Photo: Jermaine Figueroa and Onan Alvarez help lead worship during the Mennonite Church USA convention. Photo by Vada Snider. 

During closing worship on Saturday morning, youth were asked to share what they would remember from their week together in Orlando.

“We believe that not only are you the church of the future, but you are the church now,” said Jon Heinly, youth worship leader, as he explained to the youth why it was important to hear their ideas and feedback.

“We hear God best when we listen to the voices of each other,” he said.

The youth were given the opportunity to share at one of two mics available in the worship hall, as well as on Twitter using the hashtag #MennoCon17Youth.

One attendee said she will remember that, “Even though I have a bad past…God will show me the way eventually and everything will be ok.”

Another youth said, “Love isn’t just an emotion. It’s more than that and you have to spread it to other people.”

One youth challenged those gathered to “pray when it depends on God and act when it depends on you.”

One young woman shared that she has had heart health complications and would often need a week to recover from one day of church. “And yesterday I walked five miles,” she said. The crowd responded with rousing applause at this declaration.

In remembering Lisa White Cameron’s drama about our “Top Five” people who may be hard to love from Wednesday worship, one youth said, “You have to invite people to your table that you don’t like.”

“No matter how far I fall, [God is] always going to love me, even when others don’t,” said another young woman.

“We don’t go to church, we are the church. So wherever we are is church,” said another youth, recalling speaker Scott Roth’s words.

Another youth remembered Remilyn Mondez’s Friday message and said, “It only takes one light to shine through the darkness.”

One of the last youth to share said that, going forward, “I will not be silent out of indifference.”

A youth sponsor shared last, hoping to remind the youth that while we must love others, we must not forget that we ourselves are also God’s beloved.

Heinly closed the service by saying “You are the church. You are an expression of God’s love in this world.”