There is a kind of connection that cannot be measured by how many messages we send, how many people follow us, or how many names appear in a group chat.

Sometimes connection looks much simpler.

It looks like a room full of young people laughing together.

At the first gathering of Wilmington Area Youth (WAY), we looked around and saw about 25 middle and high school students from Episcopal churches across the Wilmington area playing games, talking, and getting to know one another. There was an understandable sense among the leaders that something wonderful had happened.

Twenty-five young people had shown up. Twenty-five had stepped away from everything else competing for their attention and chosen to spend an evening together.

We thought we had done an incredible job.

And then, just as everyone was beginning to gather for prayer, the doors opened.

Another church arrived with about 10 more youth.

There was something quietly beautiful about that moment. The circle simply had to grow wider.

Perhaps that is a fitting image for what Wilmington Area Youth is becoming.

Making Room for One Another

Young people today experience connection in ways previous generations never could. Friends are rarely more than a text, notification, or group chat away. Yet constant digital connection can also make it surprisingly difficult to disconnect, slow down, and simply be present with the person standing in front of us.

WAY offers another kind of space.

For a few hours, young people can gather around tables instead of screens. They can play games, share a meal, worship, laugh, ask questions, and discover the simple gift of being present with one another.

That matters because Christian community has always been deeply personal and deeply embodied. Jesus gathered people around tables. He walked with them. He listened to them. He prayed with them. Again and again, faith grew through relationships.

Sometimes ministry begins with something as simple as making room in the circle for ten more people.

A Church Bigger Than Our Walls

WAY is also giving our young people an opportunity to discover something important about the Church.

The Church is bigger than St. Andrew’s.

It is bigger than any one parish.

When youth from Episcopal churches across Wilmington gather together, the boundaries between “our youth group” and “their youth group” begin to soften. New friendships form. Familiar faces appear in unfamiliar places. Young people begin to recognize that they belong not only to a congregation, but to a much wider community of faith.

That is one of the hopes behind the work Caroline and youth leaders from neighboring Episcopal churches are doing together.

No single parish could create quite the same experience alone.

And perhaps we are not supposed to.

Everyone Has a Part to Play

Fr. B.J. recently compared the Church to a theater production. What happens on stage is only possible because many people, each with a different role, bring their gifts together. There are actors and directors, but there are also stage managers, designers, technicians, costumers, and countless others whose work makes the whole production possible.

His point was simple: every person matters.

The same is true of WAY.

Each church brings something different. Each youth leader brings particular gifts, experiences, and ideas. Parents and volunteers contribute in ways that may never be noticed. And every young person who walks through the door changes the community simply by being there.

The beauty is not that everyone plays the same part.

The beauty is that everyone has a part to play.

When the Circle Gets Wider

Maybe that is why those additional ten young people arriving at the last moment felt like more than just a larger attendance number.

We had made plans. We had prepared. We had hoped young people would come.

Then God gave us more people for whom to make room.

There is something wonderfully Gospel-like about that.

Again and again, Jesus seems to make the circle wider. There is another person to welcome, another chair to pull up, another story to hear, another life through which Christ might become known.

Our hope for WAY is not simply that the events grow larger. Numbers are encouraging, but they are not the heart of this ministry.

Our hope is that the circle grows wider.

We hope a young person discovers a friend they did not know before. We hope someone who wondered whether there was a place for them discovers that there is. We hope our youth learn that faith is not something they have to navigate alone. And we hope they begin to recognize that they themselves have gifts, voices, questions, and experiences that the Church needs.

Perhaps years from now they will not remember how many people attended that first gathering.

But they may remember what it felt like to belong.

They may remember laughing together, praying together, and looking around a room filled with other young people discovering faith alongside them.

And perhaps they will remember that just when we thought the circle was full, the doors opened and we discovered there was room for more.

There usually is.

Different churches. Different gifts. One community in Christ.