Just want to take this time and opportunity to introduced myself to this web of christain believers. I'm the 5th District Lay Organization Director of Youth and Young Adults. I want to pick the brains and spirits of you all on suggests or about current program to get Young Adults in this district involved and moving for christ. We need more young adults in the laity to secure our history and grow our future.

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2002

Answers

Welcome to the board Lamar!!! We are truly blessed to have you represent the fifth district. Our district is really unique for it covers 14 states, it is urban and rural and multi-ethnic. Lamar has been working hard. Lamar will you please post your web site address and please know we are praying for you!!!!!!!!!!!!

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2002

Hello everyone,

My name is Simeon (Si-me-yin) LOL, I am a member of First AME Seattle, WA.

In 1998, I was nominated as the first, local, Young Adult President of the Young Adult Lay Oranization in my local church of the Pacific North West Conference. Keeping this idea going was truly an insulting and difficult journey. I'll explain, The term "Young Adult" is understated which lead to be insulting. For example, Young Adults have been labeled as "kids" or "children" who are un-informed and not ready for the task.

Many of our "Adult" Lay members are already over the age of 45 and the thought of "Young" people being heavily active in the Lay Organization, poses a serious threat to their intergrity and positions. But you see, it's all a mis-understanding. In my opinion, Young Adults who are seeking to be active in the Lay Organization are those who are looking to present solutions to the many problems that have been recurring for years in our Lay Organizations. They are also the ones who DESIRES to be a member of the Lay Organization. You can't find too many Young People these days with such energy and zeal to be active in such an infamous organization of the church. When you do, you had better try to maintain their interest.

With that in mind, we (Young Adults and Supporters) have to emphasize that the term "Young Adult" is not to be understated. And we should all try to help create programs and opportunites within the Lay Organization to help serve as a beacon to those ages 21-35.

One way to do that would be to visit the Website of Brother Lamar Rose. A few of us from across the District have come to together along with Brother Lamar to help him get this program up and running. It's a fabulous program and all it needs is your help. However, the task is not easy. Everything needs to be what I call a "Follow Through Program".

If you have any questions, I would be more than happy to try to answer them as well as help you along the way. STAY ENCOURAGED!

Thanks for this opportunity, Simeon Rhoden

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2002

Welcome to the board Simeon. I am actually in your conference. The Pacific Northwest Conference. Please be encouraged for there are many young adults who love the lord. May daughter Danielle is 25 and is the co-founder of our church. She is also our WMS president and is the executive producer of an upcoming A.M.E documentary. I do believe the young adults are out there we just have to create programs and ministries for them that are relevent. For example one area of concern that I have as a Pastor is credit card debt for college students. When students enter college they are inundated by free credit cards, and often they do not know how to manage them. Our denomination is about economic development. God calls us to minister to all of his children regardless of their age. And our young adults are also the foundation of our church. Richard Allen was a young adult when he founded our denomination at the age of 27. What a powerful role model young adults have. Thank you for the service you have already given the church and keep pressing on we need you and LaMar. By the way I am the pastor at St. Paul Community A.M.E Church Bozeman, Montana www.forministry.com/59715spcac

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2002

Hello Rev. Rogers,

On a personal note: I had been wanting to meet you for some time now...are you planning to attend the Planning meeting in San Francisco?

As far as your concern with credit card debt, that is truly an issue that need to be address to all Youth and Young Adults. I agree, it is a problem and unfortunately, I fell victim to the same situation as a Freshman at Florida A&M university.

However, I was fortunate to have a church family away from home that was able to explain to me the ramifications of acquiring unecessary credit cards and debt. This family was within Bethel AME Church of Tallahassee, FL; where Rev. Richardson (Now Bishop) presided. He had a mentor program for AME college students who had come to the area for school. One of the issues that we constantly talked about was the pressure of having credit cards. The mentors explained in detail the pros and cons of obtaining credit cards and how to be more responsible if you had already had one.

This type of mentoring was positive and it worked. I think that every AME church should consider such mentoring programs. It also serves as a vessel to reaching out to those students who may be looking for church homes away from home.

You explained that your daughter was promoting or producing a documentary on the AME Church... That's interesting, I would love to have more information about that.

Also, we have about 40 active Young Adults in our Lay Organization and we would love to come and visit your church. Maybe you have some ideas? Let me know.

-- Anonymous, October 08, 2002

Simeon I look forward to meeting you also!! My daughter and I will not be at the planning meeting in San Francisco we can't afford to go with the airfare, hotel etc. We are a new church and there is no money for us to go to these conferences yet. You will be hearing from us, as we are planning programs for our Black athletes at Montana State university. One of my dreams is to have Professor Bill Dickens give a workshop on the importance of economics for young people. When my daughter attended annual conference in 2001 and our church was brought into the denomination. The person that greeted us first and explained things to us was a young adult age 23 from Bethel A.M.E in Spokane. That is one of the things I remember the most from Annual Conference. There is such a vibrancy among the young people in our denomination. We just need to set them free. In terms of the documentary it will be very exciting! Bishop Bryant is thrilled and we have some of the top church history scholars and Documentary scholars in the country on our advisory team. Including Rev. Dr. Dennis Dickerson our church historian who teaches at Vanderbilt University. We also have Dr. Dorothy Adams Peck President of the WMS society.It is an ambitious project and Danielle's degree is in Broadcast Journalism. This is the second documentary we have worked on together. This will be her third documentary. Danielle is the Executive Producer/Director, I am co-producing. You will hear more about it later. Please stay in touch and come visit. We live one hour from Yellowstone National Park. Our town is completely surrounded by national forests. And yes electricity;-) and stores (heehee, I am trying to get Bill and Jenny Dickens to visit so I have to have them understand we do have amenities;) Malls, shopping centers, KFC etc. Oh, we have a new member who is 19 and is A.M.E from St. Croix, virgin islands. Stay in touch and keep up the good work!!!!!!!!!!!!

-- Anonymous, October 08, 2002

Brother Lamar: I am also what is considered to be a young adult in the Lay Organization of the Fantastic First Episcopal District. I attended the biennal in Jacksonville FL. And I was amazed at the amount of (young) persons involved in the Lay Organization! As a result of that wonderful meeting I was inspired to get more involved in this organization. But as some have already stated, we too are not looked upon as having something good to offer the senior members. One suggestion that I have for you is to seek to offer a seminar/workshop on what the young adults and younger people can offer the Lay as a whole. This was done at our Mid-year meeting and finally some of the senior members of our organization began to listen to what we had to say. Some people could not believe that what we said was true but then some of them who were say age 45 or 50 began to say that they had heard the same songs as well. I am not going to say that we solved all the problems but we did establish a dialogue and begin to exchange ideas. And now most of us are serving on all kinds of other committees in the Lay. Be encouraged God will Provide the Knowledge and the insight as far as what we have to do to be recognized as the next level of Laity. Denise Hope

-- Anonymous, November 04, 2002