We had an amazing time at the Midwest District Beachy Youth Fellowship Meetings in Hunstville, AR. Great friends and great services! It was a huge blessing!
Elam Stoltzfoos was the speaker and he proved to have an uncannily insightful understanding of the conservative Mennonite youth psyche. He incisively identified five different types of perspectives that we have in our conservative Anabaptist circles, mostly segregated by age. He showed why these perspectives were formed (as a wise response to the times and issues in which that age group grew up in), why they are valuable perspectives to the church as a whole, and lots of practical advice on how the different perspectives can relate to each other in a Godly, loving, mutually beneficial, and upbuilding way.
I believe that every young conservative Mennonite person (or middle-aged or older person that is interested in learning to effectively bridge the generation gap in a way that brings every age group into a spirit-unity for an effective and healthy church that is building the Kingdom) should listen to these messages. I think you should listen to them all and I’m quite sure you won’t regret investing time in listening to them all, but if you must listen to only one, please listen to the first one (“The Church and Its Youth”).
These are some of the most uniquely insightful (and practically helpful) messages I’ve heard preached about conservative Mennonite (and perhaps it has broader applicability to other denominations) youth thinking and what we need to do to effectively serve the Lord in our churches. I have not been this excited about hearing a set of sermons in a long time!
Benji Mast (my brother) and Gideon Yutzy both gave outstanding devotionals that I recommend as well. Benji especially had a good talk about how we establish a “Moral Authority” and a right to speak up about church issues in a way that the older folks will respect and appreciate what we say.
Gideon Yutzy – Devotional
Friday
17:45 – 4.06 MB
Elam Stoltzfoos – The Church and Its Youth
Friday
1:01:42 – 14.1 MB
Benji Mast – Moral Authority
Saturday
13:24 – 3.06 MB
Elam Stoltzfoos – The Golden Opportunities of the Youth Years
Saturday
1:24:24 – 19.3 MB
Jonathan Miller – Devotional
Sunday
10:41 – 2.44 MB
Elam Stoltzfoos – Youth: The Light of the World
Sunday
1:02:19 – 14.2 MB
4 Responses
July 26th, 2010 at 1:18 pm
Thanks for posting Hans. That has to be the most insightful perspective I’ve ever heard on Anabaptist church culture. Definitely worth listening to!
July 27th, 2010 at 12:49 am
[...] Elam Stoltzfoos was the speaker for the weekend, and you can hear his sermons (woops, I mean topics) on Hansmast.com. [...]
July 29th, 2010 at 9:54 pm
Is there a way to download these topics or do I need to listen to them on here? I tried a little bit, but couldn’t figure it out. They sound interesting.
July 30th, 2010 at 9:22 am
Right click on them and click “Save as…”
Leave a Comment