I'm generally a pretty optimistic guy however one thing that often gets me to roll my eyes is whenever I hear someone tell me how much they care about young people and their opinions. It's not that I don't believe them, it's just... I've seen this song and dance before..... even if it's your Bishop you're hearing it from.

A few weeks ago, Bishop Harvey was preaching to 90+ college students at All Campus, our annual spring retreat at Lakeview with all the Wesleys from across the Texas Conference. During her second sermon she says she is crafting a sermon and she needs student input. She wants to go to churches all across the conference and tell them directly, "these are the things young people are worried about, the things they care deeply about."

At that moment, I'll admit, I had to resist my inner instinct to roll my eyes and think, "okay yeah, whatever." It's not that I didn't trust Bishop Harvey, it's just... I've been burned before and trusted people who said one thing and did an entirely different one.

As a certified "aging young person" (I'm 27, that's basically a dinosaur to some of my students), I've heard that my opinion matters countless times at church, at school, at work, in local politics. And, more often than I'd like, what happens after I speak up is I hear some version of:

"oh you're still young, you don't know what you're talking about"

"Trust me, I have more experience than you"

"You'll grow out of that once you're older"

When I heard Bishop Harvey say she wanted to hear students' opinions, part of me thought, "oh here we go again..."

Bishop Harvey preaching at All Campus 2024

But then this past week I found myself at Lakeview once again, this time for Elder and Deacon Retreat. I was in the same Bagley Hall I was in a few weeks ago but now I was the young whippersnapper instead of the old and wizened folk.

During her sermon that night, Bishop Harvey talks about what it means to build a church not for us but for a 1000 generations after us. She pulls out her notes and begins to read some quotes and, to my disbelief, I quickly recognized these are direct quotes from All Campus, from students! Not a sanitized paraphrase of what they said but direct, unfiltered thoughts from the hearts of college students all across the conference.

Part of me was expecting that same old refrain where we profess the need for the voices of the next generation but then sequester them off to the side and then chuckle to ourselves, "when will these young people learn?"

But there, deep in the shadows of the Piney Woods of East Texas, a group of pastors led by Bishop Harvey said, "Okay, we're listening." And I believe and I pray that we truly meant it.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Kyle Tremblay

Pastors, young and old, elder and deacon, gather together, united in our passion for building the church for the next 1000 generations

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Students were lined up around the building to get a meal!

Pastors join together at Lakeview to worship and be refreshed as we go boldly into the future!