When things get a little bit challenging, we tend to want to move away from it and not deal with it.  On the surface this may work for a congregation for a short while.  However, if we never meet a challenge, then we never move beyond the particular place where we are.  If we never work through difficulties, we never progress.  If we do not do hard work together, we will not develop and grow (in faith or numerically).  Hard work is not a bad thing, it is what will take us to the next level in growth and development. 

I have a 16 year old daughter who is gifted academically, socially, artistically.  She is able to do and accomplish an amazing variety of things, without working very hard at it.  What I have begun to discover is that if the situation requires hard work and attentiveness, she will look for another way to manage.  As a mother who loves her, I find this terribly frustrating, because if she would only put forth a little more effort, she would be amazing!  (I sound like a mother, don’t I?)  As an observer (who loves her), I am completely amazed; amazed at how much she can do and is doing before it begins to be a challenge for her.  The difficulty comes in the challenge.  It seems that when the situation requires a little more work or a little more exertion, she is ready to let go and abandon whatever it happens to be.  (This, of course, is not completely true, because she is a  young woman who manages to live up to, and excel at, the challenge of teenage life.)  My 16 year old daughter has caused me to look at congregations, and society, through a different set of eyes.  You see, this teenager is not drastically different from anyone else, myself included.  When things become a bit of a challenge we must make a decision about how we will deal with the challenge--we will either push up our sleeves and go for it, or we will let go of it.  Many things have come to us without much of a challenge, then when we face a challenge, it is, often, easier to run away from it than it is to work through it or toward it. 

Congregations have an opportunity to teach individuals something about meeting a challenge--my hope is that congregations will teach individuals to directly meet the challenge(s) and grow because of that directness.  Also, congregations can learn from the individuals who are a part of it--how do those individuals meet the challenges within their lives?  What are the gifts and skills that individuals bring to those challenges in order to grow through them?  Are there individuals within your congregation who can be the example for meeting the challenges in life? 

Now, back to that 16 year old, there are many things that I am learning from her--after all, she is a 16 year old who makes As and Bs in Honors and  AP courses; there are so many teens who seek her listening ear and ability to think through situations that we seldom are at home without teenage visitors; and she is an amazing photographer, dancer and creative thinker--if she didn’t do a little bit of work at meeting challenges, there is no way that she would have developed into the amazing young woman that she is!

Beth Kennett December 30, 2010