The Conference

This past weekend I went to the National Charismatic Conferences in St Paul, MN as I noted below. I will be blogging a bit more on it as time goes by, but wanted to give a quick update first.

Why blog about it on a youth ministry blogsite? Because I believe that what I call the "2nd Generation" is looking for something and they aren't always sure what that is.

For instance, many of my generation who are coming back to the Church are wanting the "smells and bells" so to speak-and I mean that in a good way. They want the traditions, they want to understand. For 30 years we have been gyped of good catechesis by the liberal-and I don't use that word often-fluff that's sucked the richness and beauty out of our Churches and formation. So we come back and want all of the good stuff.

But there are some who would demonize the Charismatic Renewal because they see it as too reliant upon emotions, to "out there" to weird, to fluffy without substance. This bothers me a great deal because the Renewal is at the heart of the Church. It serves the Church and is from the Church. The Charismatic Renewal seeks to renew the Church through the charisms of the Holy Spirit. It seeks to evangelize, instruct, deepen the faith lives, introduce a very real relationship with Jesus Christ and make use of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in everyone's lives.

Then there are a group of us who have grown up with it or came to be a part of it in high school or college and are saying "The old ways don't really work for us anymore-does this mean we can't be a part of it? We want it, but not in the exact same way-what do we do now?"

Something is up here. The Holy Spirit has begun a work in the four of us young women who attended the Conference. There are murmerings and wonderings going on. I can't wait to see what the Lord has up his sleeve, but I believe that if we are all open the Lord is going to continue to do a great work in the Church through the "2nd Generation".

We'll see!