Love is a Verb!

Defining love can be a tough thing, but assigning it a part of speech is big step in the right direction. I don’t know who first came up with the phrase “Love is a Verb” but I do know that we used it as a theme at CYC one year. When asked about a significant thing they had learned at CYC, one of our people answered with that theme.

When love is a verb, service becomes very important. Teaching teens to serve is both exciting and rewarding. That is why at CYC we spend one morning on Ventures, going out to serve the community. As the kids work together in groups to help others they create an energy that is palpable. Sure those others benefit, but quite often the teens reap even more positive results. Teamwork, responsibility and putting the needs of others before your own are all important lessons than can be part of a volunteer effort.


Often, serving is a positive experience. The teens have fun. Perhaps they work with children who are cute and enjoy having them around. Perhaps an elderly woman thanks them for stacking her firewood. Perhaps after hours of clearing trails, they plunge into a river and splash each other for a while. At CYC, kids have known these experiences and as a leader I have been thrilled to see their excitement.


But, sometimes, it’s not like that. Maybe a group with Alzheimer’s was tough to deal with. Or people at the soup kitchen made nasty comments. Our teens have had those experiences, too. In one case that I remember, we sent a Ventures to clean the dunes along the town’s beach. The dunes were fenced in at that time and the townies did – and still do feel very protective of them. After all they are an important part of the town’s defense against flooding and beautiful besides. Town officials had asked us to go inside the fence and pick up trash so we sent a group to do just that. And people yelled at them. “You shouldn’t be in there.” Repeatedly, the team leaders explained who they were and what they were doing, but many people up and down the beach expressed displeasure. The townies are actually a nice lot, generally speaking, but protecting those dunes was high on their priority list and they didn’t know who the kids were. Our students were a bit discouraged when they got back. Still, they stuck with it, finished the job and grew through the experience. We tried to help them learn that serving is not for a reward or praise. It’s to help.

We teach that “Love is a Verb” through this hands –on experience every year. We also talk about it, conduct classes on it and model it. We hold up two exceptional servants of God, Adoniram Judson and Ann Hasseltine Judson, as examples. Their lives, dedicated to serving the Burmese people even in very adverse circumstances, have a lot to teach us. So we tell their story each year and commemorate their lives with awards at graduation.



Service is part of the Christian life. It is a high calling and should be undertaken with prayer and careful consideration of our gifts. It’s good to remember that there is no harm in having fun while doing it. Laughter is good in many places.


How are you serving?

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Hebrews 10: 23-25

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”[b] .

Galatians 5:13-14





Christian youth Conference at Ocean Park is a two week ecumenical conference for high school students held in August on the beautiful southern coast of Maine. The theme for the 2011 conference is "Face to Face" and will look at restoring relationships between God and individuals, and amongst people. Click here for more information.