Young adults speak out about the importance of advocacy at PC(USA) gathering
Panel also suggests lending an ear to young people in churches
LANSING, Michigan — A panel of young adults and activists recently gathered to share their thoughts on advocacy and to offer suggestions to the church on how to meet the needs of people in their age group.
The panel was part of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Jesus and Justice Young Adult Advocacy Conference (YAAC), an event held Sept. 26-28 in Michigan to sharpen the social justice skills of participants and to help them stand up for what they believe in.
Hayley Scheir, a mission specialist for committee support for the PC(USA)’s Interim Unified Agency, hosted the panel, made up of college and seminary students and people who have served in advocacy roles for the PC(USA) or are still doing so.
“We're really excited to have this panel all be made up of young adults because we strongly feel that young adults have something important to bring to the church and a unique perspective and experience that is important for us to elevate and make sure that it's heard by everyone within the church and within our communities,” Scheir said.
Panelists shared various aspects of their past and present activism, including doing work for PC(USA) advocacy offices or in their own schools and towns. Speakers included two representatives from the Spartan Food Security Council (SFSC), a student organization that works to address hunger-related issues at Michigan State University and in the community through service, advocacy and education.
“The goal of SFSC is to make people realize that even though you're a broke college student, you have the right to good, healthy, culturally appropriate and accessible food,” said Rylan Smith, an MSU student who’s part of the group.
Lydia Jendretzke, an animal science major, said she’s drawn to advocacy because “I really enjoy giving back to my community through volunteer work, and before the Spartan Food Security Council, I had taken a world poverty, food and population class, and learning the statistics of how much poverty exists in the world, the amount of food that goes to waste while there are millions of people starving, I was just called to the (SFSC) organization.”
Concern for other people is also a motivating factor for Timothy Pinches, a student at Kalamazoo College who previously served as a summer fellow for the Presbyterian Office of Public Witness, which puts on the YAAC with its sister office, the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations (PMUN).
“I feel like it’s so apparent in the world today how much pain and suffering is all around us,” the panelist said. “I think that's what really draws me to advocacy is just the sense that we all need to get up and do the work.”
Multiple members of the panel said they are considering becoming lawyers to help address inequities. “I think over the past couple of years, especially, we're seeing the dangers rise and the tensions rise within our judiciary,” said Clair Lewis, an Iowa State University student who serves as president of The Vine, a campus ministry affiliated with Collegiate Presbyterian Church in Ames, Iowa. “It’s important that people who are going to be good advocates for everybody are actively involved in participating within our legal system.”
MSU student Sam Putt said he is considering going into law to help people who are at risk of getting “screwed over by the justice system because they just don't have the resources for proper representation."
Rachel Halbo, a Princeton Theological Seminary student who was part of this year’s Presbyterian delegation to the Commission on the Status of Women, discussed her background as a former participant in the Sacramento Urban Debate League and how pleasing it was for her to later discover that she could marry her interest in public policy with being a person of faith.
After finding a church that was involved in advocacy, “suddenly, it was clear that these two areas of my life that have been so separate actually go together,” she said.
Lately, she’s been thinking about how “particularly in our nation's history, the Bible has been used as a weapon for every single kind of political desire you could have, and that is across every kind of political spectrum,” she said. “Particularly in a seminary environment, those are the kinds of conversations we're having.”
Near the end of the panel, participants offered recommendations for how the church can meet the needs of young people and what young people have to offer the church.
Panelist Steffan Johnson, a mission specialist for the PC(USA)’s Young Adult Volunteer program, said older generations don’t always receive what young people have to say. But there are young people who “are extremely wise, and they just need someone who's willing to listen,” said Johnson, who’s pursuing a doctorate from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.
Pinches added, “When you say you want the youth to be involved, you need to then be willing to step up and go to them and listen to what their concerns are and hear that and be willing to give them the capacity to change things.”
Clare Balsan, who works for PMUN, said she values intergenerational interaction, where older and younger people “can intentionally come together in a way that is founded on openness and mutuality and mutual respect.” She added, “It's important to hear from people who were once young adults and to hear their wisdom. But it also is just as important for that relationship to go both ways.”
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