At the end of the month on January 29, we will once again be holding a Coming of Age celebration to bless and be blessed by the gifts of some of the youth in our congregation.  This year we will be celebrating specifically with four of our young people as they share their gifts with us through the planning and facilitation of the morning worship service.  We will also be offering them our blessing through the creation of notebooks filled with notes written by the congregation.

You have likely already started to see the announcements about these notes, but I wanted to give a little more detail and to encourage everyone to participate in this tradition that has been so meaningful to many of our youth.  

First, the encouragement:

Many of you have heard me tell the story of being interviewed to become your pastor and being asked the question, “What one thing would you want to pass on to the young people at CMC?”  If you have heard me tell this story, you might remember that I gave a response that was likely overcomplicated and was caught off guard by the beauty and simplicity of the interviewer’s response of “God loves you.” 

Whether you have a lot you want to pass on to these youth, or the best thing you can come up with is simply “God loves you,” these messages are important.  Your wisdom is important.  The collective learning, wrestling, affirming, clinging, nurturing, and hoping of this congregation in all its Spirit-filled diversity is a vital part of what makes possible our formation as the Body of Christ.  My hope is that we can share ourselves liberally with the youth through these notes and welcome them into this movement we call Columbus Mennonite. 

And now for the details:

• Notecards and explanations have been placed in all of the mailboxes.  If you do not have a mailbox or you would like more notecards for your household, feel free to use your own cards or take some from the table in the foyer.
• Please do not write on the reverse side of the card.  The notes will be made into scrapbook style pages, which makes it hard to read the back.  If you need more room, feel free to use whatever paper best fits your needs. 
• Please make sure we can tell who the note is for, and also sign your name so the youth know who it is from. 
• Notes may be emailed to me, but handwritten notes are preferred since they give a bit of a personal touch. 
• Please return all notes to me by January 22. 

On a final note: If any of you enjoy scrapbooking and would be interested in helping assemble the notebooks during the week of January 22-28, let me know.

Grace and peace to you all in the new year!

Mark