Gifts
On Sunday we had a wonderful celebration as we baptized 10 of our young people and some of their parents and then welcomed into membership at Wright’s Chapel 26 new members. Many of our young people (8th-12th grade) had recently completed an 8 week confirmation class where they had been studying what it is we believe as Christians and then specifically what we believe as Christians who worship in a United Methodist Church. Our young people reviewed church history and looked at John Wesley’s life, the founder of our Methodist tradition. They talked about the vows and commitments that they would be taking if they chose to be baptized and to join the church. I am so appreciative of Shawn Kiger and Jim Womack for leading this group of young people in this study. I was proud of our young people who chose to stand and make the commitment and I’m proud of our young people who were bold enough to say that they were not ready to make those commitments yet.
I was also extremely pleased to welcome into the membership of our church three of our young people with special needs. They did not participate in the confirmation class with their peers. They did not study the history of John Wesley or the doctrine of the Trinity. We instead simply offered these young people the invitation to join our church. They had all been baptized previously and so they stood with the 23 others who were joining on Sunday as I read the vows we would expect them to keep, part of which included, “Will you be faithful to Wright’s Chapel with your prayers, your presence, your gifts and your service?”
In some Christian faith traditions children, youth, and adults with special needs are not allowed to join the church. Leaders in those traditions argue that the “simple minded” don’t understand enough to make that kind of commitment. In other instances it is argued that they don’t bring “gifts” to be shared with the Body of Christ. I truly believe that those churches are missing the gifts God sends when God sends a special needs child and their family into their midst. From my experience, some of our young people with Special Needs are the most committed we have to our church. They are here every week. We also recognize that young people with special needs bring gifts with them as well. Sometimes the gifts they bring are the not most traditional in nature or the first ones we think of, but they bring us gifts none the less. Some of our special needs kids have the gift of hospitality; some of them have a gift of empathy. Sometimes our special needs kids help us recognize our own need for gratitude and to thank God for the blessing we all have in life and to not take them for granted. We are a better church and we are better Christians when we recognize and welcome all the gifts God sends into our midst and allow those gifts that others bring to shape us.
