In an anxious world, Wisconsin teens discover their role in making the world a better place

The world is an anxious place for all these days. But for youth, the anxiety amps up when hope for the future is placed directly onto their shoulders. Recent studies have revealed that many of today’s teens are falling into the paradoxical category of being “anxiously optimistic.”

Teen angst is nothing new for the Rev. Kate Mackey. As Associate Pastor for Children, Youth and Families of Orchard Ridge United Church of Christ in Madison, Wisconsin, Mackey hears the teens she shepherds unabashedly pushback, asking, “Why do you keep saying we are the future? Why aren’t you, the adults, taking care of it?”

“Kids feel anxiety when they are told they’re the future without any acknowledgment from adults that we are the ones who need to create a pathway for them to step into. There needs to be a balance of empowering and listening to teens and recognizing it is our responsibility still to protect them,” said Mackey.

Before a brand new school year started, Mackey and her Madison ministry colleagues did just that: They provided a three-day “pathway” where Orchard Ridge UCC teens joined those from Christ Presbyterian Church and Bethel Lutheran Church to have their voices heard and their gifts affirmed. The hope, said Mackey, was to help youth see that they have agency. “They have important things to say and that their ideas matter,” she added.

Thinking and doing

The planning team was mindful of providing space for learning and listening as well as creating and serving. For Mackey, the three days were to be a balance of “thinking and doing.”

Heather Rainwater-Moen, Bethel Lutheran’s Director of Youth Ministries, laid the theological foundation for the teens’ time together, inviting them to think how their faith calls and claims them and then sends them into the world.

The teens then heard a faith story in action as members from Madison’s The Sewing Machine Project shared how one woman’s heart to help those impacted by a tsunami in 2004 led to the idea of supplying sewing machines to help people mend, create and rebuild.

“They got to hear how one woman’s gift for sewing made a difference, now supplying sewing machines all around the world. And it all began with ‘what if?’” said Mackey.

The message was clear: Sometimes all you have is an idea and you start from there, trusting and responding to it.

Afterwards, the teens had their chance to sew, turning tee shirts into pillows. “There were all sorts of wonderful expressions,” noted Mackey.

An artist from a local print company also spoke with the teens, sharing his gift for typesetting and how it has led him to create posters with messages that matter.

For Devin Connors, a teen from Orchard Ridge UCC, the presenters showed him how their talents and gifts were conveying the love of God.

“I felt that the most important takeaway was realizing that many people take their passions and use them for advocacy,” said Connors.

Finding their voice — and role

It was a realization that led to a deeper conversation about finding their voice — and the role they are called to in life.

The Rev. Breanna Illéné, Director of Ecumenical Innovation and Justice Initiatives for the Wisconsin Council of Churches guided that discussion, reassuring anxious and over-scheduled teens what many adults have yet to grasp.

“You can’t do everything. If you try, you won’t do anything well,” she said, adding, “We move together, but we are not responsible for it all.” 

Illéné then divided the teens into small groups to discuss issues weighing on their hearts and dream of solutions. The goal, she said, was to provide the young people with a “sense of where the spheres of our influence are.”

“Advocacy work is not something that is just done at the state level. There can be advocacy in schools, too,” said Illéné.

The teens did have an opportunity to flex their political advocacy muscle, visiting Madison’s state capital where they met with local representatives. Some teens, too, were not hesitant to delve into hot issue.

“Our youth don’t have the hang ups we adults have,” said Illéné. “I think sometimes they have better ideas, too.”

Caring for soul and spirit

With the days full of speakers, activities, statehouse visits, and even making and delivering sandwiches to the community fridge operated by Christ Presbyterian, the kids had time as well to be just that: Kids.  

 “We got ice cream. We sat outside. We let them play on the playground at the Presbyterian church,” said Mackey. “We balanced important heady issues with time to play.”  

Play wasn’t the only way to diffuse anxiety over heady issues as the teens were invited to nurture their prayer life with an adaptation of the spiritual discipline of the Liturgy of the Hours.

“We would take time in the middle of the day and at the end of the day to pause and reflect and pray on what we had heard and done,” said Mackey.

For Mackey and her colleagues, it was important to introduce spiritual rhythms to the teens to ground them and enable them to do good work in the world. “Without them we can burn out,” said Mackey.

The teens also created a River of Justice rope, where pieces of blue fabric, symbolizing their thoughts and prayers, tied to a rope.

“We had different prompt for the kids: What word would you carry with you? What question did they have? We wanted them to take a contemplative moment to pause, then put their response on the rope,” said Mackey.

At the end of the three days, the teens held the rope together to remind them how they were all part of the flow of God’s river of justice.

“We need that connection to God and to one another,” said Mackey, sharing how the greatest takeaway from the event for teens and adults alike were that relationships matter.  

“I think the big part of what ails our society is that we just don’t know each other. We don’t have overlap with other groups; we don’t have connections in the community. So, to bring our churches’ youth together like this was important,” said Mackey. “It was a beautiful expression of what church to be.”

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