I ended this past weekend’s message with the following question.
Where have you seen the church at her best?
I have already received many people’s response to that question and I would love to hear more. If you would like to share your response with me, please feel free to shoot me an email.
Here is just one of the many ways I’ve recently seen the church at her best.
Saturday night after church my wife shared with me something that happened while she was pulling into the parking lot for worship that evening. Our daughter was already in Houston at her grandparents house so it was just my wife and my almost 2 year old son. Steph said that when our son Jack saw the church, he got really excited and said, “Mommy, church!”
Now that isn’t something new for our son. It was a couple of months ago when Jack got really upset in the back seat when I turned into Walmart instead of the church before dropping him off for preschool that I realized that not only did my son recognize the church building, he got excited to see that was our destination.
Here’s the question though… Why does my son get excited when he sees the church? What does “church” mean to my young boy?
Although we have not had the chance to have an extensive discussion about it, here is what I think is going through Jack’s head. When Jack thinks of church, he doesn’t see a building or a classroom. My son sees a face, and the particular face that I think most quickly comes to mind is Mrs. Clark, one of our nursery workers and Jack’s preschool teacher.
For my son, Mrs. Clark is church, and church is Mrs. Clark. He cannot yet form a full sentence and yet my boy already understands the church to be a place where he is loved because there is a person there who has embodied that ideal for him.
She does so with her smile, her hugs, her excitement to see Jack, and the genuine joy which she brings to the part she plays in the life of our church.
As I said on Sunday, we have a long way to go with Jack. I am already praying that he feels the same way about the church at 17 as he does at just past 17 months, but he is off to a great start because of the care he received from one of our faithful servants.
Next week, our campus will be invaded with hundreds of kids for Vacation Bible Camp. Hundreds of volunteers will be with us every morning providing for other children what Mrs. Clark has provided for my son… a smile, a hug, an excitement… a genuine joy.
And we hope that each child walks away from that experience with the same feeling that church is a place where I am loved.
It is for me a beautiful picture of the church at her best.
