Unity!

I am absolutely bursting to share what God has taught me about Unity so far!! It was actually my word of the year for 2020- kinda ironic huh?? Of course God would teach me about unity the year that we’re all in isolation for months. He definitely has a sense of humor!

Per usual, I have a story about how God taught me and my friends the importance of unity in the body of Christ, and how he equipped us to bring it to our own community.

If you’ve read my testimony, you know that I attended my youth group starting in 7th grade. From 7th grade to 9th grade, we had a great youth pastor that a lot of us really connected with. However, we got the sad news that summer that he was moving to Oklahoma. We were all upset of course, but the church reassured us that we would have a new youth pastor within three months- or so we thought. Three months turned into five which turned into seven and finally, an entire year went by with no one but a volunteer to lead our group. A lot of kids, including myself, were so discouraged. Because of the lack of leadership, the number of kids attending youth group grew smaller and smaller and it felt like me and my friends were trying to hold the fort down.

A few of the girls in my grade and I did our own Bible study outside of youth group and were going through the book of Ephesians at the time. One day while we were meeting, we were talking about our frustrations and how much we longed for a flourishing community again. We thought once the new youth pastor comes, he’ll organize retreats and worship nights, and hangouts. We just need them to hire someone! Then we’ll be united again. We opened up our readings to Ephesians four and as we read, the Holy Spirit completely struck us. The first few verses talk about how the body of Christ is called to unity. Then, verses 11-13 say:

“So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors, and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”

As we read that out loud, it was like a light bulb went off for our whole group. We didn’t need to sit around and wait for a youth pastor to bring unity. God equipped US to serve and do work for his kingdom, even at our young age! God gave us all unique gifts and talents he wanted to use to promote unity among the youth at our church!

Things really started taking off from there. For years, we had just waited on leaders to organize events to reach out to the younger girls in the youth group, but we started putting them together ourselves. We went ice skating with girls of all grades! We also never made an effort to reach out to the guys. After that study, we started doing consistent hangouts with them to build community. Then covid hit. Everything was so confusing and it was hard being isolated from the community we felt God was working through us to build. But even then, Anna and I felt led to organize a drive-in worship night and over 30 people showed up!

Fast forward a year later and we finally got the new and current youth pastor, John. He is absolutely amazing and has become like a father figure in my life. 1000% worth waiting and looking back, I see God’s purpose behind the waiting. Because of what he taught me about unity, he grew me as a leader and I’ve stepped out of my comfort zone in ways I never would’ve imagined at the time. Our youth group now is full of unity, people of all grades and genders share community together. During my final Fall retreat senior year, everyone who shared about their takeaways from the retreat talked about how awesome it was to experience a group with so much unity. It was truly a full-circle moment for me and my friends.

So long story long, God wants his church to be united! We may all be different, but we were created to do life together. In seasons that may be discouraging, God equips YOU to carry out the purposes of his kingdom and it is truly a blessing to see the fruit that comes as a result!

-Regan

Me and Anna setting up for the drive-in worship night in 2020! (social distancing of course hehe).