June Ministry Reflection: What Will You Do to Help Faith Flourish?

The Spirit gives life, but community nurtures it.

This week, as we approach the Feast of Pentecost, I can't shake the image of those first disciples huddled together in that upper room. They had experienced Christ's death and resurrection, they had witnessed His ascension into heaven, and yet… something was still missing. They were waiting, like seeds planted but not yet sprouted – full of potential but not yet alive in the way they were meant to be.

And then came the wind. The fire. The breath of God Himself filling their lungs with new life.

With Christ’s Life.

But the story doesn't end there.

The disciples didn't simply receive the Spirit and then scatter to their individual spiritual journeys. Nor did they simply keep this new life to themselves and do all they could to make sure nothing blew it out. 

They stayed together. They broke bread. They shared everything in common. They surrounded this new life with community, with teaching, with the ongoing presence of one another.

In other words, they understood that new life needs nurturing.

Yesterday, I attended the baptism of a friend’s daughter. And it was beautiful.

Surrounded by people who love them, my friends realized that raising their little girl in the faith wasn’t something that ended the moment she came out of the baptismal font, but rather was something that began there, only to be further supported and lived out in the life of the community.

It wasn’t just parents and godparents baptizing this child; it was all of us.

She became our sister. A sister whose spiritual life we are responsible for nurturing and shaping with love.

All of us who have been baptized into Christ and received the gift of the Holy Spirit in chrismation have likewise had our own Pentecost moment. The Spirit of God that rushed upon the apostles has been breathed into our own lungs as well.

And our young people have experienced this as well. The gift of the Holy Spirit. The initiation of a new life in Christ.

But then what?

Is it possible that we sometimes treat baptism and chrismation like a graduation ceremony – a moment of completion rather than commencement. We celebrate the event, take the pictures, and then somehow expect these newly illumined souls to figure out the rest on their own.

But the early Church knew better. They understood that receiving the Spirit was not the end of the story but the beginning of a much longer, more complex story of growth, struggle, and transformation.

The apostles didn't just get zapped with divine fire and then become perfect evangelists overnight. They stumbled. They argued about who was greatest. 

They struggled with questions about Gentile inclusion and dietary laws and whether the old ways could accommodate these new realities.

But they stuck it out. They prayed together. They ate together. They nurtured this new life together.

All of us, but especially youth and young adults, are in need of a supportive community in which we can work out what it means to follow Jesus faithfully through tensions and life transitions. It takes support to figure out how this ancient faith squares with modern questions and stories about our identity, belonging, and purpose.

And just like the early apostles, they need community. They need mentors. They need patient guides who can help them navigate the stormy waters of spiritual growth.

This month, we're highlighting an incredible ministry in Wichita called The Treehouse. Their mission is beautifully simple: "To offer mothers and babies a brighter future through sharing God's love, basic necessities, education, and genuine personal care."

What captures my attention about The Treehouse isn't just their practical approach to supporting vulnerable mothers and their children. It's their understanding of what new life actually requires.

They don't just provide a moment of relief or assistance and then send mothers on their way. They create ongoing relationships. They offer education and mentorship. They surround new life – both the babies and their mothers – with the kind of sustained support that makes growth possible.

In other words, they understand the reality of Pentecost and the early Acts church: the Spirit gives life, but community nurtures it.

This is precisely what our youth and young adult ministries need to embody. It's not enough to celebrate the moment someone enters the Church through baptism and chrismation. We need to create the conditions where that new spiritual life can actually flourish for the long haul.

Fr. Alexander Schmemann wrote that "The liturgy of the Eucharist is best understood as a journey or procession. It is the journey of the Church into the dimension of the Kingdom." 

I think this applies to the liturgical shape of our lives as well. It’s not a one-and-done. It’s a continual journey, the consistent and patient work of showing up, day after day, year after year, to be formed by the rhythms of worship and community.

But let’s be honest. Sustaining this kind of effort on your own is just exhausting. It’s tough for us adults. I can only imagine how much harder it is for young people to take the journey of faith seriously unless they share that journey with adults who are willing and eager to accompany them.

They need older believers who are willing to walk alongside them, not just ahead of them. They need mentors who remember what it was like to be young and full of questions, who can offer guidance without judgment, who can share their own stories of doubt and discovery.

They need parishes that see them not as projects to be managed or problems to be solved, but as full members of the Body of Christ whose gifts and perspectives are essential to the health of the whole community.

Most importantly, they need to know that their struggles and questions are not signs of spiritual failure but natural parts of discipleship to Christ. The disciples didn’t get it. We can’t expect them to get it either.

But we can foster relational spaces, “upper rooms” if you will, that allow for the kind of patient waiting done by Christ’s earliest followers.

Just imagine what would it look like for parishes to be such places, where people came not just to receive spiritual goods or services, but communities where people learned to wait on the Spirit of God and to live together in peace and love.

I think it would mean young people could ask their hardest questions without fear of judgment. They could wrestle with Scripture and tradition alongside others who are also seeking to understand what faithfulness to Christ looks like in this moment.

It would mean older members of the parish taking seriously their role as spiritual elders and guides, investing in relationships with young people not because they have to, but because they recognize that this is simply what it means to be the Church, to live with one another in love and unity.

It would mean rethinking our approach to youth and young adult ministry, moving beyond entertainment and programs toward genuine discipleship and spiritual formation.

And it would mean understanding that, just like the mothers and babies served by The Treehouse, our young people need more than a moment of spiritual intervention. They need ongoing support, education, mentorship, and care. Today.

Pentecost is not just a historical event we commemorate once a year. 

It’s happening today.

The Spirit is still moving. The wind is still blowing. New life is still being breathed into dry bones.

But we have a choice. We can treat this new life like a houseplant we water occasionally when we remember, or we can tend it like a garden.

With patience, consistency, and the understanding that growth takes time.

The mothers who come to The Treehouse don't just need diapers and formula. They need someone to believe in their capacity to grow, to change, to become the mothers they want to be. They need ongoing support that meets them where they are while helping them move toward where they want to go.

Our young people need the same thing. They need us to believe in their capacity for spiritual growth, to support them through the inevitable challenges and questions, and to help them discover their unique calling within the larger mission of the Church.

The Spirit has already done His work. He's breathed new life into their hearts. The question is: what will we do to help that life flourish?

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Examine your parish's post-baptismal care. What happens to people after they're baptized and chrismated? Do they stay connected with sponsors and godparents who actually serve as companions to the spiritual life? Are there communal, intergenerational spaces that support ongoing spiritual growth? Consider ways to foster close connections across generations that integrate young people into the larger life of the Church.

Create meaningful mentorship opportunities. Don't wait for formal programs. If you're an older believer, intentionally invest in relationships with younger members of your parish. Check about your parish’s youth safety protocols, but if you can, invite them to coffee. Ask about their lives, their questions, their struggles. Share your own journey of faith. Be a big brother or sister; not just a fellow parishioner.

Advocate for sustained relationship building. Push beyond one-off events toward ongoing formation opportunities. This might mean book studies, service projects, discussion groups, or regular social gatherings. The key is consistency and relationship-building over time.

Ask better questions. There are all kinds of resources available that can help you find some good questions to ask youth and young adults to build relationships with them. There doesn’t need to be an agenda to the conversation, just something to show you’re interested in getting to know who they are.

The Spirit is still moving. The question is whether we'll create the conditions where that new life can truly flourish. Our young people are counting on us to get this right.