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‘The Oasis’ Offers Young Adults Strength for the Journey

By Lukonde Mulenga

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Scores of young adults from all over the Northeastern Jurisdiction of The United Methodist Church gathered in Washington, D.C., on the weekend of Aug. 16 to worship and plan for the future. The gathering, called “The Oasis,” included more than 150 young adults who participated in rich enlightenment, uplifting each other’s souls and having just a plain old good time.

Oasis came together through Restoration Generation, a new initiative created to inspire the building of community and service in the young people of the church. The young adults, ranging in ages 18 to 35, met at Mount Vernon Place UMC and Wesley Theological Seminary's urban ministry campus.

After a mixer Thursday night, the event officially kicked off Friday morning with opening worship, which was led by Restoration Generation manager, the Rev. Hannah Adair Bonner, one of the coordinators of the Oasis weekend. During the worship service, she explained that the event, although called The Oasis, is just a stopping point on the journey that the young adults of the church are taking together.

The Oasis, she explained, “is the place to gather, to gain strength, to build relationships, so that we will be stronger to journey forward on together again”.

The first of three unique speakers from the weekend, the Rev. Lorenza Andrade Smith, gave the message that morning. Smith is widely known throughout The United Methodist Church for giving up all of her possessions in 2011 and living on the streets as a homeless person to better serve the homeless population.

In her message, she spoke of her time on the streets and the time she spent a night in jail after being ticketed for sleeping on a park bench. During that night in jail, Smith ended up “peeing and praying” as her jail mates learned that she was a pastor and called on her to pray with them even though she was using the facilities.

She used this experience as a metaphor and called on the group to mix our personal business with our social business, saying “Personal holiness and social holiness can and should be done together in a line,” as it will lead to a better relationship with God.

The morning worship service ended with a reaffirmation of baptism. Participants walked up to bowls of water in the middle of the sanctuary and touched their bodies with the water while taking away small shells that were inside of the bowls, symbolizing the receiving of God’s blessings upon them.

After lunch, the young adults participated in mission service in the Mount Vernon Place community. During this time, they learned about the homeless who live in the area and about opportunities in which they could help in urban ministries, such as US-2, a two year mission program in which a person is assigned to work in a struggling community.

Afterward, John Francis, a Contemporary Christian Music/ folk artist who provided the music for the opening worship, gave a talk about his life and how people can respond to the justice issues encountered through worship. The day ended with a concert given by Francis which was open to the entire community.

Saturday morning began bright and early with prayer and a workshop that discussed diversity within ministry. The opening worship, called the “Missional Challenge,” started off with music provided by Dana Scott, a well-known worship leader in the Baltimore-Washington Conference, with other musicians also providing the ministry of music alongside her.

The second of the unique speakers to grace The Oasis, Demetrio Beach, gave a message titled “It Is What It Is!” At 25-years-old, Beach, the conference lay leader from the Peninsula-Delaware Conference, is the youngest lay leader in the denomination.

His message called on the group to not always accept the end result of a situation, telling us to remember that it “is a statement of fact but believers don’t accept it for our future,” and that with God, all things are possible. The morning worship ended with the group writing their burdens on a piece of paper and putting the burdens in a bowl of water, symbolizing giving up their troubles to God.

After lunch, the Rev. Jim Walker, a pastor from Pittsburgh, lead a discussion titled “Agent of Transformation,” putting emphasis on the word “agent.” Walker reminded everyone that we, as one church, should stand together and be one agent of change to become a bridge to the community, stating that “a bridge is always open; a bridge connects.”

At the closing worship, the cumulating point of the entire gathering, the message was brought by unique speaker number three, Bishop Martin D. McLee of the New York Annual Conference.

 His message, “How About A Drink!” centered on how Jesus is thirsty and the only way to quench his thirst is to be active disciples and praise his name.

During his message, McLee not only inspired the young adults to bring the church back to life by shaking up the typical Sunday by recusing the church from “dead” music, he also managed to paraphrase a lyric from Jay-Z and rap at the end of his sermon.

He told the group that “folk are looking for spiritual swag” and that not everyone responds to the hymns that are reverently held in the United Methodist Hymnal.

“If you do not know Jesus, it’s hard to cherish the ‘Old Rugged Cross,’” the bishop remarked.

McLee then called for a time of reflection and prayer where anyone with burdens could come to the altar and lay them down.

One by one, people came down to the altar, some staying for a short time, some staying until the service was completely over. What was evident during this time was the love everyone had for each other; everyone who was at the altar had a hand placed on their shoulder to remind them that they’re not alone. Everyone then left the sanctuary with new bonds formed, old bonds reinforced and smiles on their faces.

One of the most import discussions that occurred during Oasis detailed the extent of young adult ministries in different conferences.

Within the Baltimore-Washington Conference discussion, there was a consensus that young adult ministries depended on the individual churches because some churches have very few young adults while others have many who attend.

Also made evident was the fact that this is a group usually ignored because of the awkwardness of the group – not considered old enough to be an adult but too old to be considered a youth. Young adults have to deal with not only trying to find their place in the world but also trying to find a place within the church.

Despite this, young adults do hold an important role within The United Methodist Church – they are the immediate future. This group is the one who will take over the “adults” when their time has passed and it is this group that will set the tone for future generations of United Methodists to come.

Discussing the importance of young adults, Bonner said, “We recognize that we are more than a category within the church – we are a generation. And that generation will move throughout time, throughout the decades; we will not age out of this. This is something that goes on. So we want to make sure that we have a hard foundation built for the future decades of life together in this church that lie ahead of us. The community that will be built is one that will continue on.”