RICHMOND, Va.—Nearly 500 youth and their sponsors fleshed out an expression of “family” during a two-weekend Mission Madness event in two Virginia cities, coordinated by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Virginia.
At more than 25 mission sites in Richmond and Waynesboro, the youth in grades 6 through 12 from 32 churches built wheelchair ramps, cleaned public schools and landscaped their yards and helped with feeding and clothing ministries.
Youth hauled lumber for construction projects during this year's Mission Madness.
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The annual event, held this year on March 23-25 and March 30-April 1, centered on the theme “We Are Family.” The theme reflected the CBFVA’s 2012 focus on familia, an initiative to develop an understanding of the Latino concept of “family,” especially in churches’ communities.
“What made this year of Mission Madness unique is fact that I caught of glimpse of how we are truly becoming familia together,” said CBFVA field coordinator Rob Fox. “When the youth arrived and stepped off their church buses, they would ask, ‘Do you remember me?’ After taking a careful look, I would say, ‘Yes, of course I remember you! You were at Mission Madness last year, right?’ They would smile, nod and then race off to join some other old friends for a weekend on mission.
“After three years of serving together, how could I forget those smiling faces? These faces have become so familiar – like family – and as those buses of teenagers arrived to Mission Madness, I got a glimpse of the future of our Fellowship.”
At several worship experiences during the weekends, Mission Madness pastor Jennifer McClung, associate pastor of First Baptist Church in Pendleton, S.C., challenged youth to be aware of work God wants to accomplish through them.
“I challenged the students to toss a rock into a pool of water as a reminder that just as the rock makes ripples that spread out further and further, we are called to work in the world in such a way that makes ‘ripples,’” said McClung.
Mission Madness leaders at a mission site in Waynesboro.
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Seventeenth and Main, a Richmond-based Christian band, led music during the worship services.
Dale Tadlock, who coordinated the event in Waynesboro, said Mission Madness applies the Latino concept of familia to Christian service.
“During worship time, the students were really exploring the idea of what it means to have an extended family,” said Tadlock, minister to young adults and students at First Baptist Church in Waynesboro, which hosted the activities there.
“They’re being challenged to look at it from a biblical idea that we’re not just our own churches, or our own youth group, but we’re part of a bigger family,” he said.
The Waynesboro weekend drew 325 youth and adults from 19 churches. In Richmond, where Winfree Memorial Baptist Church and its minister of youth, Rusty Lee, served as host, 150 youth and adults from 13 churches participated.
Mark Snipes, associate pastor for youth and young adults at Central Baptist Church, coordinated overall Mission Madness activities.
Fox said the program is a way to encourage youth to start small with mission before taking on a more global approach.
”This is the first step for them understanding how the world comes into their own backyard,” said Fox, who also is pastor of Mount Hermon Baptist Church in Milford, Va.
The youth can learn that understanding, he said, “through ministry with their Latino neighbors, but then also extending that grace out to be a presence of Christ beginning at home and then around the world.”
Robert Dilday ([email protected]) is managing editor of the Religious Herald.