From Deseret News archives:
Uniting as one
Teenagers from different paths cherish their common ground
Maybe even more impressive, they voluntarily put their cell phones in "jail" for the night, even though one teen openly admits she "hates" being out of touch for an hour or two.
But if you were to drive by, you wouldn't guess where it's happening, because the only advertising is by word of mouth. There's no steeple or cross, no parking lot or sign above the door. Yet if you knock at Paul and Jenna Murphy's home in Bountiful, you'll find the WAY — the Wasatch Area Youth group that includes teens from several faiths and none at all. Baptists, Catholics, Lutherans, Latter-day Saints, agnostics and atheists have all found a personal connection that doesn't depend on whether their families greet each other at church on Sunday, or any other day, for that matter.
The Murphys aren't a faith-based organization with the accompanying federal funding. They aren't paid a dime, and their group is one-of-a-kind in Utah, as far as they know. It's not sponsored by any particular denomination, and there is no annual budget. At least, not in the financial sense.
Theirs is a personal call to budget personal time and resources to fill a void that no one really complained about, but everyone who has lived in Utah for any length of time understands. It's a way to bring youngsters of different faiths, or none together, without a focus on who believes what.
Short lessons about the traits Jesus Christ exhibited are discussed without reference to any specifics that would make him seem wedded to one church or another. He's simply held up as "the way" that teens will find happiness. There's food and fellowship and fun, with faith mixed in for good measure.
And it doesn't hurt that the Murphys are a happily married couple: It's a dynamic several of their young friends haven't seen much of.
The idea for gathering teens to the WAY germinated in another man's head and heart several years ago. He approached several smaller churches in Davis County, and a few were supportive.
As anyone who has ever worked in youth ministry knows, the "burnout" rate for adult leaders is high because the demand is constant. Planning and executing a weekly activity worth attending takes large doses of work and time and money.
Jenna Murphy found herself at a youth leadership training meeting paid for by her congregation — Grace Baptist Church — nearly six years ago, about the time the WAY's founder needed to move in a different direction. As a result, she stepped up, and brought her husband, Paul, along for the ride.
