Friends,

A few months ago, we were pulling out all sorts of neat things from the cabinets in the library. Cabinets, nooks, and other discrete storage places in Churches often become repositories for meaningful things that don’t otherwise have a home. Idle cabinets in Church must be fiercely protected and managed, because eventually someone will come across something special that is at least tangentially related to our Church at home or from somewhere else on our campus, and they won’t have a place to put it. Not wanting to throw it away, these well-meaning people stuff these treasurers into underutilized spaces with the hopes they will one day find someone that can see their value.

I hate to break it to you, but this almost never happens. There are plenty of neat things from the past that I will file away, but do not have an immediate use for. There are a lot of things that a few may find value in, but not so much so that they want to keep it themselves, so they bring it to Church. Then the Church is in the position where we have to give these things away. However, in these cabinets in the library we found a series of wonderful pictures from the first Vacation Bible Schools at St. Luke’s. Instantly, I was smitten and knew I had come across something that needed to be held onto.

St. Luke’s did not begin as a Church. Instead, it was an educational ministry of the seminarians of Virginia Theological Seminary, and eventually St. Luke’s School House became St. Luke’s Church. This is an oversimplification, but we were a Sunday School with a Church rather than a Church with a Sunday School. The pictures from the time are evident of this reality. The VBS pictures from the 60’s showed massive crowds, and there is a notable picture (which of course I cannot find right now) of the clergy teaching children in the parking lot, because the classrooms were too full. People were hungry for what St. Luke’s was offering, and the Church seemed eager to rise to the occasion. Those pictures are now hanging up immediately to the right of the entrance to the library. In the background you can see them transition from the old Church building, to the rectory (which was in our parking lot), and now to the building we are in now.

Pictures like this can bring Churchy folk to the thought, “Oh, if only people were hungry for Church like they were back in the day.”, and many times they are right. Church attendance has plummeted across the nation, and it looks like the Church will have a hard time in the future. This could lead us to wax poetic about the past, and get on with our lives knowing there is an uncertain future ahead of us, or we could try to do something about it.

Last week Courtney Jukuri ran her second Vacation Bible School at St. Luke’s, and the whole campus was alive with shouting prayers, science experiments, crafts and lots of laughter. The attendance list has been full for months, and even the week of VBS people were clamoring to get their children in our camp. This is not to say that the popularity of our VBS was solely based on people’s hunger for the Gospel, but it is unarguably a sign that something good is happening. I made everyone take a group picture on the last day, and it rivals the crowds seen in the pictures found in the cabinets from the 60’s and 70’s.

There are a lot of factors that contributed the enthusiasm in our Vacation Bible School. First and foremost, you need to hear that this could not have happened without Courtney Jukuri. She is not only organized and driven, but she cares and it shows through in her work. She is not just an employee, but a true minister of the Gospel. Secondly, I am well aware that we live in a bubble where there are a ton of stressed-out parents that need childcare in the summer, and whose backgrounds would make them more open to a Church program. People just aren’t hungry for the Gospel, they are hungry for the village that it takes to raise their children.

Keep in mind, we also live in a world where the general public has not only lost enthusiasm for Church, but has downright lost trust in the institution of the Church. No matter how faithful a parent may be, they will not leave their children with people they do not trust, and our biggest “win” from VBS is this sign that people do indeed trust us. We should not take this for granted, because it is based on years of ministry and love coming from the Day School, Sunday School, and the overall culture of this place, and it is fragile and needs to be nurtured. Word is out that St. Luke’s is a place that is Churchy is way that feels like love, rather than indoctrination, fear, guilt, or downright boredom. We should feel good about this, and know that we are charged with tending to it with love and faithfulness.

Now that VBS is over, we are stuffing all sorts of things from the weekend into nooks, under-utilized cabinets, because they are no longer just puppets or props, but relics from a stressful and wonderful week where our village got together to help out stressed families, teach them bible stories, and when little Sally went home and taught her family the Shrine Mont Shouting Prayer, which she learned at VBS.

Blessings,

Nick