From The Workshop

FROM THE WORKSHOP It’s June! Talk about fast, Vacation Bible School will be concluding by the time you read this! While some parts of the country are just having high school proms, our graduates are up and out! Great to see two fine young men, Karson Hord and Gage Champion, and their families making the shift from high school into young adulthood. Gage is headed to Army basic training at Ft Jackson, SC and following that it’s on to Ft. Sill where he will begin his specialty training in artillery. Karson is enrolling in the University of Oklahoma where he will begin his studies in computer engineering. Both have proud parents and grandparents with roots in the congregation. 
 
Next on the youth summer schedule is Camp, July 5-7. This three-day weekend event comes after multiple fund/fun raisers, bake and cookie sales, and our always amazing all church rummage sale. It’s a lot of work for three days but the kids’ camp experiences have always been spiritually connective in the midst of first-class facilities and events. Maybe more than half of the children this week will also have parents, grandparents, or other family members in the congregation. 
 
From the beginning when Jesus called some brothers off their fishing boats, family connections have added to the fellowship. The next group was those who were invited in by those who were already “in.” So families invite others who are not related to join in the community. While family members feel connected in the church because they are kin, those who are not family members have less to hold them. We saw this on Easter. We had kin who came with small children and we had community families who came because they saw the Easter events online. The families who were “kin” stayed for worship. The families without any ties left. 
 
This is why youth and children’s ministries are so challenging, so up and down. Connections. Jenna and Mary Beth have wonderful, planned lessons and experiences. They are age-appropriate and welcoming. But the “visiting” youth/children depend on parents/adult friends to bring them, to pick them up, and to help sometimes. With no connections, and no commitment, they are often not returning. We will never know if we were successful in sharing Jesus. 
 
One of my seminary professors told of a young woman who came to his door. He invited her to sit down and she told him she had deep depression, so much that she thought of suicide. From the past came a phrase, “He cares for you.” The professor said, “That’s from the Bible you know.” She didn’t and they wondered together where she might have heard I Peter 5. She said, “I have never been to church. Except when I went to visit my grandmother one summer and went to Bible School.” That scripture from so long ago appeared, and saved her life. 
 
We plant seeds of many harvests we will never see. Our work is to sow. 
  See you Sunday,

Pastor Tom