In one of the most well known episodes from Jesus’ life, he says to his disciples, “Let the little children come to me…for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” (Mark 10:14) For generations now, churches have been able to open their doors, and children would come to Sunday School and Vacation Bible School. And we could easily celebrate and teach these young ones who so beautifully display the Kingdom of God. We assumed that the Kingdom of God was located in our churches, and when the children showed up, they had come to the Kingdom.
However, in case you have not noticed, the world has been radically changing. We in the church have noticed not only the change in this world, but also a change in our understanding of what Jesus wants from his Church. We still open the doors of our churches, but children no longer show up just because the doors have been opened. Instead, churches today have been recognizing that it is not enough to just open our doors and pray the children come, instead we have to go out and go to the children. Not only that, but we have been recognizing that the Kingdom of God does not exist simply in our churches, it exists wherever the little children are found. And where do our children spend most of their waking hours? In our schools.
Therefore, Bright Futures has been a wonderful partner for our churches because it is a means through which we in the faith community can do more than simply open our doors and pray that the children will come to us. Instead, Bright Futures is an invitation for us to go to the children. Bright Futures is a wonderful partner through which we can be generous with our children and schools by providing snacks to help the children through the day, by providing help for special events, by providing a sounding board where we can interact with school staff and leadership to discover what challenges the children of our community are facing. Bright Futures is a wonderful partner for the faith community, because it invites us to come in and see the Kingdom of God at work in our schools…at work through compassionate teachers…at work through loving administrators…at work through caring students…at work through all those who are teaching, encouraging, and protecting the most precious people of our community.
Years ago a preacher was complaining that being compassionate to the community was not working. When asked, what he meant by saying that showing the love of God to people in need through tangible acts of mercy and compassion was not working, he replied, “we’re doing all these great things for so many people, but they are not in turn coming to our church.” That was a preacher who misunderstood why we are called to show the love of God. We do not show the love of God to others so that our churches will grow, we show the love of God to others, because when we do, we find ourselves right in the middle of the kingdom of God.
That is why Bright Futures is such a wonderful partner to the faith-based community – they invite us to participate in the Kingdom of God, which is at work in our schools.
Pastor Bill Kirkemo
Lead Pastor, Harrisonville Church of the Nazarene
President, Harrisonville Ministerial Alliance
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