And You Thought that the United Church of Canada was Dead...

Jesus came to the disciples and said to them:

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (Matt. 28:18-20)

This summer in Niagara, the United Church of Canada is thriving in its work with children. This summer, as with 5 other summers, the body of leaders engaged in driving the mission of Jesus Christ across the Niagara peninsula - officially known as Niagara Presbytery of the United Church of Canada - was able to continue the dream of one Norma Weller by committing significant funds to put together one of the most experimental programs I have seen in this Church - a travelling VBS (VBS stands for Vacation Bible School).

The program hired two co-ordinators (I was one of them) and then went on to hire 12 teenage and young adult staff to work with the children each day of the summer. At the beginning of the summer two teams were formed and each team consisted of 1 co-ordinator and 6 staff.

In May my counterpart (Anne) and I spent a great deal of time meeting and greeting both churches and our fellow staff and putting together and painting skit sets and other items. All the while I was offered the gift of preaching each week of the summer (which was tiring by the way) and working with children each weekday.

Attendance at our churches ranged from like 10 children at one or two churches all the way up to over 90 at a couple of other churches and it was such a gift to the communities we ended up in. Many congregations we met had an average age of 70+ years and VBS was an opportunity for these churches to meet young families (parents 25-45 years old) and young children they never knew existed within a stone's throw of their worship centres. There were also grandparents in congregations who brought their grandchildren.

I guess what I'm getting at is that over the past year I have been thinking about the Great Commission (which is the Scripture that is quoted at the top of the post) and I think that there are a couple of things that the cluster of United Churches in Niagara (called Niagara Presbytery) did well this summer in response to the summons of Jesus Christ.

The first thing that the cluster did well was to respond to God's calling in a peculiar way.

There was a kid named Samuel in the Old Testament who lived in the temple with an old priest named Eli. One night he heard his name called out, "Samuel, Samuel!" So Samuel went and woke up Eli thinking that it was Eli who called him. Eli just told him, "Go back to bed." I t happened again and Samuel heard his name called. He went back to Eli and woke him up and presented himself. Again Eli told him to go back to bed and that it wasn't him who called Samuel. Finally after Samuel had been called a third time Eli realized that it had been God calling Samuel and so he said to Samuel, "If someone speaks to you again, answer, 'I'm listening YHWH (YAHWEH). What do you want me to do?'"

So Samuel went back to his room and as he lay he heard the voice of God call out, "Samuel, Samuel!" and Samuel replied, "What do you want me to do?" (Check out 1 Samuel 3:1-18, my paraphrase)

In Niagara the Church accepted that God was calling them and, therefore, ended up responding to the generosity of God by investing almost $40,000 each year in this free, travelling VBS. Because of the Church responded to God's generosity in such a way it was found that more doors were waiting to be opened. Let's look a little closer at what else was going on.

Here are major benefits of the program.

1. Employed 14 students, 1o high school-aged youth and 3 post-secondary students
2. Invited local congregations to begin conversation (evangelion - good news) with local young families
3. Offered young families the opportunity to see and live in the afterglow of the impact of a joyful community - mostly seen in their children's responses
4. Gave 14 students the opportunity to check out the state of local United Church congregations on the Niagara Peninsula
5. Gave 14 students the opportunity to build community with each other
6. Gave 14 students the opportunity to be leaders in building community in the name of Jesus Christ with children ranging in age from about 3 to 13 years of age
7. Invited children into the counter-cultural Jesus narrative
8. Built the foundations of Christian community on songs they don't play on MTV - songs that are illegal to play on MTV
9. Paid 14 staff more than United Church camps pay summer staff
10. The staff teams were supported by "older" adult members of the Presbytery's Christian Education/Development Committee

This year we connected with approximately 500 children, which is up 16.3% over last year's approximately 430 children. The numerical success of this program defies the common belief that the United Church of Canada is dying and/or is dead. Rather, in seeing so many children this summer I end up recalling that story about Peter and a guy named Cornelius.

Peter ended up at Cornelius' house and they have a chat about all things kosher and Peter's revelation that among the peoples of the world God shows no partiality because God, in light of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, was, in an over-the-top way, attempting to get back everything that belongs to God and so Peter ends up saying to Cornelius:

Now I am certain that God treats all people alike. God is pleased with everyone who worships him and does right, no matter what nation they come from. This is the same message that God gave to the people of Israel, when he sent Jesus Christ, the Lord of all, to offer peace to them.

Then Peter told those gathered around all that had happened to Jesus and what it means. He talked about the ministry years, but clearly articulated this:

Jesus was put to death on a cross. But three days later, God raised him to life and let him be seen. Not everyone saw him. He was seen only by us, who ate and drank with him after he was raised from death. We were the ones God chose to tell others about him. (Acts 10:39-41)

Peter goes on and on about the meaning of Jesus to this small crowd and all of a sudden the floor began to shake, the windows began rattling, and the cutlery danced. Some of the Jewish Christian folks present were surprised because the Gentiles (non-Jewish people) had received the Holy Spirit.

So Peter says to the people:

These Gentiles have been given the Holy Spirit, just as we [Jews] have! I am certain that no one would dare stop us from baptizing them.

Peter then had those Gentiles gathered baptized in the name of Jesus Christ (you'll note that they weren't baptized in the name of "The Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" but rather in the NAME of JESUS CHRIST!)

This is how we received VBS 2009 - with surprise and shock about how far-flung God's generosity actually is. God wasn't looking to make us all his friends this summer; but was rather redeeming and reconciling all of humankind in our travelling VBS program this summer in an obscure part of North America. Amen.