Ministries is most exciting and viable when multiple adults are serving as role models, teachers and mentors for our youth. One of the incredible aspects of the Appalachia Service Project is that we spend a whole week in a work crew of seven people, five youth and two adults.  During that week of sweating and working side by side, relationships are formed; adults are guiding youth and empowering them to be their best self.  Back home when we build a ramp for a physically disabled person with the older gentlemen of The RampUp crew, we are once again forging relationships that encourage teaching skills and engaging in a common project across generational lines. 
 
Week by week, we gather every morning for Java & Jive Sunday morning youth classes that are taught by parents of youth and other committed adults. Together, they wrestle with matters of faith, spiritual disciplines and discovering how we practice our faith, values and beliefs in everyday life.  Every Sunday evening we again gather youth and adults to play, learn, serve and engage in our community and become friends grounded in our life of faith. It is inspiring and encouraging to have committed adults who are willing to give of their presence, prayers, gifts, witness and service to our Youth Ministries. What is even more amazing is to perceive that it is not only the youth who benefit from these ministries but the adults who are engaged are also touched, stretched and formed by the Holy Spirit that moves through our collective experiences and encounters with one another.
 
This fall, Jennifer Clark and Julie Doll taught a Java & Jive Sunday morning youth class that was entitled “How Green Is Your Faith for Youth.”  I would like to share with you just a small portion of their learning and growing together. 

Jennifer writes, “As God’s stewards called to care for this good earth, the Java and Jive Youth Sunday School class reflected on this unique responsibility gifted to us. 
 
Each week, the youth concluded their "How Green is Your Faith?" sessions by jotting down just one thing they loved about God’s world. The result? A poem emerged and it serves as a reminder for all of us that while there is much work to be done to heal our earth, there is still much to revere. As Wendell Berry wrote, “…the care of the earth is our most ancient and most worthy and, after all, our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it, and to foster its renewal, is our only legitimate hope.”
 
I love everything about the world. 
We have life. 
Sunrises. 
Trees. 
Northern Lights. 
Tree Frogs. 
Music. 
Kitten’s triangle tails. 
The variety of living things. 
The way the man-made feature—Horseshoe Curve—blends in to the Appalachian Mountains. 
The Rocky Mountains. 
The Sandia Mountains. Let them stay beautiful. 
The Kal Haven Trail and its surroundings. 
The Great Lakes. 
Bananas taste great. 
Chips. 
Cake. 
Beef. 
Tacos. 
Renewable Resources. 
The water cycle. 
The way that all landscapes are beautiful. 
It’s great that there are new discoveries. 
I love my land. 
I love how the earth always has surprised and I hope that never changes. 
A group poem created during How Green is Your Faith? For Teens. First United Methodist Church, Fall 2011.

Youth Ministries is most vibrant and alive when all who participate allow God to move within them, creating, shaping and sharing our individual life of faith into a body of faith.  Join us whenever the opportunity may arise.  

Blessings,     Julie

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