June 13, 2025
"Do you know how lucky you are?"
This past Sunday, Pastor Mark Nilson asked of us if we know how lucky we are. The point of reference here was the number of children in our midst. He even shared the reflections of a friend who heard of our unexpected population explosion, and the fact that we have an active Sunday School, and asked “Is this the 1950s again?” Do we know how lucky we are?
When teaching my ministry students over the years, I told them to plan thoroughly and well for your ministry in the coming year, but the situations that unfold will dictate what your ministry actually will be. We have been focused in these first few post-pandemic years on the reception and integration of visitors who have come to stay. And we are about to introduce a ministry to address this concern. But since the new year began (no doubt in part because of our early, kid-friendly Christmas Eve service) the number of young families and young children in our midst has increased. The plan we had for our children’s faith formation is no longer sufficient. So now we must respond to what God is doing in our midst. What an unexpected and delightful problem to have!
And the response is underway. Thanks to the steadfast and diligent work of our Nurture Faith chair Sara Davis in collaboration with Pastor Lauren and our Nurture Faith team, data has been gathered, knowledgeable and wise people have been consulted, and now people in our congregation are being surveyed. The Nurture Faith team has been crafting a response to the challenge of nurturing the faith of every young person in our congregation. It will be presented, at least in part, at our congregational Semi-Annual Meeting on Sunday, June 22. For starters, it seeks to expand our formation offerings to reduce the age ranges within each class our young people find themselves.
That and other changes will require more volunteers to work with our children to teach them about our scriptures, our faith, and our God. This is a challenge. Yet think of all the churches—inner city, historic ‘First’ churches, or any church for that matter—that pray for such a problem as this. So I invite you all to pray for our ministries to our children and youth. Pray for Pastor Lauren, Sara Davis, the entire Nurture Faith team. Wear out your new church directory praying for each family in our new directory, however well you know them.
Might our prayerful response not be one of acknowledging how lucky we are, but acknowledging that God has entrusted us with all of these lives, parents and children, and pray that we steward those gifts well.
In conclusion, let me recast our initial question, do we realize how graced we are by God to be a part of this emerging community with all the possibilities and challenges it presents us all? Might we answer with our prayerful actions of grateful response.
With deep thanksgiving for what God is doing in our midst,
~ Pastor Todd