| A year of questions, answers, daring dreams BY CIONA ROUSE While packing for my recent move to Tennessee, I noticed that I had a box filled with books Ive never finished reading. I had started each book and have even come close to finishing a few, but I never did. Its not that I dont find the books interesting. I just get distracted in the middle of one book and pick up another instead, leading to a cycle of unfinished books. Luckily there is a great literary invention for people suffering from this habit: the short story. Zora Neale Hurston, the author of one of my favorite short stories, is also the mouthpiece of one of my favorite quotations: There are years that ask questions and years that answer. Reflecting on my year spent with the Office of Communications of the Baltimore-Washington Conference, I know this has been an inquiring year. What would it be like to live on my own? Why did we have to experience the pain and fear of Sept. 11? Where do people my age fit into the church? Why did nature bring such destruction to LaPlata? How would the conference respond to transgender clergy? One particular question stands out. The Shared Mission Focus on Young People team recently launched a campaign called I Dream a Church that focuses on the visions young people have for the church. In a telephone interview for the job I now have, I was asked, Ciona, what are your dreams for the church? I was challenged by this question. I explored the Bible to see if my dreams were aligned with Gods will for the world. I examined our denomination and questioned whether who we say we are reflects what we show we are. I was also encouraged by this question. I realized that if we dare to dream, then maybe we will pray, serve and give until those dreams are realized. So I have been dreaming since I heard this question. In my dreaming I see a church where worship is ceaseless praise to the Lord and diverse congregations are the norm and not the exception. The church I dream has young adult ministries so strong that we do not lose young people after they graduate from high school. We would go above and beyond the call to reach the varied groups of young adults in the church, providing ways for young adults to get to know the church and find their places in the leadership and ministries of the church. I envision a church that refuses to be still as long as children starve, families fall apart, war wipes out nations and disease plagues much of the world. I dream a church that knows the Word of God and applies the message of salvation and grace to life today. At times we hear that unchurched people are searching for answers, for help, for anything. But they are not just searching for anything; they are searching for truth. The church must be a place that shows that the truth of Christ applies today just as it did when Jesus paid the price. I dream a church that believes that when Jesus said that we will do the things he has done and even greater things, God equipped us to accomplish this through the Holy Spirit. Such a church would be driven by ministries that may seem impossible. I dream a church where people do what may seem like a radical thing because of our call to love. This past year, I attended a reconciling congregation with a friend who never realized that she may be homophobic until sitting in the pew next to a gay couple that Sunday. She was uncomfortable worshiping there and did not understand how the church could be so open. In the church I dream there is no question why a congregation would open its doors to all regardless of differences who want to know the Lord. And I especially dream a church that does not stop with a dream, placing it on the shelf like books that never get finished. I pray that the church keeps dreaming, praying and realizing those dreams until we know in our souls that we are the disciples God has called us to be. Dare to dream with me. Ciona Rouse now lives in Nashville, Tenn. and works for the Shared Mission Focus on Young People, a program of the General Board of Discipleship. | 
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