New Hamburg, Ont.
The setting was not a mountain. It was a campground with a playing field and pond among the rolling hills near New Hamburg. But at Hidden Acres Mennonite Camp more than 70 young adults from across the United States and Canada, along with some from Europe, came together at the end of September to go to that mountain from which Jesus taught his Sermon on the Mount.
The weekend event-entitled "Morality: Learning at the mountain"-was planned by Young Adult Fellowship (YAF), a binational organization of young adults and people interested in young adult ministry. This year, Mennonite Church Eastern Canada young adults hosted the event in lieu of having their own regular fall retreat.
Besides an interactive reading of Matthew 5 to 7, interactive skits, a prayer walk around the campground and periods of quiet personal prayer, the participants-who were divided into six groups-brainstormed what they considered to be significant moral issues that the world and the church need to pay attention to. Their list was long! Not surprisingly, issues important to young adults include: abortion, homosexuality, gay marriage, sex, purity, racism, integrity, globalization, addictions, health care and materialism, among many others.
Friends, family and church were identified almost equally as the top three groups that influence the young adults' decisions. Past experiences; the testimony of others; tradition, culture and ethnic heritage; and societal norms were also listed as factors. Their moral decisions are also personally guided by praying with Scripture, individual faith, rational thought and sometimes simply by their "gut feeling."
Definitions of morality varied among the six groups. "Morality is based on the unwritten rules and beliefs on how we make decisions and interact with others," stated one group. Another defined it as "the decisions we make when determining 'right' from 'wrong' or 'good' from 'bad.'" This group wondered if there is "a continuum" to morality and if it is "based on God."
During a panel discussion, three young adults were asked about their feelings of connectedness-or disconnectedness-to the Mennonite Church, and their visions for its future.
Gaohlee Vang, a young adult from First Hmong Mennonite Church, Kitchener, Ont., has been in a Mennonite church all her life. Her parents were refugees sponsored by a Mennonite church in Ontario, but she feels a huge church disconnect.
"Being Hmong, it feels weird, we don't fit in," Vang said. "I want to tell the elders in the church that we are not the future church; we are the present church. If you can't relate to us now, how will you relate to us in the future?"
Matthew Troyer of Shickley, Neb., was not raised in the Mennonite Church, but his father embodied everything in the Mennonite Confession of Faith, he said. After his father's death, Troyer began to inquire what his dad's value of love was all about.
During his studies at Goshen College, people tried hard to be helpful. "That's what I like about the Mennonite Church," Troyer said. "They embody the love of Christ in a world of hatred, homophobia, etc. So I have chosen the Mennonite Church as being the best way for me to be a Christian."
Jeremy Schuh grew up in the Mennonite Church, going to Mennonite camps and schools. During his time at Hesston College he sought to identify Anabaptist beliefs "as my own, not my parents," he said. Part of that was not going to church for a while. "But I missed being part of a community that knew me, loved me," he admitted. "It was a huge realization for me."
Now a youth pastor at Kidron (Ohio) Mennonite Church, Schuh said, "We need to bring new people in. We need older people to mentor new leaders, not only to pad the numbers in our own church, but to leave, go get some training, serve in some other church."
Intergenerational issues-including the church's worship wars-were discussed. Some felt that hymns were outdated or that congregations "spend too much effort singing them right, getting the right notes and beats, and don't experience the words." Others, though, objected to the new worship technologies, including using overheads and PowerPoint, instead of hymnals. "Why do people always assume it is a generational thing-old folks like hymns, young folks like choruses?" one young adult asked, stating for the record, "I prefer hymns."
Whatever the issues, the young adults agreed that more intergenerational dialogue is necessary. They talked of feeling valued when older congregants ask them how they are feeling or what they are doing.
But they acknowledged that church is often a place where they feel vulnerable. Said one participant, "I would like the church to be a safe place for all people to bring questions [and] share struggles. Too often, when I raise a question, I am treated like a heretic by well-meaning people who say, 'I'll pray for you."'
-Maurice Martin
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