Читать книгу The Chest of Visions: New Pathways ‘cross Broken Highways - Tim Ferguson - Страница 6

For the twenty-two years I served as pastor of Community Presbyterian Church on Long Island. I worked beside Tim Ferguson as a colleague and as a friend. Nearly that entire time he served as the lay leader of the church’s youth ministry. His ministry was an energizing force in the congregation. For two decades he inspired, motivated, and energized the young people of the church and the community. He then went on to leadership of the men’s ministry.

His ministry was characterized by imagination and creativity, empowered by a gift for understanding what would make young people and adults work and what would inspire their faith and their minds. More fundamentally, his ministry was undergirded by his personal energy, the example of his faith, the witness of his commitment to service, and his gift for making personal connections to those he served.

In his youth ministry he helped young people think theologically. Every year he would ask them to raise questions they would like to ask God; he would then assemble a panel of guests from various churches to engage them with ways God might respond to their questions. One of his youth learned to think so theologically he enrolled in seminary and is now an ordained minister.

He inspired the youth to action. Within the church they began conducting prayer walks to provide a new avenue for engaging the faith of the congregation. Beyond the church they began contributing to the care of a child overseas to increase awareness of needs beyond their community. Above all he guided them to a deeper understanding of the problem of hunger at home and abroad and led them to actively respond to people in need. They fasted in solidarity with the hungry, they collected food, they volunteered to help a local outreach ministry prepare food, they then helped serve that food to the hungry of New York City at street side stations.

He empowered youth group members to leadership in their activities, to advocacy in the congregation, and to engagement with people of different ages not only within the church but also with different congregations in the surrounding area.

What Tim Ferguson did for the youth of the congregation, he did for the adults as well, providing leadership, inspiring faith, motivating the members to outreach and service.

He did the same for me.

He engaged me. He inspired me. He empowered me. He helped me. He fed me with his faith. He energized me with his creativity. He lifted me up with his imagination.

He also captivated me with his words. I first learned of his gifts in writing on the shore of Fire Island, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Every year he wrote skits for the young people to present at an Easter Dawn service as the sun broke above the horizon and rose. That was just the beginning of his writing.

It is my deepest hope and my sincerest conviction that as you meet my colleague and my friend in his writings, you will find that he, together with the characters he has created, will engage and inspire you as well.

Rev. John F. Underwood