A new crop of lettuce is growing in the GP box in the sun room. The first crop was excellent but I forgot to plant new seeds while it was growing. When I finally did we were hit by a major cold spell and the seeds did not take. I hope not to repeat this mistake and now that the sun is out the temperature in the unheated sun room is staying between 52 and 62 degrees, plenty warm for lettuce.

I thought of this mistake today when thinking about how our churches, especially my Catholic Church, are losing young members despite recent attempts to reach out to young adults with programs like Theology on Tap. However, the effort by the Catholic Church has been weak. I was one of the last full time youth ministers in Catholic Churches in Milwaukee and the activities I created in the last Church have, for the most part, faded away as one Director of Religious education was hired to replace three of us, children, youth and adults who had worked long hours to build our programs. Money is the reason for cutback in youth ministry but the money base for the Catholic Church dries up as more and more Catholics, young and old, move away from the Church.

Instead of planting seeds the Church has put obstacles in the way for young people to be active in the church with its positions on gays, women in ministry, the sexual abuse scandal, the failure of the Church leaders to take stands on moral issues like war and human rights and all the rules and regulations put on worship. Instead of sowing seeds the Church has being plowing over seeds.

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