|
Keokuk A year and a half after the Ninth Street experience. I had been home
(in Owensboro) after the summer at Ninth Street for the fall and winter,
and had returned to Cincinnati in the spring of 1982 and worked and stayed
with a friend I had made while at Ninth Street (he had been a college
age member of the group). That fall he introduced me to an acquaintance
of his girlfriend, and I spent most of my time that fall of 1982 with
her (Janet). When the call from Iowa came for a youth ministry position,
I asked her to marry me and go with me. I went in February 1983, at the
age of twenty six, and she came in June after we were married. It was
largely a difficult time. The youth volunteers were already "in place",
and the styles were totally different. I often feel that I jumped too
quickly at the first "bite" I got for a full time position.
I had seen that they were a conservative church, and that the youth leaders
were even more so. I thought I could "win them over". I wasn't
very patient. I felt they were not communicating the "meat"
of the faith as I saw it, and I saw some intelligent youth turned off.
I felt a personal "ownership" battle was being waged---and the
pastor was certainly not very sympathetic to my position. He didn't see
any problems with the content of what the youth volunteers were doing,
nor did he actually support me in putting my foot down about the lack
of willingness of these volunteers to put some work into planning. The good memories I have of Keokuk were of a few of the youth with whom
I had good relationships, and a couple we visited with often, a school
teacher and a probation officer who were a couple that I could talk with
about the frustrations I had. She taught the high school Sunday School
class, and I felt safe with that. She was an intelligent lady, and very
concerned for peace issues . I also had the opportunity to meet several
Iowa American Baptist leaders and be a leader in the Youth Leader Core
( a program to help some key high school youth in their work with their
own groups at home).I had also met with a group of young Single adults
every week in my home, and I felt good about what we shared there Toward
the end of my tenure in Keokuk, I filled in for the pastor when he was
away, and did some good sermons. I also took 8 youth to Washington, DC
to visit The Church of the Saviour. When I returned, I took a trip down
to Phoenix, Arizona to explore going there to a Lutheran Church to do
some more youth ministry. It was a lesson in patience, in seeking to minister to the "fundamentalist" mentality, and in looking beyond it all to the vulnerable, emerging persons who are junior high and senior high kids. I regretted that the call from the church in Phoenix came so shortly after that trip to D.C., because I would have liked to explore with those 8 youth what it meant to them, and what it might say to them about the shape of the church as they saw it, and how it should look, and what they could do. But I felt the church in Arizona was a good opportunity. .
|
Mail me comments, suggestions, warnings, flames, whatever This site maintained and researched by Dale Lature, Lavergne, TN