Dreams
May 7, 2008 — plwalkerWhat are your dreams? I’ve got plenty of dreams, including dreams for my kids and myself. But the thing about dreams is that they grow and evolve as our beliefs change and as we grow older.
For example, I used to have a dream to run a Christian campground where churches could send their teens and young people for a weekend retreat, or a weekly camp in the summer. But now, my beliefs have changed, and I don’t find anywhere in the Scriptures the consistent breaking up of families that we see in churches.
Families are not literally broken up, but when we hit the doors of the church, we are sending everyone to their own Sunday School class based on their age. When that is done, we send them to children’s church, junior church, youth church or regular service. We send our kids to children’s ministry activities during the week, while the teens are going to youth activities and the adults might meet for their activities (but generally they don’t). We are tearing our families in every direction to keep up with the activities of the church.
We visited a church on Sunday that is more family oriented than a traditional church. My parent’s church is the same way. The families stay together during the service, and the activities that the church may have are for the family as a whole, not for individual age groups within the church.
This may seem an odd stance coming from someon who was a Youth Director in four different churches. But as I study the scriptures, I find that splitting up the family in order to minister to them independently doesn’t match the teachings of the scripture. True, we have the admonision to have the older women and older men teach the younger women and younger men, respectively. That, however, does not preclude an environment where families are kept together. More importantly, the idea of “turning the hearts of children to their fathers and the hearts of fathers to children” is a vital part of the ministry of Christ. We also see the teaching for women to remain silent in the church, but to learn from their husbands at home.
I do want to clarify that last point. I don’t think the Apostle Paul was a woman hater. I think he was expounding God’s order for things. God created Adam to be the head of his household, and that is the way God designed the family to exist. The husband is the head. That does not give the husband the authority to be an unrelenting dictator. In fact, quite the opposite. The husband is to show the same love for his spouse that Christ showed for the church. Christ died for the church despite the church being unfaithful and disobedient to Him. In addition, the husband is not to “provoke his children to wrath.” This precludes any sort of evil dictatorship, and requires a humble, Christ-like leader.
So, my dream has changed. Rather than a youth and children’s camp, I want to have a family camp. A place where families of all sizes can come to get away and spend some time with God. Most specifically, I’d like to offer family camps for churches. A time for a church to get away as families and learn more about God. A place where fun and worship can meet. A place where families can grow more close to each other as well as closer to God. Also, a place where families can learn from one another how to better worship as a family.
That is one of my dreams. I would like to find someplace for the camp with several thousand acres and a seasonable climate. I know that this dream is likely not to happen unless God graces us with either a benefactor or a large sum of money. But that is what a dream is all about. Sometimes it doesn’t matter whether you actually ever attain your dream, just that you have it.
CC
Only, this time, I think I have a good excuse. Several days ago, I was talking with some friends about the perception of people as to what a Christian does. For those of us involved in church, we regularly hear what activities we should or should not be engaged in. We hear how people will use these activities to judge whether we are a Christian or not.