LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2001, Page 106

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106

CONVENTION ESSAYS AND REACTIONS

chetical “Jay Walk” among some of our young people today
might reveal. While I am hopeful about the youth that we
minister to in our parishes, I am not so naïve as to suppose
there is no room for growth in spiritual depth and understanding. I am far less optimistic about the many, many
more young people outside of the church. Is there hope, is
there help for our youth? The church has many resources
at its disposal and much to offer. There is no panacea, but I
would be remiss if I failed to draw your attention to one of
our church’s historic strengths and one of our most promising possibilities for the future.
There is one place that I know for certain that catechesis and kids coalesce, a setting where learning and living
link: Lutheran schools. I am grateful to God for schools like
Mount Calvary Lutheran in Milwaukee. It is our family’s
church and the parish school where our four youngest children attend. The school is staffed with dedicated, consecrated Lutheran schoolteachers whose synodical education
has prepared them well to integrate faith and learning. I
am grateful for the support that my wife and I have from
these teachers who assist us in sharing our common faith
with our children and helping them to grow. And because it
is a school that welcomes and encourages nonmember children to attend (most of the children enrolled are not members but reside within the neighborhood community), I celebrate the ways in which the church and school staff work
together to reach out through Lutheran education and
Christian witness to tell the Good News story of Jesus.
I am grateful to God for schools like Milwaukee
Lutheran High School, where my oldest son attends. Here,
too, Lutheran schoolteachers embrace the opportunity to
share Christ with youth as they incorporate faith throughout the curriculum and co-curricular programs. The commitment to excellence has helped the school to obtain welcome recognition and enjoy a positive reputation in the
community. But what sets it and other Lutheran high
schools like it apart is the fact that the Good News of Jesus
is pervasively present.
Obviously, I am grateful to God for the colleges and universities of the Concordia University System. Ours are the
institutions that prepare church professionals for teaching
and other youth ministries and prepare students for seminary education. Ours are the schools that prepare young
women and men to assume positions of leadership in church
and community within a wide array of Christian vocations.
Ours are the places where Christian scholars give voice

200l Convention Proceedings

within their disciplines to the Good News about Jesus while
other college campuses privilege nearly any other point of
view and relegate the tenets of the faith to the archives of
antiquated and outdated thought. Ours are the settings
where Lutheran youth are challenged to plumb the depths
of their baptismal faith, their catechetical faith. And ours
are the settings where truth and falsehood grapple and
where non-Christian students encounter the One who says
of Himself, “I am the Truth.” Ours are the colleges and universities of the church that help the church to nurture its
own youth, and that help the church to reach out to embrace
other young people who search for meaning. The church,
this church, must do in the future what it has always held to
be essential in the past. We must do all that we can to cement and secure the church’s relationship to Lutheran
schools and to provide Christian education to the young.
“Kids today…” Some want to throw up their hands in exasperation at a generation that seems to lack moorings,
that appears to drift without an anchor, that is evidently
reluctant to step in trust onto the supposed terra firma of
its elders and their traditions. I say better to throw up our
hands with hallelujahs at the promise and potential of the
next “Great Generation” and to reach out with arms extended wide to embrace the opportunity given to us “at
such a time as this” to help transform heroes into heroes of
faith. Now is not the time to wring our hands with a selfabsorbed worry that prompts short-term, shortsighted solutions to the problems that beset the church at this moment, today. Now is the time to fold our hands in prayer
and ask for the same vision and courage that our “Great
Generation” parents and their parents before them had to
face the future. It was a vision and courage that moved
them to establish and maintain Lutheran day schools and
Lutheran high schools and Lutheran colleges to educate the
youth of their time for the sake of the church of their day,
today, tomorrow, and every day. Every day is kid’s day in
the church. Every day is a day for seven-year-olds to hear
the voice of the Shepherd of tender youth; for sixteen-yearolds to hear the simple, saving message of the Lord Jesus
Christ—the children’s friend; for Millenials to hear the
Good News about Jesus—the Savior of this and that and
every generation, world without end. Share your story—tell
the Good News about Jesus. In His name. Amen.
Patrick Ferry
Concordia University Wisconsin
Mequon, WI