Building Faith

Lance and Kipi and I are in the middle of our three-day Faith Builders Day Camp with our 5th, 6th, and 7th graders here at Legacy. And I’m exhausted. From 9:00 to 11:30 am, we’re teaching these kids — 44 of them — the fundamentals of our faith in God through Christ Jesus. Yesterday the theme was “Sin: The Problem.” Today it was “Jesus: The Solution.” And tomorrow we wrap it all up with “Faith: The Response.” We play games together from 11:30 to 12:00 noon. And then Lance and Kipi take the kids in vans to NRH2O today, Main Event yesterday, and a movie tomorrow.

It’s crazy. So much energy in here. 44 of those 10-12 year-olds. Non-stop. Constant. Loud. Interactive. Responsive. Hilarious. And soaking everything up like a bunch of little sponges. It’s funny that we can be talking about what it really means to be made in the image of God and wind up in a riveting discussion about dinosaurs. We can be deeply involved in Jesus as the perfect lamb for our redemption and 30-seconds later arguing about whether our pets are going to be in heaven. But through it all, they’re getting it. When we talk about Jesus radically changing the life of the demon-possessed man in Luke 8, taking Peter back at that beach-side breakfast in John 21, dying for us while we were still sinners, they get it. I love watching all the little lightbulbs go off. I love the interaction with the kids during lunch or inbetween sessions.

They’re all doing 30-minutes of Faith Builders homework each night with their parents. The conversations are happening. The Bibles are being read. God is reaching out to his children. And the faith is being passed on from generation to generation.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I can’t imagine a week much busier than this one. Ever. And it’s only Tuesday afternoon. I wish it were Tuesday last week. I’m running out of time.

Faith Builders Day Camp through tomorrow afternoon. Oasis tomorrow evening and then a dry-run in our new worship center. Thursday morning at 6:45 we’re going to hold a ceremony outside while construction workers place the giant metal cross on the exterior of our building facing west on Mid Cities Boulevard. At 7:00 that morning the Legacy Bible Reading will begin. Our whole church family — men, women, and children — will read from Genesis through Revelation in 15-minute shifts. The reading will be carried on video and audio monitors all over our campus here. It’ll be streamed live on our church website. And it’ll conclude at 8:45 Sunday morning with a congregational reading of Revelation 22:12-21. After that, Jim teaches our combined adult class at 9:00. Our first worship assembly begins at 10:00. And that’s followed by a catered all-church lunch, a Tarrant-County-wide singing at 2:00, and an Open House at 3:00.

And then we go home and crash on the couch.

What an amazing week. What an inspirational week. Passing the faith on to our kids together. Reading God’s Word together. Worshiping together. Eating together. Singing together.

For well over a year now we’ve been calling things that are not as though they were.

Now they are.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks so much to Scott Beard, Brittany Bankhead-Kendall, and David Watson for submitting logo designs for “The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys Top 20 College Football Poll.” Here are the three logos. Now I need a vote. It’ll be one of these three. Vote now as a comment on this post. Or email me at astanglin@legacychurchofchrist.org  Winner will be announced Friday.

Peace,

Allan