Dear

I recently finished Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt’s The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting Up A Generation For Failure . It is a good follow up to Jean Twenge’s iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy—and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood . Both books talk about the lack of “ unstructured time. ” Unstructured time has traditionally been the way that we developed a lot of our social skills when our parents told us to go out and play. Parents are anxious these days about children’s well-being and thus keep their children busy with a plethora of structured activities. When I have talked with youth in our congregation about what they are doing, I have thought about how their lives are much busier and more stressful than mine. I think both books do a good job of explaining where we are, how we got here, and the need to revisit the ways that we use our time.

The summer affords us opportunities for “ unstructured time; ” however, we are apt to look for ways that fill it which in turn neglects its possibilities for human thriving. As your pastor, I want to encourage you to do things that have no purpose; like talking a walk through you neighborhood and wishing the people you see a good day; like playing a game for no purpose other than the fun of playing the game; like talking to that person that you’ve been meaning talk with for months now. We can trust that God can use our unstructured time if we’re not too quick to do more important things.

Worship is sort of like “ unstructured time. ” We have an order of worship, but for the most part, those who come to worship have little control over that order of worship or what happens during that time. Believe it or not, the preacher doesn’t have a lot of control over it either. Worship is complex and surprising and often goes in directions that the leader was not expecting. We encourage you to be open to the ways that God can use worship as well as other aspects of Sunday mornings like Sunday School and the fellowship time. You just need to show up and let the Spirit do the rest! We will celebrate our 2019 Confirmation Class at our 11:00 am traditional worship. We have 13 young people who are publicly professing Christian faith! I want to thank Ellen Bruenjes and Allison Trimble who have taught the class the year. We are grateful for their leadership. There will be a short meditation on Ezekiel 36:24-28 entitled “ Cut to the Heart. ” At our other traditional services, we will focus on Matthew 10:40-42 with a sermon entitled “ Preach Without Preaching. ” The Joyful Noise Choir will present “ Gracious Spirit, Heavenly Dove ” as the Introit at 8:15 and Cathy Kidwell and Terry Rowland will sing “ Because He Lives ” as the anthem. The Chancel Choir will present “ I’m Gonna Sing ” at the 9:30 and 11:00 traditional services and Cathy Kidwell and Terry Rowland will sing “ Because He Lives ” at 9:30. Pia Diggs will be leading our Risk worship service at 11:00 a.m. in the Lord Youth Center. She will be focusing on Acts 2:1-13 and her sermon is entitled “ A Mighty Rushing Wind. ” We hope you will spend some unstructured time with us this Sunday!

Messiah United Methodist Church | 6215 Rolling Road | Springfield, VA | 22152

703.569.9862 | www.messiahumc.org