This past April, the ministry staff of WPC went on a retreat to check in and dream about the coming year. We were supposed to gather the weekend of the January ice storm, so when we finally retreated in April, we all brought with us many “feelings and needs,” as they say.
A few things happened at that gathering:
- 1. Games were played. Donovan is rather competitive.
- 2. Stories were told, one by Sophie, in which a colleague years ago accidentally fell into a casket vault right before a graveside service, closing himself into it for hours. (Have I laughed about and also imagined with horror this scenario numerous times since? Yes.)
- 3. We ate a lot of food and went on a really great hike. (I’m not saying that chips and dip are the way to our hearts. But I’m not *not* saying it, either.)
- 4. We named that the feeling of “languishing,” as Adam Grant calls it, is one we all wrestle with alongside seemingly… everyone these days.
Ezra Klein calls burnout “an omnipresent diagnosis of modernity.” Tish Harrison Warren writes, “It seems as though a pall of collective exhaustion and despondency has settled over our society.” Add in parenting and, well, good luck. Or so it seems.
But what if the way the world may seem these days isn’t the way it actually is? Or the way it has to be?
That is the question someone finally asked on our retreat. And we spent the rest of our time wondering what the alternative would look like. It might sound too simple, but shouldn’t the alternative look like… the church? Communities of faith living deeply rooted in the stories of scripture and knowledge of God? Creating spaces of being deeply known- spaces where our kids are deeply known, spaces that feel like the ones where we want to invest our days?
This year, Westminster is inviting our whole community to come “Taste and See.”
- Taste and see that you belong here… not because of what you do, where you live, who you know, how much money you do or do not have, how busy you are, who your parents are, where you grew up, what kind of work you do, etc.
- Taste and see that your kids belong here… and that this is a place where we are inviting and asking you to teach your kid(s) that all kids belong here, no matter where they go to school, where they live, who they know, how many extracurriculars they are a part of, who their parents are, what they are like, etc.
- Taste and see that this is a place where you are deeply loved by God and invited to know God more deeply.
- Taste and see that the Lord is good and wonder why that matters for your life.
That’s what we’ll be up to this year at WPC. We sure hope you’ll join us. You and yours belong here. See you at church and around town,
Ashley
Associate Pastor for Young Families