Between Sundays
“Let the little children come to me; do not stop them, for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.” ~ Mark 10:14
This past Friday night, I went to our local high school’s football game. I love a Friday night under the lights, the band, the crowd, the whole beautiful ritual of it. But somewhere in the middle of it, I looked around the stands and realized, I did not see a single soul I knew.
Not one.
And I found myself thinking, this is exactly where the church needs to be. Not waiting behind our doors for people to find their way to us, but out in the bleachers, on the sidelines, in the thick of our community, showing up for the people who make this community what it is. We are called to be in ministry with our neighbors, and you cannot do that from a distance. I hope we can begin to change that, together.
Now, I understand the other side of this too, more than you might think.
Fall schedules are relentless. Sports and band, dance and drama, practices and tournaments and rehearsals stacked on top of homework and jobs and everything else. For a lot of families, Sunday morning is the one slot left that might hold a little rest, and church can start to feel like one more thing on an impossible list. I have lived it. I raised a collegiate athlete, and I cannot tell you how many Sundays I spent coordinating carpools so my daughter could make it to a tournament while I made it to work. It weighed on me. I worried she was missing something essential to her spiritual upbringing, out on a lacrosse field instead of in church.
But here is the grace in our story. Five of the seven girls in that carpool came from our own church. And somewhere along the way, though they didn’t know it, that carpool quietly became a little church. They prayed together, mostly to win their games, they grew up together, and when they entered Confirmation together, it turned into something very much like a small group. The community found them, even on the road, even between the tournaments. That is what the church can do when we make room for our young people. It goes with them.
The research bears this out, and it is worth our attention. A new study from Barna found that more than half of Christian teenagers, about 57 percent, have attended a youth group in the past few months, which is genuinely good news. But that number slips as they get older, from 60 percent of the youngest teens down to 55 percent of the oldest, right during the years they are wrestling with the biggest questions of their lives. And here is the finding that stopped me. Simply showing up is not the same as being formed. What matters, the researchers said, is not how many kids fill the room, but whether they are better off because they came. Belonging. Service. Faith that becomes their own. That is the real work, and it is exactly the work this church is built to do.
It is why I make such a concerted effort to spend time with our young people. It is why we have Amy and Jenn on staff here at Calvary, creating events and spaces made just for our children and youth. And it is why you have heard me say this before, and will hear me say it again and again. Our young people are not the future of the church. They are very much the church, right now, today. And thanks be to God for that.
Let me tell you one more thing, because it is close to my heart. Many of you know I have raised a child on the autism spectrum, and I have shared some of that journey with you. I can tell you with complete confidence that the time that little boy spent, as young as eighteen months old, toddling around the narthex at Brook Hill UMC, greeting people and saying hello, was the finest occupational and social therapy he ever received. The church gave him that. And you do not have to be on the spectrum to be shaped by a community like ours. Every one of us, young and old, is formed by showing up among people who know us and love us.
So this fall, as the schedules pile up and the energy runs thin, especially as Sunday morning rolls around and the couch looks awfully inviting, hear this gently. This community of faith matters, more than we often realize, to the growing of our children and to the steadying of us all. Come back to church. Bring the kids, tired as they are. And let’s reap the benefits of this community together, young and old, side by side.
And here is where the invitation becomes a challenge, because our young people are about to show the rest of us how it is done. This October, as we observe Missions here at Calvary, our Youth Ministries are hosting the 2026 J Ray Frank Memorial Walk for WASH, a 5K walk through downtown Frederick supporting the UMC Global Ministries program for clean water, sanitation, and hygiene, so that a world of our neighbors might have the safe water so many of us take for granted. We gather Sunday, October 11th at 2pm in the Parish Hall. Now hear me clearly. This is not only a youth event. Every single one of us is invited to form a team, and a team can be just one person, or a whole crew of family and friends and neighbors. I would love nothing more than to see a truly multigenerational showing, grandparents and grandkids and everyone in between, walking side by side for a cause worth every step.
So here is my challenge to you, Calvary. Sign up. Form a team, however big or small. Come walk with our young people, and let them lead you. It is one of the simplest, most joyful ways I can imagine to live out everything I have just said, to show up, to belong, to be the church together, and to do a world of good while we are at it. You can register or donate using the QR code on the flyer, and if you have questions, Miss Jenn is your person at calvaryyouth@calvaryumc.org.
The kingdom belongs to them, Jesus said. Let’s make sure they know there is room for them here, and better yet, let’s walk right alongside them.
Until Sunday, and all the days between,
Dr. Hutton