Lifelong Learning Center: an immodest proposal

Okay. So you are standing on the set of God's "Let's Make a Deal" and the Apostle Paul is the highly caffeinated show host. As the main contestant for the NW Area Christian Churches you've just been given the option of door number 1, door number 2, or door number 3. You know that part of your "prize" is 160 acres of land in Lathrop, Missouri. What lies behind each door is what God will do with that land. The only clue given to you is a reference to the passage where Jesus tells the parable of the talents. Which door would you choose?

Door number 1 is the one-talent option. God blesses the 160 acres with lots of hay. Occasionally, folk from area congregations go to visit but unless the hay is cut there really is little to see or to do. It is pretty, though and the sound of the wind in the tall grass is almost hypnotic.

Door number 2 is the two-talent option. Behind this door is a view of the NW Area Church Camp about 5 years from now. It looks a lot like Camp Crowder at Trenton (where we hold church camp now). There is a 15 acre area with a house, barn, kitchen and mess hall, several cabins and a craft hall. There are about 80 campers, counselors and staff members this day and everyone looks like they are having a great time.

Door number 3 is the five-talent option. Open this door and what you see 10 years from now takes your breath away. Over by the wind turbines and solar panels a tour group of engineers from Japan is hearing Ken Jameson explain how we developed an international award winning green camp and conference center. On their way back to the state-of-the art conference center (filled with employees of Cerner for their annual corporate retreat), they pass a cluster of ranch-style buildings arranged in a cul-de-sac that hosts a unique End-of-Life Camp for children diagnosed with end-stage cancer and their families. On the 20 acre lake, senior citizens from Osborne are taking kyack lessons from one of the staff while a preschool class learns to fish on the opposite side. Almost hidden are several one-room studio cabins where, on this day, a pastor is outlining a sermon series, a single mom is struggling to find balance in the midst of chaos, and an artist is working on what will become a piece that will one day hang on a wall in the White House. The music of midday prayer wafts from open windows in the glass walled chapel as several staff members and guests praise God and intercede for everyone being served on the campus. The chef on duty is preparing 5 different lunches with interns provided by a local technical school to be served in a simple but beautiful set of dining rooms - each with their own theme. When our international guests leave to board their plane at KCI, they will take the campus shuttle which will drive on roads paved clear to the Interstate.

If you could ask God for one of these three scenarios, which would you choose?

We are in the process of recruiting candidates for a long-range development team that we will ask to form a 501.c.3 not-for-profit corporation dedicated to serving a wider public described in option 3. A short-term development team is already hard at work preparing the campus for your arrival on September 6 (or sooner if you happen to be a volunteer). Their commitment is primarily to serve congregations and to prepare a place that will be used often by members.

We have made (and plan to keep) a solemn pledge to keep the neighbors in the loop and to be responsive to any concerns they may have about noise and traffic and other difficulties.

Unless we hear differently from you, we'll keep working hard and praying that God grants us what is behind the door that will require the most from all of us and from partners within beyond the Church.

Blessings,
Bill R-H