Wednesday's thoughts on Sunday's sermon

"Confirming our Suspicion" This is the first time since being in Fort Collins I get to preach the Sunday the ? I consider this to be a high honor and I want to say something that is relevant to their lives and to this important moments. Several weeks ago i emailed them with questions I wanted them to answer for me. I wanted to know what they thought. Here are the questions and here is a composite of their answers: Who are your heroes? My hero is Aung Sab Suu Kri. She is unbelievably patient and persistent in the face of unfairness. My hero is Thomas Edison because he was creative and made the best out of each situation. What do you like best about our church? I like the way it's put together, the way it runs. The services are pretty cool. I like how we all interact with one another. Reverend Schuster is doing a pretty good job with the services. He's been doing it for a long time. I like the sense of community and tolerance in our church. I also like the rationality of the views of the Methodist Church as a whole. How could we make our church better? More mission trips, if possible. Some Sunday, we could to to the Food Bank and help out. I loved the movie clips in the sermons. I would like more things like that. More interaction between the different age groups, especially high school and college age. I wish the Methodist Church were more open to homosexuality in general and would allow gay pastors. What would you like to tell me about religion? We should show people what to do by how we act, by example, and not by telling them what to do. Never make people do something; just advise them. All religions are just variations on the same theme, with different ways of worshipping. We worship the same God. Food is an extremely good motivator in religion. All the world's religions are a variation on a common theme and we should respect and tolerate each other's views, traditions, and ideas. What about the future? Ipods are going to get smaller. The church will become more accepting of things as society is accepting of things. We will do Pod-cast sermons. We should make money off the sermons. As you can tell these are thoughtful young people and it was a privilege to work with them the week I got to attend the class. How would you answer the questions I asked? What are your thoughts about my answers? If you have thoughts about this write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. If you are willing to share your ideas with readers of the blog click on the 'comment's box below. I look forward to hearing from you. Charles Schuster