In the fall we completed an All-Church Survey that helped to discern three priorities the congregation has for the direction of our life together over the next three years. Those priorities named by UCG respondents to the Survey had to do with justice action around race, poverty, and the environment; care and nurture of the congregation for one another; and spiritual experience and formation. On January 31, in an exciting worship/planning gathering, our congregation then interacted with one another and with those three priorities in an activity called “Chalk Talks,” a silent conversation in writing. In our sanctuary, seated at tables, and guided by thoughtful questions based upon the priorities, we were invited to write responses, inspirations, visions, and ideas, “speaking” to one another in graffiti-like messages of hope, joy, and directions for growth.
As the adults and youth were engaged in this work of worship, so were the children. The United Tribes children had their own questions that were age-appropriate and paralleled those of the adults. The questions included these: “If you could dream big and do anything you wanted to make the world a better place, what would your dream be?…What could UCG do?…What would our church look like, sound like, taste like?” There were sheets of responses from every age group–drawings and words, some written by the children’s own hands, and some responses written for the youngest ones by the Guides who were facilitating the process. When it was over, Keri, our Children’s Program Director, and the Guides put up the children’s work all around the walls of Reimer Hall. And it was there that I saw many, many sentences that have hovered in my heart ever since I read them, these theological seeds germinating this spring in the minds of our children.
Someone wrote that our church family could “Help God think.”
Another noted that at a present and future UCG, as we make a better world:
“People will not be scared to talk to each other.”
“It will sound like music.”
“It will taste like bread.”
“I will play with all the new people.”
“It will look like a castle, but it would still be a church. It would sound like an ocean but would still be peace. It would sound like bird in nightsfall but would be peace for miles.”
Instructed once again by our children’s wisdom and nearness to the Beloved One, I marvel. I wonder where it leads us, when we see our play and work as a pathway to help God think? I’m broken open by the thought. How will we plan for our life together to result in wholeness and blessing for all the creation and for other humans? What will we learn and how will we share it, if we embrace our children’s dreams…if our church sounds like the chance to listen for the ocean and the birds at night fall and living into the peace for miles?