From The Workshop

From the Workshop
 
I am grateful to the Search Team for allowing me these two vacation weekends, one for a Father’s Day gathering, and this week my 50th college reunion. When I get back from Enid next week it’s just us from now until the last of November.  We don’t want to rush things but it’s possible that your new candidate might be revealed by then. 
 
Until then it’s my job to keep things moving along and to support you in all that you are doing. And so far that’s an easy job. If you were around this past week and past Sunday you know what a success Vacation Bible School was. Titled “God’s Masterpiece,” our VBS attracted 32 children! Way more than last year. With a professional teacher in the lead who loves kids and loves the Lord, we had a “masterpiece” going. It was just right on so many levels–messages, age appropriateness, supplies, organization, and adult interaction. Closing with a trip to the art museum made an impact and who knows where and how those seeds planted will grow. 
 
My preaching professor told the story of a young woman who came to his office. She was a student from the college not the seminary and they did not know one another. She came in with a load of anxiety and indicated she thought of taking her own life. She said she was not connected with any church ever. “How did you find your way here?” my professor asked.  “From somewhere I remember the words ‘He cares for you’ ” she said. “Those exact words come from the scriptures,” he said. “I wonder where you heard them?” As they sat and talked she shared, “I wasn’t around church in any part of my life. But once when I was visiting my grandmother in the country, I went to Bible school for maybe a day or two.”
 
It is likely she remembered I Peter 5:7, “Cast all your anxieties on him, for he cares about you.” This scrap of scripture, this seed planted years before was what came up in her memory. A word from some rural vacation Bible school. 
 
Our church has multiple family connections. It’s a job learning who’s connected to whom. And this is a good thing. But we have to remember that when we talk about reaching children, especially those outside our church families, these connections are transitory. Families move.  Our own children grow and often leave us for new places and new careers. Some of the young people we reached this week will be back. Others we may see again and others may move on, but all of them will carry in their hearts and minds the message from the week. “I am God’s masterpiece.” We did our job.
 
See you in two Sundays!
 
Tom