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VOL. 13, NO. 12

Young people share dreams on new Web site

By Kathy L. Gilbert United Methodist News Service

Young people are dreaming about a future for the United Methodist Church, and they are doing it in cyberspace.

Shared Mission Focus on Young People, a global initiative of the denomination, recently launched a new Web site, www.idreamachurch.com , designed to give young people a forum for sharing their hopes and dreams about the church.

Log onto the Web site and you can read dreams from people like Max from Moscow, Russia, who envisions a church that has no boundaries for ministry with young people. Another writer dreams of a church that invites young people into a relationship with Jesus Christ and walks with them through a lifetime of discipleship.

The Web site is being promoted during jurisdictional youth gatherings this summer and is being linked as many places as possible, said the Rev. Drew Dyson, executive director of the initiative in Nashville, Tenn.

Julie ONeal, a student at Saint Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Mo., and a co-leader of the Shared Mission Focus team, says the site was born out of a desire to see what the church looks like now and what it could look like in the future.

For me, the Web page encourages people to search their inner self, for through their dreams comes a spring of life that propels all of us to be faithful to the calling placed ahead of us, she said. It reminds me that there is hope in challenging the church to change.

Gerald Jay Williams, a student at Harvard and the other co-leader of the Shared Mission Focus team, wants people to know the site is not just a suggestion box.

Of course, we want suggestions, comments and feedback ... but mostly we want dreams, he said. We want people to express some of the hopes and dreams that you dont normally express at a church council meeting ... some of the thoughts that you have for the church after youre leaving Sunday worship. ... You know, some of the ideas that you have for the Body of Christ when youre in the shower and theres no one to listen.

I think that the dreams that weve collected so far have been honest and inspiring, and even a bit challenging to what people may be ready to hear, ONeal said. I hope that whoever looks at this Web site sees the validity in ministry with young people and reminds us all of how important it is.

Both ONeal and Williams agree that they want young people to know the site is an opportunity for them to have a voice in the United Methodist Church.

When you think the people in your local church arent listening, post a dream to the dream page, Williams said. When you want your voice to be heard loud and clear, log on to www.idreamachurch.com. The Shared Mission Focus on Young People was formed for this very purpose to make a dream for the church a reality.

The bottom of the sites home page proclaims, The SMFYP is a movement of the Holy Spirit calling young people to be world-changing disciples of Jesus Christ.

With the Spirit of Pentecost that blows from every direction like the wind, we tell to all who will hear: Watch out, God is about to do a new thing in the UMC and in the world, Williams said.

Besides launching the new Web site, the Shared Mission Focus is adding a staff member. Ciona Rouse joins the Nashville staff as the communications and project coordinator July 22.

For the past year, Rouse has been with the Baltimore-Washington Conference as United Methodist Communications 2001-2002 Judith Weidman Racial Ethnic Minority Fellow.

We are delighted to have Ciona joining our staff. She has extraordinary gifts in the area of communications as well as a passion for ministry for, with and by young people, Dyson said. We really had an incredible pool of talented young people to choose from for this position.

I look forward wholeheartedly to working for the mission and vision of young people across the connection, Rouse said.

In her new position, Rouse will be responsible for developing and implementing a comprehensive communications strategy for the Shared Mission Focus. In addition, she will manage special projects such as a leadership-training institute for young people and comprehensive youth ministry training in the central conferences.