The Future?

In my visits with you I am asking about your visions, hopes and dreams for the future; and more often than not you are telling me that your visions, hopes and dreams for the future include “more families with children.” You want growth, but especially growth in this direction. Some would say that the children are our future. But they are not, really. By and large most children that grow up in Sturgeon Bay will end up going off to school when they graduate high school and will then move on to some other geographic location. Sturgeon Bay will not afford them all of the vocational opportunities that they need. They will likely go elsewhere.

No, the children are very much our present, our now. All we have is the how of current interaction and shared learning. We grow together with our children. We learn together with our children. We explore and discover together with our children. We do not do for our children, but rather live with our children. They will learn much from what they perceive from us. They are watching, and they are paying attention.

This would be as good a time as any to stop and ask ourselves how committed we are to this vision of a future Hope Church populated by families with children (by the way, they’re already here). Currently our Board of Education is led (with one exception) by women who are mothers of families with young children. In a congregation that is populated with so many folks who are older (me too – turning 50 this month), and so many folks of retirement age, I would like to see a change of leadership on the Board of Education, the fleshing out of our visions, hopes and dreams in practice.

These younger women who currently lead the Board of Education, AND run our Sunday School, will not be offended by a coup of others who wish to repopulate the Board. You do not need to wait to be asked to serve on the Board of Education. Simply bring your energy, your vision, hopes and dreams to Board Night on the second Thursday of each month and begin to contribute to the process of making Hope Church more conducive to families with children.

In the future we will need to invest ourselves more heavily in this endeavor, with both human resources and financial commitments. But it begins with sitting down around a table and wondering together, “How can we make Hope Church a place that families with children would like their children to grow up in?”