Yesterday evening the youth hosted a "thank you" dinner for everyone who helped sponsor their mission trip to Myrtle Beach, SC. I know, I know, Myrtle Beach--for me as a South Carolina boy it conjures up beach music memories ("Myrtle Beach dayzzzz/ lots of fun in the hazzze") and all the teen angst of falling in love with some girl I would never see again. So you're thinking, "some youth mission trip!"
Except it really was. Our youth went to the Race Path neighborhood, an African-American community with some real needs. They worked really, really hard, ripping off an old roof and putting on a new one for a dear, 97-year old lady; building a new, wheel-chair accessible porch from scratch; and providing childcare in a crowded day care center. On the way to Myrtle, they visited the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL, site of one of the worst atrocities of the Southern Civil Rights Era--a racist church bombing that killed four little girls--Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley. They viewed statues commemorating Dr. King and the boldness of the non-violent citizens who stood up to police dogs and firehoses.
There's a poignancy to this for me. The Civil Rights movement had a big influence on my faith, and played an important role in my call to ministry. I've been pastor to churches that tried to integrate their youth programs with only moderate success. But here at St. Stephen, a mostly white, upper-middle class church, we have quite possibly the most integrated youth group I have ever seen anywhere. African-American, mixed race, hispanic, and white; of various social and economic backgrounds--they're all here, and the relationship is entirely organic--nobody tried to create it, it just happened. Nearly 50 years later, the upcoming generation of Christians seems to be living the prophetic hope that Dr. King spoke at the Lincoln Memorial--that our children would be judged, not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. And based on their mission trip, if we are to judge our youth by the content of their character, St. Stephen is blessed indeed.