An Invitation to Belong News April 25, 2025 Melissa Dodd Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... Recently, a moment resurfaced in my heart. The memory is over four decades old. It is a classroom in the church where I spent my childhood and teenage years. I was probably 13 years old and seated with a dozen people who I knew had to be 40-60 years older than me for a board meeting. I cannot remember many details, but I do remember how I felt. I felt like I belonged. I know many people are responsible because, as a middle schooler, I didn’t think twice about serving on the church’s leadership board. My parents were involved in church and made sure I was involved in Sunday school, worship and youth group. I know my parents did not serve on that leadership team, yet they were my transportation to and from the meeting. It would be almost 30 years before I realized that The Book of Discipline says youth should serve on leadership teams. It would also be decades before I realized how unique it was for a middle schooler to serve on the council of a large United Methodist church. All I knew then was that the pastor, the associate pastor and church members thought I had something to bring to the table. Today, I can look at that moment and put some language around what happened. Someone had an ICNU (I see in you) conversation with me. I remember several ICNU conversations growing up at Wesley United Methodist Church in Springfield. Many never hesitated to tell a shy and sometimes awkward teenager, “You have gifts that could be used in the church.” I don’t think participating in an Ad Council meeting in the early 1980s led me to say yes to my current calling. But I will say people believing in how God could use me laid the foundation for my surrender to God’s call in and on my life. I will admit that a church board meeting is not at the top of a teenager’s bucket list. But I believe “belonging somewhere” is at the top of all our lists. It wasn’t so much about the leadership team as it was about someone besides my parents thinking I had something to bring to leadership. Who may God be inviting you to a leadership position or volunteer role? You never know what God will do with that conversation.