wfn.org | YAADs bring new energy to GA while gaining experience

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YAADs bring new energy to GA while gaining experience

> Co-moderators were elected from 15 candidates

> July 5, 2010
> Photo of Caroline Sherard

Young Adult Advisory Delegate Caroline Sherard attended the 219th General 
Assembly. ?Photo by Rachel Van Marter.

> GA219 Communication Center

> by Emily Enders Odom

> Communications Associate

> MINNEAPOLIS

While other Assembly participants were retiring to their rooms following 
Saturday?s late-night Moderator election, Caroline Sherard and Michael East 
were just getting their second wind.

As the meeting room vibrated with the driving beat of energizers, the Young 
Adult Advisory Delegates co-moderators ? elected from a field of 15 on Friday 
evening by the 161 YAADs of the 219th General Assembly (2010) ? prepared to 
motivate and inspire their  cohorts.

East, an elder and inquirer under care of Eastern Oklahoma Presbytery ? which 
he represents here as a YAAD ? is a graduate of Austin College in Sherman Tex., 
who plans to enter Columbia Theological Seminary in September. He is a member 
of First Presbyterian Church in Sapulpa, Okla.

A self-confessed ?GA junkie? after having attended General Assembly only once 
before as an observer in Louisville in 2001, East said he has watched 
everything from a distance since then both by using the Web and by keeping in 
touch with his former pastor, who attends every assembly.

?I love church leadership,? he said. ?I like working in this kind of setting in 
these groups. My goal is to be moderator of the General Assembly one day.?

Sherard, a member of the Abbeville, S.C., Presbyterian Church, is a rising 
junior and an elementary education major at Winthrop University. She is the 
YAAD from Trinity Presbytery. Surprised by her presbytery?s invitation to 
serve, this is her first General Assembly.

?I was sitting in my dorm room one afternoon when I got a call from my 
presbytery,? Sherard explained. ?I said, ?I?ll let you know, but my answer will 
likely be yes.? I love the ministry, and I love the church.?

East and Sherard explained that the YAADs gather nightly following the close of 
the business meeting primarily for community building and worship, which they 
help lead. To lend support to the co-moderators ? and all of the YAADs ? in 
carrying out their important responsibilities, the Stated Clerk?s office has 
assigned four assembly assistants as YAAD advisors.

For the 219th GA, they are Laura Cheifetz, Kevin Hays, Ellie Johns and Jeff 
Moles. Tyler Gibson, an intern with the Office of the General Assembly, serves 
the YAADs as  liaison.

Both East and Sherard expect to leave the Assembly changed.

?I want to leave knowing that our presence here has hopefully made an impact on 
the decisions that are being made for the future of the church, that we are 
already part of today,? said East. ?I hope that we as YAADs will influence 
commissioners as to how youth think, even as they influence us. It?s a two-way 
street.?

Sherard called her experience here humbling, but exciting.

?I?m just getting into that leadership role at the beginning of the week,? she 
said. ?As I grow into my position, hopefully by the end of the week I will 
really know what?s going on!?