Our home TV has been down off the wall as we’ve been doing some painting and things around the house. This week it was hung back up. We got it all plugged in and the cables hooked together, but the screen just flashed, “Connection Error.” My husband, Adam, (your handsome, bearded, weekly Sunday morning sound technician) jiggled some wires, reworked a few things, and tried again. Still, the handy dandy diagnostic on the screen let us know what our problem was… “Connection Error.”
Adam called the cable company. They asked him some questions, worked through our issues (the TV ones at least), and when he hung up the phone our TV was back up and running with a simple modem reset. We were connected!

If only it were that easy for people. Jiggle a few wires, rework a few things, make a phone call, and wa-la: connection.

Or maybe it is that easy for people?

I have been giving quite a bit of brain and prayer power toward visioning for the future of the Children, Youth and Families department of Snowmass Chapel. My vision keeps coming back to one thing. What I want more than anything for our Chapel kids and parents and heck, really everyone in the whole world, is a life full of DEEP AND MEANINGFUL CONNECTION. I want our people to be totally plugged into the power source – Jesus – without any outages or connection errors, and then I want our people to be totally plugged into one another. I want connection.

Last week my four year old son was trying to understand the concept of what is living and what is not living. He started asking questions.
“Are the trees living, momma?”
“Are the rocks living, momma?”
“Is our house living, momma?”
“Is our church living, momma?”

Yes, little Zig-man, our church is living! Our church is not a building but a group of people who love God and WHO LOVE YOU. Our church is alive. Our church is connected.

I think we are most successful teaching kids about God’s magnificent love for them by allowing them to feel and experience the church’s magnificent love for them. Our kids need belonging. Our kids need connection. We all do. “Church,” and I’m talking ’bout the people, not the building, provide just that.

As I plan for the future of our youth department at Snowmass Chapel, I will continue to program things like the hut trip, family church, Lake Powell, VBS, and Smashbox because these are the types of things that jiggle the wires, reset the modem, and deepen CONNECTION.

I laugh as I type this and my computer goes haywire. The internet is down (“not connected”), but it’s “connecting in 1 second” and also gives me the option to “try now.” I hope we all choose to “try now” too. 😉

Stay plugged in friends.
Love ya,
Kara