It has been a bit over a month since the Church of Scotland‘s National Youth Assembly 2008 concluded on September 8, and there was some interesting news and reaction.

First, I want to mention the formal business of NYA2008, the debates, discussions and deliverances.  Yes, a formal report on the topics discussed was put together and you can view the deliverances on the NYA2008 wiki.  Four topics were discussed and I’ll briefly cover the recommendations of each, but check out the deliverances because this group of enthusiastic youth was talking about some serious stuff.

Healthy Relationships
This topic centered on mental health issues and the recommendations emphasize support and resources for those dealing with these issues.  And support is not just the formal variety, but trying to combat the stigma.  The recommendations include training, communications and awareness, not just for church workers but for all congregation members.  And it includes a recommendation to “Encourage the church to develop the role of Street Pastors in their work with the homeless and other disadvantaged groups.”

The Media
Recommendation 1: “Recommends that the Kirk explore and utilise appropriate technology to further the Gospel.”

Most of the other recommendations here encouraged the use of new technology and social media to reach out and further the work of the kirk.  But two of the recommendations were specifically relational:

So #7 tells us that the church can not be 100% virtual; there should be personal contact.

Sustainable Living
This one started at home:

This topic had the longest list of recommendations, fifteen total with one having extra bullet points, and most of them being the regular list of ways to be better stewards of the environment.  The list included global climate change and the NYA said this:

5.
The Youth Assembly affirms that action needs to be multi-faceted, even
though there is no conclusive proof of anthropogenic climate change, we
would regard the responsible attitude to be to continue current
measures and use revenue raised by taxation in humanitarian aid.

Future Church
So what does this group of youth of Scotland think about the church?

1.
The future church should be a 24/7 church, modelling itself on the
wider world which is increasingly operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week.

2.
The church should be identified as a community that discusses and
studies, rather than a community that listens. This should involve
shorter sermons, times of reflection and discussion within worship.

There are ten recommendations in this group and they are interesting and call the kirk to model the early church.  Everyone in the church is called to exhibit and work for Jesus Christ.  Barriers are to be broken down, including between social groups and sharing between financially well off churches and those that are struggling.  And small churches still have an important part in the work of the kirk and encourages pooling of resources to keep them operating.

As I said above, read through this page if you want to know what this group of youth of the church are thinking today.

Lest you think this was all work and no play, I would suggest you have a look at the photographs on the flickr site.  In those 767 photos you will see a lot of serious discussion, but you will also see a lot of less serious moments as well.  One of the “highlights” of the NYA2008 was when it made the top of the Twitter trending list.  In fact, Twitter got so popular during one of the debates that the screen at the front showing the Twitter comments got switched off so it did not distract from the debate.  And if you want a chronological rundown of the proceedings you can check out the official NYA2008 blog.

For individual reaction there are several bloggers who commented on the event.  In particular, there is Stewart Cutler who not only covered NYA2008 on his own blog but was responsible for much of the content on the official blog, flickr pool, and wiki.  The official blog has a sidebar with some of the other NYA2008 bloggers you can check out, but Shuna at “I am a Rag Doll” may give the most heart-felt summary of the event in Thank You Mark.  She, as well as all the others, especially appreciated Mark Yaconelli’s keynote messages.  If you want another extensive set of comments check out NYA2008 on the blog People Will Forget What You Say by Margaret McLarty.

From this vantage point, reading the accounts of the event and looking through the wiki it looks like an exciting event.  But more, I am impressed with the topics they tackle and especially that in doing so they speak to the whole church.  While youth delegates are involved in wider meetings of various Presbyterian branches, this appears to me to be the one that discusses and produces recommendations that most closely reflect the younger generation’s thoughts and ideas.  Furthermore, this appears to be, for four days, an intense and balanced mix of business, relationship, and technology.  Interesting stuff.