The PC(USA) commissions a new class of Young Adult Volunteers
Worshipers gather at the Presbyterian Center and online to bless the Class of 2025-26
LOUISVILLE — Forty-five Young Adult Volunteers for 2025-26 were commissioned Wednesday during a worship service held online and in the Chapel at the Presbyterian Center in Louisville, Kentucky. Those worshiping in person laid hands on the young adults, committing themselves “to support this class with prayer, encouragement and resources, so that Christ’s reign of peace, justice and love will be known in all our communities and throughout the world, until Christ comes.”
The scriptural basis for Wednesday’s commissioning was, not surprisingly, Matthew 28:18-20, the Great Commissioning, where Jesus disperses the disciples throughout the world and promises to be with them to the end of the age.
James Martin, a YAV alum who’s the site coordinator at the U.S./Mexico Borderlands in Douglas, Arizona and Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico, offered a reflection during Wednesday’s service.
During his own YAV years in San Antonio, Texas, and at the Borderlands, “I spent most of those two years trying to figure out what was coming next,” Martin said. Go to medical school? Teach in his native Washington state? Neither prospect stirred Martin with much excitement.
Especially at the Borderlands, “I spent a lot of my energy figuring out where I was supposed to be. I realized in the end I did not want to do any of those things. What I wanted to do was what was around me,” Martin told the current class of YAVs, some of whom, like Martin did, shared in the worship experience online. “On the Borderlands, I felt more connected to a community than ever before.”
Marin said faith became even more relevant as crosses were planted to remember migrants who perished in the Sonoran desert on their way to the United States. He found community in marching together and enjoying meals with neighbors.
“My traits and gifts — adaptability and flexibility — were much more useful here,” Martin said. “I think I was conditioned by society that life should be more determined by who society thinks we should be rather than who we actually are as beloved human beings.”
“Where you feel the most life and happiness is perhaps where God wants you to be,” Martin said. “Even today, what I do as a YAV coordinator is what I was learning during my YAV year.”
“Everyday life turned out to be more important than what I thought I should be doing instead,” Martin said.
Shortly after Martin’s reflection, YAV Coordinator Destini Hodges asked the YAVs who were present in the Chapel to come forward for their commissioning. “Today we have the honor of recognizing the YAV Class of 2025-26, joining in God’s mission all over the world,” Hodges said. “They have accepted Christ’s call into mission service, but they do not serve in isolation.”
Barry Creech, Deputy Executive Director for Administration in the Interim Unified Agency, said it’s the YAVs’ calling not only to share the good news of God’s love exemplified in Jesus Christ, but “to address the root causes of poverty, and to seek reconciliation of people with one another. … As God’s people connected in effective mission we can indeed be a compelling witness to Jesus Christ in our world.”
“This class of YAVs is being sent by God through the church to serve around the world,” Hodges noted. “God calls each of us into the world, not alone but to minister as a community of Christians.”
“As we surround the YAVs,” Hodges told those in worship, “we will lay hands on them and offer a prayer.” Those worshiping online were asked to extend their arms as well.
The Rev. Dr. David Gambrell, Associate for Worship in the Office of Theology & Worship, offered a prayer asking God to “establish them in your truth, and guide them in your Holy Spirit, that in your service they may grow in faith, hope and love, and be faithful disciples of Jesus Christ, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and forever. Amen.”
Once the YAVs had been commissioned, it fell to the Rev. Ellen Sherby, Manager of International Ecumenical Liaisons in Global Ecumenical Partnerships, to offer a benediction:
“May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may seek truth boldly and live deep within your heart,” Sherby told the YAVs. “May God bless you with holy anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work tirelessly for justice, freedom, and peace among all people.”
“May God bless you with the gift of tears to shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain to joy. And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you are able, with God’s grace, to do what others claim cannot be done. Amen.”
YAVs then enjoyed a reception held in their honor.
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