At the very end of September, an event that occurs every year is called “See You At The Pole.” People all over the world meet around their school flagpoles and pray. Each year, the organizers of the event come up with a theme. This past year, we focused on the idea of “Coming Together.” That evening, we attended a rally where Matt Proctor spoke on that topic.
He told us that if we want to be like the church written about in the early portion of Acts, there are 3 things we need to get rid of. The first is that we need to have “No Walls.” If we truly want to be united, we can’t let petty things get in our way of being one. No longer does it matter what a person’s race, social status, gender, friendship circle, or residence are. We must tear down walls that we often build up saying that I can’t love that person because ___ (you fill in the blank). We must tear down walls between us that we often put up .
Secondly, we must have “No Masks.” We need to be transparent with other people and not put on a show that everything is always ok. It definitely takes trust to do so because you allow yourself to be vulnerable when you are real with someone else. But that is what we must do if we are to be united. Being fake never leads to depth.
And the final area we need to work on is “No Shrugs.” When a need arises, we can’t look the other way and expect others to fix the problem. If someone is going through difficult times, we can’t turn our backs on them.
So if we truly want to impact the world, as the 1st century church did, we must get rid of these things. Then we can effectively be the body of Christ to everyone. What a challenging message to each person at the rally - each youth group, and each church, and each town. Let all of us continue to work on these areas so that we may be truly come together as a church that pleases God!
Finish strong,
Andy
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Youth Minister's Monthly Memo 
