We’re celebrating the eight-year birthday/anniversary of my book Small Talk: Learning from My Children About What Matters Most. I hope you’ll join me in enjoying these words! (You can watch a video of me reading from the book here.)
“Church is not a guarantee. I assume my children will grow up with doubts. They may very well walk away from this faith we are trying to pass along. My goal is not to dictate what they believe or to think that if only we do this right, they will live for the rest of their days as Christians. But I do want to lay out a net for them. I want to introduce them to a place where the old and young, rich and poor, those from different races and backgrounds will welcome them as they are. When they encounter suffering or betrayal or heartache, I want them to have a safe place to fall. When they find themselves in need orin pain, when their lives are coming apart, I pray they will land in the arms of a God who has and does and will love them. And I believe church may be just that place. Whether it is a cathedral with lofty liturgy and thousands of worshipers or a little country sanctuary with a few grandparents nodding in the pews. So we will go back next week and the week after that and the week after that. We will trust even amidst my short tempered words and their inability to sit still, in their refusal to go up front for the children’s message, we will trust that they are learning something about what it means to be a part of the body of Christ. Something about God’s presence in the midst of a very ordinary place in a very ordinary town. Something about God’s grace and love. Something about singing, ‘Hallelujah, praise the Lord.’”
-Small Talk
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