This report is a sidebar to story #469. Photographs are available.
A UMNS-UMC.org Report
By Kathy L. Gilbert*
Kevin
Jeanes (left) and Matt Franklin rehearse for Crave, a youth-led worship
service that is open to young people from around northern Virginia. The
monthly service, held at Fairfax Station Christ United Methodist
Church, typically draws 100 to 300 youth. A UMNS photo by Jay Mallin.
Photo number 03-320, Accompanies UMNS #472, 10/1/03
No Long Caption Available for this Story
Brandon
Child is director of power point ministries for Crave. “Where else can
you stand up on the chairs in church and praise the Lord?” he asks. A
UMNS photo by Jay Mallin. Photo number 03-321, Accompanies UMNS #472,
10/1/03
No Long Caption Available for this Story
FAIRFAX STATION, Va. (UMNS) - First they climb up on chairs and cover the huge window in the sanctuary with black garbage bags.
Next they put away the flowers and plants around the altar and install large highway traffic signs.
Then come the candles. Lots and lots of candles.
Hot
guitar licks and pulsating drum rolls spill out of the sanctuary while
an anxious crowd mills around waiting for the doors to open. The band is
warming up, and an intense young man in a white baseball hat belts out:
"God is bigger than the air I breathe; God will save the day."
It is the first Sunday night of the month, and it is time for Crave.
Crave
is a youth-led, youth-planned worship service that is open to young
people from all over northern Virginia. It began at Fairfax Station
Christ United Methodist Church two years ago.
"Where else can you
stand up on the chairs in church and praise the Lord," asks a grinning
Brandon Child, director of power point ministries for Crave.
Crave usually draws 100 to 300 youth from three districts, says youth director Taylor Gaddy.
Gaddy is the "adult" presence during Crave, but he is the first to point out he is not in charge, it is not his service.
"If
we tell him something needs to go or be changed, he listens," says Sara
Massei, a member of the Crave team. "It is our event, and he knows we
know what everyone else our age is going to like."
"He is there to help us, but he lets us make the decisions," agrees Patrick Mutchler.
"We
are going to have to expand the church just for Crave services," Child
says. "We have more people coming to Crave than the church has on
Easter!"
Crave is an example of a successful youth program that
has received funding from the denomination's Shared Mission Focus on
Young People initiative. The church's General Conference adopted the
initiative in 1996 with the charge of "re-ordering the priorities of the
United Methodist Church to better respond to the joys and pains of
young people."
The initiative provides grants for projects that
address the needs of young people, particularly in ways that can have a
broader impact in the church.
"Crave has really taken off with
the youth in the area," says Ciona Rouse, director of the initiative.
"It is a worship experience that seems to be a good model for other
churches to reach youth."
More information on grants is available at http://www.idreamachurch.com/grants.asp.
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