Reflections on GYC

I've been hearing about GYC (Generation of Youth for Christ) for several years. At the end of this year (2011) I'll have a chance to finally experience it firsthand, when GYC comes to Houston.

I did experience a regional variant in 2007 when I attended part of the Great Lakes Youth Conference (GLYC), held on the campus of Andrews University. I was at Andrews for a very different event--a conference on the fiftieth anniversary of the book, Seventh-day Adventists Answer Questions on Doctrine. Throw out either set of initials, GYC or QOD, in a gathering of informed Adventists, and you get similar reactions.

Most of my ministry has been in the areas of young adult and campus ministry. I write on these subjects for Adventist Today. I serve on the North American Division advisories for young adult ministry and Adventist Christian Fellowship. And so I was interested when I saw the GLYC signs around the Andrews campus, and on that Sabbath I took advantage of breaks in the QOD program to head over to the gym where GLYC was meeting.

Though the conference was in a gymnasium, the Sabbath School and worship service were characterized by reverence and Adventist formality: suits and ties for the young men, dresses for the young women, traditional music accompanied by piano and strings, sermons exhorting the faithful to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints.

I met Sam Pipim for the first time that day, and ran into him again at the ABC the next day. We've seen each other a couple of times since, and have corresponded. I had heard much about him (from people with strong opinions), but found him a genial, kind pastor, with an enthusiasm for ministry with young people, and a love of the challenges of ministry on the secular university campus. I read his books later. The books that annoy some of my other friends. The books that they see as Jeremiads criticizing ideas and methods and institutions they hold dear.

Through this process of investigation and conversation, I felt a strange sense of déjà vu.

Though raised an Adventist, I left when I was 21, and a student at Atlantic Union College. I returned to the Adventist church four years ago. In my twenty four years away, I was active in what Adventists like to call "Sunday-keeping churches" (I'll write an article about that another time)--I joined the Catholic church, and did professional lay ministry for that church. I spent a couple of years as a campus minister at the Newman Center at University of California at Santa Barbara before being hired as the Director of Young Adult and Campus Ministry for the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. I was in that position for nine years. I supervised a half dozen Newman Centers. I served on the board of the National Association of Diocesan Directors of Campus Ministry. I was active in the Catholic Campus Ministry Association, helping to plan national and regional conferences.

In the Adventist conversations about GYC, I have heard echoes of conversations I heard in Catholic circles. The topic was the same: the relationship between "official" ministries and new "independent" ministries. The Catholic Church has a 100+ year history of ministry on secular college campuses. At places like University of Illinois, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Texas A&M, or University of Texas, the ministries attract hundreds, even thousands of students; they are served by with large staffs who work out of impressive facilities (with equally impressive budgets to pay for it all--my budget was $800,000, and we did no fundraising). Some of these ministries are run by dioceses (the equivalent of Adventist conferences), and others are run by religious orders (the Paulists and the Dominicans in particular).

In recent years, some new ministries have emerged, disturbing the status quo. One of the most prominent is FOCUS (the Fellowship of Catholic University Students). Another was College COMPASS (run by the priestly order, the Legion of Christ, and its lay movement, Regnum Christi). Though it isn't a campus ministry, Opus Dei maintains houses near some university campuses (including Rice and Harvard), and has retreats and classes for students.

In the Catholic context, the established ministries frequently see these new movements as a threat. Partly it's a matter of defending turf. "We are ‘official,' we have been here a long time, who are you to invade our territory?" There is a theological and methodological element to the tension, too. These new movements are conservative. Many of the established ministries (especially those run by the Paulists) are liberal. Some established ministries have been famous for their theological and liturgical innovation. Even when the new ministries do not explicitly criticize these liberal established ministries, the fact that they present traditional teaching and practice unapologetically is perceived as a criticism by those who advocate a "broader" more "balanced" perspective.

There's also a generational component. The older ministries are run by aging Baby Boomers, and these ministries often attract Boomers who have no connection to the university that the ministry serves. The music and liturgy and teaching appeal to those who were in college in the 60s and 70s.

Today's college students may be postmodern, and may reject much of traditional Christian teaching and practice--but, unlike the stereotypical Boomer, many also have an affinity for tradition. In a replay of the ‘80s television comedy, "Family Ties," the flower children have children who embrace what their parents rejected. And this cuts across religious boundaries. Younger Jews want Hebrew in the service, they are intrigued by tefillin and tallit and the mikvah. Young Catholics want the mass in Latin, and to pray the rosary. Young Protestants are re-embracing Calvin.

Are we seeing the same dynamics in Adventism, in our discussions over GYC? Are the older readers of Adventist Today and Spectrum shocked that young Adventists would embrace pre-Couperus Adventism? That they have a greater affinity for the Adventism of W. H. Branson than for that of Roy Branson? Do these older Adventists feel threatened by a movement that transcends the institutional church (ironic, given their criticism of the institution)? Or are they concerned more by its unapologetic embrace of Adventist teachings they find uncomfortable? Are they stung by the implied (and sometimes explicit) criticism of things they value? Are they embarrassed by its evangelistic zeal?

One of the things I saw in the Catholic discussions was that few on either side were actually talking about any of this with folks on the other side. I found myself, in my diocese and in my national roles, bringing people together from both sides to talk, and to listen, and to work together. When I was asked to organize a regional conference of the Catholic Campus Ministry Association in Houston, I invited representatives of Opus Dei, College COMPASS and FOCUS to give presentations, and to engage in conversation with other campus ministers. Our keynote speaker was Colleen Carroll Campbell, author of The New Faithful: Why Young Adults Are Embracing Christian Orthodoxy (Loyola 2002). Campus ministers came from other regions just to be part of this--some of the most liberal came just for the opportunity to be challenged.

Adventists need to facilitate this type of conversation between our factions. That's what we had at the QOD conference in 2007. That was a moment of grace only possible because some young theologians dared to do what a prior generation couldn't dream of--they invited folks to come and reason together. Some in official positions expressed nervousness at the idea, wondering aloud whether any good could come of it. But those of us were there saw the grace. I think of a wonderful lunchtime conversation I had with Dave Larson and the Standish brothers. I think of one of the Standishes and George Knight embracing in tears at the communion table.

So, let's start the conversation about GYC anew. Let's try to get to know them, and understand what drives them.

Start with Sam Pipim's history, which you'll find here. Yes, GYC owes its origins to young people who were blessed by the Michigan Conference's ministry to public university campuses. Yes, it got some funding from ASI. Yes, it is "conservative" by any definition of the term. Yes, there has been tension between GYC and the NAD and the GC (especially with overzealous trademark lawyers who, ignorant of the historic Adventist and Methodist use of the term, "general conference," insisted they change their name from General Youth Conference to Generation of Youth for Christ).

What I like best about Sam's history is that he is disarmingly candid. He cites some very blunt criticisms made by young GYC leaders towards GC leadership and mainstream Adventist youth ministry. He comes across as a moderating force, urging the young leaders to adopt more charitable views of church leaders. Following one particular tense episode, GYC and the GC/NAD youth ministry folks hammered out an agreement on how they could best work together. Yes, there have been growing pains, but GYC has grown and matured.

Justin McNeilus is the current president and chairman of the board of GYC. A graduate of Southern Adventist University, he's a vice president of Sterling State Bank in Minnesota (the family business, owned by his dad and uncle). Since I learned that GYC was coming to my city, I've been in touch with Justin, discussing some questions and concerns, as well as some hopes.

My first question as a pastor in Houston was whether they'd been in touch with our local conferences (Texas Conference and Southwest Regional Conference). He assured me that they had, in keeping with the agreement GYC had signed about four years ago with the NAD/GC (unfortunately, these conversations took place only after they had signed the contract and publicized the location).

He told me they would like to meet with pastors in Houston, especially as they plan for the outreach day that is part of each GYC. In some places that has taken the form of distributing literature or Bible study invitations, elsewhere the attendees have participated in health expos or depression seminars.

I asked if they had any statistics on who attends. Are they really the young adults they are trying to reach? In Baltimore, he said, 7,000 people attended on Sabbath--of those, 5,150 had registered (meetings on Sabbath are typically open to the community). Justin said, "Our target audience is 18 - 35. So of the 5,150 - 6.7% were above the target and 17.3% were below. The balance hit our target."

I had a number of other questions some have raised about an alleged legalistic emphasis in sermons at GYC, whether attendees were mainly from Adventist or non-Adventist schools, etc., but because of the press of time or lack of data he wasn't able to address many of my questions. So I can't say all my questions are answered. But I know these questions will only be answered as we are in direct conversation with one another. So, yes, I'll go when it is in Houston (and I hope GYC invites some local pastors to present some of the seminars).

But as I think about all of this, and all of the questions and controversy, one thing stands out. It was back in the 1890s that Ellen White first urged the Seventh-day Adventist church to take an interest in ministry to students at secular colleges and universities. She first made that call in Ann Arbor--and today, the Michigan Conference remains the conference that has most taken that call to heart. It was a century late, but in 1998 it started its office of public campus ministry. It gave birth to CAMPUS, a ministry to students at secular colleges. CAMPUS has spread to many other states--and it, in turn, gave birth to GYC.

If anyone in the General Conference, North American Division, union conference or local conference is concerned about GYC, they need to do more than complain. They need to do themselves the work that CAMPUS is doing. They need to identify individuals who have passion and preparation for ministry on secular college campuses and equip them with the resources they need to be viable and effective. They need to identify the major colleges and universities in each conference, and develop a plan for reaching them. They need to insist that local churches near college campuses make outreach to that campus a priority, and the conferences need to underscore that priority by placing pastors in these churches with the right vision and temperament for the ministry.

Campus ministry is a form of evangelism. It needs evangelists. It needs evangelism dollars. If we are not going to provide them, we dare not criticize GYC or CAMPUS when they say, "Here am I Lord, send me!"

Originally posted at Adventist Today.