Montclair Presbyterian Church

This week in Youth Group we spent some time talking about the group as a whole, and how things are going. In youth group as in Godly Play and in Sunday morning Celebration, numbers are up, and new people continue to come. 23-26 people is the new normal at Youth Group, and once we had 32. We must be in a season of growth here at MPC!

While the average churchgoer might not be acutely aware of there being more people in Celebration on Sunday, the youth notice the increase rather quickly, since the youth room is small to begin with. So we have strategized and will continue to brainstorm ways to keep the group feeling intimate and close, while incorporating and welcoming all the new members wholeheartedly.

Here are a few top ideas:

• Attending one another’s events. Whether it’s a lacrosse match, a piano recital, a Shakespeare play, or a circus performance, we are going to try to share information with one another so we can get to know one another in these ways and be supportive. Parents can help by sharing info and organizing carpools.
• Getting together after school when we can. My personal mission is to have coffee with as many youth as possible by this June (eight down, thirty-something more to go) whether one-on-one or in small groups.
• Making semi-permanent small groups within youth group. What this means is that when we break up into small groups for conversation, each youth can expect to know they will be with the same people as last time. That will give them consistency as they get to know one another. We will switch the groups up a few times a year, with an aim to both strengthen existing friendships AND to break cliques by getting to know new people.
• Adding a mid-week youth meeting next September, on Wednesday afternoons or evenings. This would be simpler and smaller than our big Sunday night meeting, and I imagine we would do something like a Bible study series.

I am excited and looking forward to all of these as we start to roll them out! I also have reflected a bit on where my time could be better-spent and came to two more ideas:

• Using Remind.com’s free text-messaging services. Youth and/or parents can sign up HERE to get text message reminders. This will save me just ten or fifteen minutes a week, which is small change in terms of time, but it will enable me to send information more frequently, and it’s also something that I can share with other adult leaders, for example when I’m on vacation and someone else is leading.
• Getting some wonderful and SO appreciated assistance from Debbie Fallehy who will serve as Retreat Registrar, getting all the paperwork and special dietary needs in line for our April retreat. What a huge help!

Now is a great season to share all your great ideas, so roll them on over my way. Thanks to all of you at MPC who support, fund, participate in, and pray for this valuable youth ministry.

Every Blessing,
Talitha

Ben challenged me to write why football is better than baseball, but I can’t for the life of me string together any semi-intelligent statements to that effect. But I DO know what is better than baseball, and the youth group agrees with me. Quidditch. Ah, yes, that sport that Harry Potter and the Hogwarts students played while flying on broomsticks, in a massive arena with multiple types of balls, a complex scoring system, and fans going wild. This sport has made its way out of the book and movie realm to be played in parks and on college campuses everywhere. Why is Quidditch such a great game?

1. It has vastly different roles for people of different talents. Chasers, Keepers, Beaters, and Seekers all need complementary but unique intellectual and physical skill sets to excell at their position… not to mention that in Muggle Quidditch (our non-magical variety) the Snitch, rather than flying, is moved around the arena by the smallest and fastest kid available.
2. It builds community across social groups, bringing together the athletic and competitive “jocks” and fantasy-loving, book-devouring “nerds.”
3. It’s deliberately and formally inclusive. According to the International Quidditch Association, under Title 9 ¾, each team must have at least two players in play at all times who identify with a different gender than at least two other players. In a world where top athletes are subjected to the embarrassment of physical and hormone testing to make sure their physical sex is in accordance with their prescribed gender category, this is a welcome move to build a positive co-ed community and to build transgender and agender inclusion and awareness.
4. Quidditch is outside of the mainstream enough to not have been commercialized and monetized, remaining an amateur sport in the best sense of the word – those who love it, from the latin amar, “to love.”

The Youth Group will be playing Quidditch this Spring as a part of our theme for the spring: “Defense Against the Dark Arts: Fighting Racism and Sexism.” We will indeed be watching Harry Potter movies, playing Quidditch, and probably wearing related Halloween costumes out of season, but at the same time we will be using this as an empowering platform to discuss practical ways we, in our everyday lives, can fight racism and sexism using common sense, skills we build together, and the strength of the Christian faith. Although the Harry Potter books are far from perfect, and not all the movies passed the Bechdel test, fighting prejudice and racism is a strong theme through them, and studies have shown that they are effective tools in teaching children lessons about prejudice.

Stay tuned – we will need cheering fans when we have our final Quidditch tournament of the year.

Every Blessing,
Talitha

Lego Quidditch photo by Tim Moreillon

I have to begin with thanks, looking back at the past week. I feel abundant gratitude for the many gifts of time, treasure, and talent that culminated in an expanded new Family Space, now double-sized in the two back pews of the sanctuary. What a beautiful place! Come see it this week, admire the intricate hand-made rugs from India, try out a pillow or two, or maybe go to the bookshelf to pick out some books to read with a toddler. Thanks go to Marilee Niemi, Tamara Lett, Vern Alexander, Paul Gertmenian, Karen Ray Gibson, Jeanne Dunn, Jim Allardice and the Celebration Committee, and Marilee Bailey who all contributed to this project and to Liam Gray for a lovely set of photos of the completed space.

Looking forward to this evening’s Ash Wednesday service and the coming days, we are entering the season of Lent, when it is traditional to fast. We may refrain from chocolate or meat, try to limit our use of technology, skip meals, or none of the above. Of course many people use Lent as an opportunity to go on a dramatic diet and to test their willpower. I have done those types of fasts and, personally, found them a little crazy-making. Self-denial for its own sake usually leaves me a little neurotic and very hungry. So while simple fasts can be helpful for some people, I would also like to introduce two other philosophies of fasting.

One is the fast of lament or protest – an appeal for God’s mercy – or a divinely-directed hunger strike. For an example, see the book of Jonah, where after the prophet has proclaimed God’s judgment on the evil city of Ninevah, the people of the city all repent of their evil ways, put sackcloth and ashes on, and fast. Their fasting is so serious that they even prevent their sheep and cattle from grazing, while they all (humans and animals together, apparently) cry out to God for mercy. The book was written as a parody, making fun – if you can believe it – of how quickly God changes God’s mind when people respond to a prophet’s call. Whether we are calling out for God’s mercy for a person, family situation, or global issue, the fast of protest is a powerful prayer.

The other is the fast of solidarity or awareness. Most of us have plenty of food in our refrigerators right now, and the vast majority of us have the money and freedom to keep our pantries well-stocked. We might sometimes skip a meal by choice, for the health benefits, thinking little about the people around the world who have no choice but to go to bed hungry. So we can fast as a way of temporarily setting aside this enormous privilege. Of course we will pick our privilege up again the next day, but for a few hours we can keep in mind what it feels like to go without. I hope that if just once during the season of Lent, you might try one of these forms and share how it went.

Every Blessing,
Talitha

Some of you know that I sing sea chanties for fun – those old work songs, made for large groups to stay together when hauling on lines – way, hey and up she rises. In fact, I am a regular at the Hyde Street Pier in San Francisco, where a monthly “sing” draws a large crowd of enthusiasts for an open sing-along session.
I have attended for about 5 years and have seen the crowds grow – from about 100 people when I first showed up, to 335 this past weekend. Good leadership, a couple of well-placed newspaper articles, and word of mouth have all helped this event grow. But recently we have burst a couple of seams as the sing continues growing. First, we were no longer able to fit the crowds on the 1886 square-rigged sailing ship Balclutha… and had to move instead to the 1890 steam ferryboat Eureka, where it is quite unlikely that chanties were ever sung by the 8-hour shift workers bringing passengers and vehicles across the bay. And recently, because of the growing crowds and new park regulations, we have discontinued the tradition of serving hot cider halfway through the evening.

I will be the first to admit I’m grumpy about the changes. After all, I met my partner on the Balclutha, and it’s full of nostalgia for us. And singing chanties on the ferry in the company of historic cars and steam engines just doesn’t have the same effect as singing them under the shadow of the three enormous masts and their complicated rigging. But still, I’m not yet an old-timer at this sing that is as old as I am. The REAL old-timers wax poetic about the days when the sing was held in the sailors’ quarters of a small wooden schooner, the Thayer, rocking lightly in the waves of the bay, capacity 40 people.

Nostalgia is powerful, but it ought not to get in the way of welcoming people. For the sea chantey sing, moving to the ferryboat has allowed more people to attend, to learn about the old songs, and to enjoy a communal experience as we sing together. At MPC I think about our season of growth as well. The youth feel nostalgic for the days when we didn’t have to break into small groups for discussion, and many people have felt anxious when trying to schedule a meeting on a Sunday morning, when all the meeting rooms are already in use. But the fact is, as we grow, more people are having their spiritual needs met, and more people are able to enjoy the blessings of community here.

To those of you who find yourself inadvertently grumbling about MPC’s growth, I offer my sympathy, because despite my best intentions I did grumble about the ferry and the cider. But somehow (by the grace of God? or just calm personalities?) there are some of you who manage an unflappable smile in the face of full pews, busy meeting spaces, and full sign-up lists… and who reach out to welcome the new people. There were a lot of youth group members in church this Sunday, some for their first time, and your welcome, appreciation and patience (even when the demand for pancakes far exceeded supply!) go far to help them feel that yes, this is their church too, and there is room for them.

May that graciousness, with which God has blessed us, be shared yet again to welcome all who are new here.

Every Blessing,
Talitha