Warmth In Winter, Day 2

Well, it just goes to show you that there are different perspectives.

At the conclusion of tonight’s big group session, I was already writing a blog post in my head, about how much the big group — by which I mean all of the youth in Gaylord Opryland Events Center — seemed to enjoy tonight’s message.

But at our group meeting just now, while everyone enjoyed the service, some people thought it was just a little off.

At each of Rev. Toi King’s messages — one last night, and two today — she encouraged the crowd to say “Amen!” or “Preach, Preacher!” or things like that if they agreed with her.

Some of the youth, especially the younger youth, took that a little too literally, yelling out at inopportune times, answering what were clearly supposed to be rhetorical questions, etc. It was a little annoying, but it was also an indicator of just how focused in they were on her message. I thought the energy in the room was electric.

Last night, when Rev. King was talking about being called “chubby” as a child and teenager, she had us write negative labels — things others have called us, or things we’ve told ourselves — anonymously on little slips of paper, which were collected at the end of the night. Every anonymous slip was read, and hundreds of negative words and phrases culled from the slips were displayed on…