This past Sunday morning a large, and noticeably absent group of our congregation was in Richland, WA for the annual Leadership Training for Christ conference.  During the conference children from many churches of Christ in the northwest present a wide range of projects they have diligently prepared in advance.  There are singing groups, plays and skits, artwork, puppet shows, Bible lessons, the list goes on!   It is a lot of work, and the kids work hard on it and they love it!  

But, I think the best part is that it is a congregational undertaking.  The pictures we saw Sunday AM during worship included a lot of parents.  It wasn’t just a big bunch of our kids and a couple of worn out, stressed out chaperones on the trip to LTC.  We had the Mommas and the Poppas and the kiddos all together, even down to the youngest ones.  What the photos really illustrated is the congregation’s commitment to teach faith in Jesus to all of our children, together as a family.

The writers of scripture use family or household language frequently.  Paul even called the church in Ephesus the “household of God” (1 Timothy 3:15).  It is important for us, the Keizer church of Christ, as one of those households to take our charge to teach Christian faith to our children seriously and really commit ourselves to that calling.  Anyone who has parented for five minutes or more knows you really just cannot do it well on your own.  It is just too big a task to raise children well to tackle it by yourself!  We need each other.  By God’s design we are supposed to be interdependent.  Our lives and our faith are supposed to be tied to one another in ways that only God can accomplish and that we in turn are supposed to foster and give thanks for and be faithful with. I am thankful to God that he is doing exactly this work amongst us.

Let me be specific!  Melody Williamson, Colleen Busch and Tim Turner all worked very hard with our kids in preparing for LTC. They are by no means the only ones, but in them my daughter Emma has seen in clear examples of Christian adults  putting their faith in God into deeds for others.   They are not the only ones she has learned from!   Roger Elliott and Don Crownover  have taught her Bible classes.  Lori Deibert, Becki Kosack and Carolyn Matthews had her over to make baby receiving blankets for the Hope Pregnancy Clinic.  Sue Nichol has had her over to the house, let her walk the dog, given her rides home on Wednesday evenings and shared an ice cream cone or two with her.  Rex and Marion are providing for our daily needs, even doing our laundry!  And this coming weekend Emma will meet with the DOVE Ministry for the first time.   Daughters Of Virtue Everyday is a mentoring and encouragement ministry that Lindsay Walker has organized that pairs our young girls with some of our young woman / mothers one evening a month for dinner, a devotional time, crafts and fun and friendship building…what a great idea!

This is just a short list of the ways I know that God is using the whole church to root faithfulness in Emma.  Who knows what else he is up to that I won’t even be aware of for weeks, months or years to come.   Maybe I should thank him for that even now!   Faithful families rely on one another to teach trust in God to one another, especially our children.  Let’s embrace this way of living faithfully together and take every opportunity to serve, encourage and build one another up in faith, love and good deeds.   See you all soon,  Howard