Youth Involvement at a Total Ministry Church

ECMN News Story

Youth Involvement at a Total Ministry Church

Holy Trinity Episcopal Church started to become a total ministry parish in 2000 when the congregation twice discerned to select non-stipendiary leaders from within a 50-member parish of all the baptized. Elections of adults led to an eight-member team that convened four years of formation in 2002. Team members were commissioned and ordained in July of 2006. Since then, the team membership changed through death, resignation, emigration, retirement, the gain of two new members--leaving us with three team members and a Lutheran pastor seminary trained mentor in 2026.

During those 26 years, youth were born and grew up in our church where they began to perform critical roles in the liturgy, outreach and ecumenical activities of the parish. Linnaea and Gavia Yount are the daughters of HTEC physician and priest Reverend Dr. Samantha Ann Crossley and husband Jim Yount, an owner of Small-Town-Tech in International Falls, MN.

While growing up and maturing, their parents, teachers and church mentors encouraged the girls to voluntarily become involved in parish activities. Both became engaged in speech, theater and music activities within the community. Linnaea and Gavia were determined contestants in district, regional and state speech contests, had significant roles in local theater productions and were schooled in singing and musical instruments.

The church ministry team and vestry leaders fully supported integrating these talented daughters into church offerings where and when appropriate. They gradually became more unified into the liturgical, educational, social and ecumenical activities sponsored by the parish as they grew older. They stepped up to replace some of the volunteer activities lost as active team and parish members dwindled in later years. 

They often were incorporated into a variety of services held at HTEC and community ecumenical churches. Linnaea, a high school junior wrote and presented her own sermon about “Doubting Thomas” in Eastertide this year that truly challenged her listeners (See at end of article). She reads scripture, prayers, makes announcements and helps young children learn to acolyte. At ecumenical Lenten, Good Friday and Winter Solstice services she reads along with other students.

Gavia learned and worked for years singing with our three professional church musicians to be fully musically incorporated into worship services and whenever at home on leave from Gustavus Adolphus College. She is now one of their Philosophy/English majors and Theater/Field and Media Studies minors graduates. When proficient with their instruments they joined their trumpet playing mother with their flute and oboe during many Christmas and Easter services. 

Linnaea, a seasoned childcare sitter, was mentored by Deacon Mel Mattson to assist with Sunday school lessons and activities. She was a designer of a Sunday school eco-garden setup the kids planted on the church yard. The Sunday School room needed a lot of attention and Linnaea with students developed a plan to decorate and reorganize their room to their liking. 

Starting in 2019, HTEC began providing Facebook Live outreach services that have been rebroadcast on local KCC-TV since then.  Linnaea has taken on the job of managing that computer system program weekly under the tutelage of her father Jim.

Both sisters were regularly involved in HTEC outreach programs such as Ruby’s Pantry, a Poverty Simulation event, Kids Christmas gift program, Servants of Shelter for the homeless activities, Backus Community Center food programs, Blessing of the Animals services, annual Christmas Day Dinners, Shrove Tuesday Suppers, annual ecumenical Lenten Soup Suppers and at the Ernest Oberholtzer Library at Backus Community Center.

Each summer when the girls were old enough, they helped their father Jim set up and take down audio and visual aide equipment used for our three outdoor worship services conducted annually. They often participated in the services and Linnaea and Gavia helped record the services for local KCC-TV cable distribution. Services occurred 12 miles from the church at the picnic area of the Rainy Lake Visitor Center of Voyageurs National Park surrounded by the waters of Rainy Lake. 

Linnaea participated in confirmation studies with her friends at First and Zion Lutheran Churches. Reverend Crossley and the Lutheran pastors were their instructors. During and after her studies she participated in a church sponsored BWCAW canoe trip, Lutheran youth retreats, a Lutheran National Youth Convention in New Orleans and a Lutheran wilderness mountain hiking trip near Glacier National Park.  The participants helped finance these trips by a host of unique projects they organized.

To put it plainly, Linnaea’s and Gavia’s ministries have been some of the most important for HTEC. They brought enthusiasm, fresh perspectives, and energy, preventing the church from becoming stagnant. Involvement in music ministry and volunteering through outreach activities, connects their faith to action. It also offers them a safe space for support and allows them to contribute to church life through service, such as being part of worship.  I believe such involvement provided them with vital long-term discipleship and helped them build a personal faith. There is much gratitude and joy for their contributions at our total ministry church. Their ministries serve as examples of how students move from a child's faith to active adult conviction. Thanks be to God for that!

Linnaea Yount Sermon

Doubting Thomas -The Story in the Bible (John 20:19–29)

When I was younger, I was obsessed with science, especially biology. My name comes from the father of modem taxonomy, Carolus Linnaeus, or more specifically his favorite flower, the Linnaea Borealis. This, along with the natural curiosity of a child, put me on the fast track to all things science.

My favorite book was a scientific encyclopedia. For years, you could see me traipsing around in my pink and sparkly blue zebra and bird t-shirt that even six- year-old me could tell you was a classic example of a symbiotic relationship.

Science is just so natural for a kid. As Neil deGrasse Tyson once said, "A scientist is just a kid who never grew up." As I got older, my enthusiasm for biology dwindled, replaced with other interests and ideas. I guess I grew up. Except, I didn't (as anyone who knows me can testify). What Neil deGrasse Tyson was talking about was a child's obsession with asking questions. So. Many. Questions.

"What does Sigma mean?" "What's a country?" "Is the Bible like, a coloring book?" (all real-world examples). That trait is something I have not grown out of.

Today, we heard about the Bible's scientist, Thomas. Now, Thomas did not have any pink and sparkly bluet-shirts with classic representations of symbiotic relationships, and he certainly was not named after the father of modem taxonomy. In fact, they didn't even use the name he had, they called him The Twin. He still lived in a world where it was believed that the earth was flat and the entire

universe revolved around it. And yet, he was just as much a scientist as my six-year-old self was, because he asked the questions. In fact, he was a better scientist than most, because he asked the most important scientific question of all. "Where's your proof?"

I would like to draw your attention briefly to the last paragraph of today's Gospel.

"Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name" Not very exciting, is it. Other cool stuff happened, but you don't get to hear about it!

I think that it is the most important part of the gospel that we read today. This is our book of proof. This is our biology textbook. This is our scientific encyclopedia. This is our gospel truth. We are so quick to judge Thomas. I mean, we call him Doubting Thomas. But he was the one who asked the questions. He asked questions that were answered to others without them asking. He asked the questions that would lead to him being judged by people everywhere for millennia. 

He asked the questions that we wouldn't have the opportunity to ask. Because he, was there. He didn't have the book to tell him how it would all turn out. He was walking untraversed paths, climbing unseen mountains, sailing uncharted waters to follow Jesus. Thomas believed in Jesus. He needed no proof that Jesus was the Messiah. He cast away his net and became a fisher of men. He believed in Jesus.

He just had some questions about the whole rising from the dead thing.

And even then, upon seeing Jesus he cries out "My Lord and My God!" And he believed. Thomas asked the questions. And Thomas believed.

We are the ones who must believe without seeing. And we have the recordings of the signs that Jesus gave to the Apostles, and the miracles that he performed, so that we may be aided in our belief. Ask the questions and believe. Ask the questions and have faith. Ask the questions, because they will become the brick and mortar that makes a church. Questions are the foundation of belief.