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Note #7857 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

Leaders of tomorrow
03307
July 31, 2003

Leaders of tomorrow

Assembly preacher challenges young folks to do the church a flavor

by Jerry L. Van Marter

LOUISVILLE - Toting Bibles and The Book of Order, as well as the more
customary stuffed animals, music players and broken-in pillows, nearly 600
high-school-age youngsters from the Presbyterian Church (USA) and partner
churches around the world descended on Louisville Wednesday for the third
triennial Presbyterian Youth Connection Assembly (PYCA).

The PYCA, launched in 1997 and reprised in 2003, is meant "to equip and
empower young people to lead, to listen and to learn within their faith
communities."

Although it contains elements of other Presbyterian youth conferences -
worship, recreation, Bible study and lots of contemporary Christian music -
the PYCA is unique in offering Presbyterian young people a chance to enact
"legislation" on issues facing the church and the world.

Developing a new generation of	leaders in response to God's call to the
church was a point of emphasis for the Rev. Rodger Nishioka, the preacher for
the Assembly's opening worship service.

"I believe you are called to be leaders of Christ's church," Nishioka, a
popular youth-conference speaker and a professor of youth ministry at
Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, GA, told his audience. "And this
call is not dependent upon you, but upon the God who created you."

Nishioka celebrated the diversity of the crowd, saying: "God is a
Baskin-Robbins God, who wants all kinds of flavors of Christians."

He urged PYCA participants to carry their Bibles with them at all times,
explaining, "God made us the Presbyterian flavor of Christians, and our
focus, our flavor, is the proclamation of the Word."

Turning to the story of Abram/Abraham in the Book of Genesis, Nishioka
described how Abram took God's word on faith - although he was led on an
uncertain, nomadic trek with no clear destination and had been promised that
his descendents would populate the Earth despite the fact that he and his
wife, Sarah, were childless at age 75.

"This pattern is lived out over and over again in Christian history,"
Nishioka said. "When God calls, we respond with doubt, with protest, with
skepticism, with despair  and sometimes with faith. And when we do, like
Abram and Moses and Jeremiah and Jesus, great things happen."

Calling the notion that God calls people of faith "a bedrock idea," Nishioka
said: "Every one of us here is called by God and invited to be a leader. God
is calling us out in remarkable ways to serve."

Turning again to the Genesis story, he recalled that God, responding to
Abram's doubt about fathering the nations, showed him the night sky and told
him his descendents would outnumber the stars.

Citing the PYCA theme, "Shine Like the Stars," he concluded, "God has called
you to this place to shine, to change this church. and to tell everyone that
Jesus is Lord of all."

The opening worship culminated in a celebration of the Sacrament of the
Lord's Supper that perfectly captured the spirit inferred by the words of
institution, "the joyful feast of the people of God." As worshipers moved to
the serving stations, a band led by Assembly music leader Chip Andrus, an
associate for worship in the Congregational Ministries Division and a
renowned contemporary Christian singer/songwriter, led the group in
"exuberantly reverent" praise songs that had them swaying, clapping and
dancing in the aisles.

The PYCA Assembly continues through Sunday morning. On Thursday, after
leader-development workshops and legislative committee meetings, the Assembly
will elect co-moderators to preside over plenary sessions here and chair the
Presbyterian Youth Council for the next three years.

Committees and workshops continue Friday, with plenary legislative sessions
set for Friday evening and Saturday morning.

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