It is early August and that is the time that we are usually getting final preparations in place for our Fall programming. Especially plans for our Weds night programming. However, the participants and volunteers and leaders have waned and we are now faced with making changes...like not having a Weds meal, or a children's program. I have wrestled with this for the past three months, and have been suspecting this is the path we will be taking for about 5 months. It just seemed like Weds nights ran out of gas. Families were running to and from practices, and trying to squeeze all the errands in to the hour that they were at church.
So we began evaluating and asking questions...what if we didn't do this anymore,what do you want your kids to get from church, what is important to you about your children...and interestingly enough...the answers were alot of ambivalence. Meaning - there were feelings on both sides of the spectrum but nothing strong enough to make a clear decision...just kind of muddy.
So, now I try to look into the crystal ball and see what this means in the near future. Are we experiencing the shrinkage that we've been hearing about, has the culture caught up with us? But even bigger, what will we do about it?..I am praying, and listening for the answers as they come. ANd I know this...our kids must know the church values them and cares for them, and they must hear the story of our faith so that they will carry it forward into the future. The question is simply how and who will come forward to help?
Please join me in prayer for our chlidren.
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