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This morning’s message is wrapped in witness. We are not talking about what it would be like to wear the armor of Christ, theoretically. We are listening, singing and feeling what wearing the armor of Christ looks and sounds like – in real time.

Fasten the belt of truth. Put on a breastplate of righteousness (not self-righteousness.) In other words, the breastplate of humble and courageous conviction. Slip on the shoes of peacemaking – boots, tennis shoes, sandals, whatever. Have in hand a shield of faith. A shield that can meet arrows of criticism, put downs and nay sayers. Go out into the world and do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God.

This past summer our children and youth have been busy. Many of them were active in CCC ministries. Glance at the insert naming names of participants at camp, in Y-GELI, at Vacation Bible School. We could fill up pages with the good news we have been about this summer, here at CCC and all over the world. Vacations, internships, reunions, scout camps, y-camps, summer jobs, hanging out with skateboards… Whether we are conscious of it or not, faith – its questions, its expressions, its existence, is present in so much ordinary that it is really quite extraordinary!

This morning we celebrate our Y-GELI program. We also bid adieu to our formal relationship as a YGELI partner. It is time to take what we have gained from this program and relationship and move into new ministries and settings.

Rev. Linda Carder introduced CCC to the just getting off the ground YGELI program in 2003. Ginna Minasian Dalton, associate pastor at Little River UCC, was developing a program with a vision of linking global contexts with faith issues of justice and leadership. It would have a clear UCC identity. Ginna saw a need for Little River youth to experience life beyond their quasi protected worlds. Linda saw a need for CCC youth to experience life beyond the Retreat House. A relationship was formed that became a covenant between 3 distinct UCC congregations.

It has been an important relationship and an even more meaningful experience for those youth and adults who have been part of YGELI. It has also been a difficult, sometimes strained partnership. Collaborative endeavors are work. It is not easy, as many of you know, to integrate different cultures, norms, leadership styles, and experiences and expectations. Our situation is not unique. Congregations regularly hook up with one another for a period of time. Worthy things transpire. And then, it becomes time to move on. As I became more involved and familiar with YGELI administration, it became more difficult for me to justify the incredible amount of time and energy it required. I was short changing CCC children and youth programs. YGELI, while theoretically open to all junior and senior high youth, left too many families and kids out. In the late spring of this year I had an epiphany, an ah-ha! If I stepped down from YGELI leadership, I would have more time to help develop additional programs and to be more attentive to our growing Christian education needs. I was and I am, excited.

My clarity of direction did not at all rule out YGELI continuing. That decision was up to the CCC volunteer leadership team – a core of five parents, a retiree and a young adult that donated incredible hours and genuine commitment to the program these 3 years. The pace and intensity could not be sustained. The team listened to feedback from our youth. We needed something different.

Mid summer, the CCC team made a difficult yet supported decision to not renew our partnership. It was becoming clear that CCC was ready to grow our own wings in the areas of justice oriented, local and global endeavors. There are ministry models that are a better fit for CCC at this new time. NOT better models, a better fit. Please hear the difference. There are multitudes of ways to do just about anything. YGELI is an outstanding program. YGELI had succeeded in its purpose as understood by Linda Carder. YGELI gave us a taste of what youth ministry could include. Our saying goodbye to YGELI is our saying hello to wider horizons of involvement and impact. We wouldn’t be at this exciting place without the gift of YGELI and this congregation’s support.

I have purposely spent time explaining a few of the many components that make up YGELI. It has come to a shock and for some great disappointment to learn that CCC is letting go of YGELI. I have been encouraged to be transparent in this decision making. I think that is good advice. YGELI is a mixed bag. Some costs are hidden.

YGELI represents award winning youth ministry here at CCC. I’d like to see those horizons grow.  We are more and youth ministry is more than a single program.

Why would we let go of something we worked hard to maintain? Because we can do more as a congregation for and with our youth through new initiatives. We are not letting go of the values YGELI embraces. We are taking them with us.

A commercial – September 17 following the 10:30 service, all adults and youth age 4th grade and older are invited to gather in the Meeting Room. We will brainstorm and prioritize familiar and not so familiar adventures that say, Youth are not the future church. Youth are the church now.

So let us give thanks for the Youth Global Experiential Learning Initiative program. Let us celebrate how its ministry has touched our lives and allowed the world to touch us.

This week we remember the one year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Carrick and Larry help us get up close and personal with the lives this unfolding tragedy and resurrection embody.

The message continues …

Carrick Hill

"A Second Reconstruction"

Ladies, gentlemen and children of Christ Congregational Church, as you know Y-GELI went to the Gulf Coast this summer, and what I have seen is complete physical devastation. The devastation is so total as a matter of fact that I would have to say that the Gulf Coast after Katrina looks like the South did after the Civil War.  And if you remember your history, ladies and gentlemen, what happened after the Civil War was Reconstruction, which was the national effort to rebuild the South after the Civil War. Well, I believe that a second Reconstruction is necessary to fully bring back the Gulf Coast. One question that you may have on your minds this morning is, “What is our Christian duty to this Second Reconstruction?” Well, I feel that our government should rebuild the Gulf Coast physically but we as Christians and the Church and the United Church of Christ should rebuild the Gulf Coast spiritually. When I was down in the Gulf Coast region I thought up a personal motto which is, “When you are right, never back down.” Well, I feel that this is right for America and I say that until this “Second Reconstruction” is over that America must not back down.

Another question that you may have on your minds this morning is “How can we help to reconstruct the Gulf Coast spiritually?” Well, we can start by rebuilding the churches down there so that the people of that region can have someplace to worship. When we were down there we helped to reconstruct one church, Good Shepherd United Church of Christ. We helped to rebuild by landscaping.  We helped with weeding around the Good Shepherd sign out front, pruning the bushes near the playground and picking the dead stuff out of the bushes out front.  We wanted to do more!

Another thing we can do to help reconstruct the Gulf Coast spiritually is to personally bring them a message of hope. One day while we were down there, Sandy Dodson gave us these really cool red shirts to wear that had the message in white letters on the front, “God is still speaking.” And we went shopping with these shirts on. All day people would come up to us and tell us their stories. But I remember one story above all the rest.  One middle aged African-American woman came up to us and told us what it was like to be in the Superdome after Katrina and the whole thing with sanitation.  She said how it brightened her heart to see that someone cared.

This trip has had a profound impact on my life.  Before coming on this trip I didn’t know the extent of the damage until I saw it first hand.  I know now that our church needs to think about how we can help in this Second Reconstruction. We should go back to Good Shepherd UCC with more people and more resources to continue what we have begun.

Lawrence West Gipson (a.k.a.Phat Larry)

"Worship Rap for New Orleans"

What you doing with the time you’re giving? / Are you really living?
            Doing all you can to be a good Christian? / Avoiding vice and sinning?
Well, my mind is spinning, caught in an unforgiving / Tropical Swirl
            Baby girl, yo, I’m about to hurl / Because it’s devastating that in this world
Sickening for me to see this city / Filled like a toilet bowel in a whirl
            So many dead, dying, crying or unable
 Emotions caged like horses locked in a stable
           
And worse still, if you’re a follower of God’s Nazarathean Son,
            Is that nature had a part to come / But most of this is what mankind’s done
But now that it’s said and done / We ain’t here to play the blame game
            Disgrace politician’s name / That joint be lame / Because we remain
To help our brother’s one in the same / Those who least among us
            Now flushed down the drain / It’s insane how once people rushed
Flew down on airplanes / But now few people gush / About rearranging the pain
            In the brain, in the heart, in the soul, in the pocket

“Infrastructure repaired”?? / Heck no, we just about lost it
            And drop it, I shall not. It really matters to us
Especially since we considers ourselves followers of Jesus
            Who spoke clearly about helping those nearly lost in the rush
So help a bro on the low / And you can trust in this much
            Doesn’t matter how you feel about God, the afterlife and such
Thought you may not get your pay / Come Judgment Day
            You got a good feeling that will stay / This I pray

Yo / Check it before y’all correct it

Coming back from the dead / Yeah, we resurrect
            Throw your hands over your head / For sticking out your neck
Sacrificing the comforts of your home / To go help those who have none
            We’ve come a long way, but we ain’t done
But you best recognize this message of hope son
            So this is Phat Larry signing off from New Orleans
We the soldiers of Christ about to get this war won!

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