Online Archives

This summer I went to the Smithsonian Museum with my mother and niece. Called 'the nation?s attic,' the Smithsonian offers a view of countless treasures. From the sublime to the mundane, a vast array of artifacts from the collective and historic journey of the human family are on display.

We spent a good part of the afternoon in the Museum of Natural History, which holds 124 million objects on two floors. More than 5.4 million visitors visit the museum each year.

It?s easy to get overwhelmed, so we let ourselves drift to the places that caught our imaginations. We passed the Hope Diamond, a rock from the moon, a huge stuffed elephant, dinosaur bones, and an entomologist who offered to let us hold the bright yellow, black and white caterpillars that would turn into Monarch butterflies.

The idea of such a metamorphosis, which was laid out in all its scientific glory all around us, intrigued me. But I was especially caught by an exhibit on evolution that held a large quote from scientist Charles Darwin.

'It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change,' it said.

Lately life in the Baltimore-Washington Conference has been ripe with change as people realize that if they don?t create change, change will create them.

There?s a bumper sticker on a car in the area that sums it up: 'Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely.'

The Discipleship Adventure, for many individuals and churches, has become about realizing that there is a next step to take in growing to be the church God intends for them to be.

Surrendering the status-quo and taking that first step into what they might become, and then taking the next step, and the next, is what creates change. It is also, from my experience, what creates fear and tension.

But many churches, including Cedar Lane UMC in Mt. Rainier are taking that step anyway.

The Rev. Mae Harrison knows that a vital ingredient of discipleship is a willingness to change. Just a few years ago, her church had no children. Not one. That, she decided, had to change.

Four years ago, Harrison started a summer craft camp at the church. Thirty children attended the first year. Change seemed possible. So the next summer, she expanded the camp and kept it growing, so that today more than 130 children from the surrounding community come to Cedar Lane for the 10-week program of math and reading tutorials, daily chapel, music, computer labs, Vacation Bible School, swimming, pony rides, sports, competitions and more.

The program has become so popular that the church has begun to turn people away and parents have already begun clamoring to register their children in next year?s camp.

While the students say they enjoy the math and reading lessons and other activities, making disciples is the real reason the camp exists, Harrison said.

During the application process, she asks if the family is involved with a church. If the answer is no, she begins a relationship with them, staying in touch long after the camp session is over.

This relationship often produces an invitation to worship. People, anxious for changes in their own and their children?s lives, respond with enthusiasm.

Today, the church has enough children on Sunday mornings to have its own children?s choir and children?s church.

This summer?s camp brought in six new members into the congregation.

But Harrison is not content to keep the camp on an even and steady keel. Growth, for her, is another essential ingredient of discipleship.

This summer, she joined in partnership with Van Buren UMC in Washington and Mowatt Memorial UMC in Greenbelt. These two churches permitted her to model the program at their buildings with the intention of them starting their own camps next year.

This summer 15 college students were also hired to provide the tutorial instruction for the three camps.

For Harrison, this change is not without effort. A third vital ingredient of discipleship is intention. She and her husband Daniel spent 12 to 13 hours a day working on the camp when it was in session this year.

'This is what it takes,' she said, 'and it is worth it when you look at what God does by bringing people into your church. Jesus never said it would be easy. Making disciples is the main thing.'

As the summer drew to a close, Harrison took some of the campers to the Columbia Mall for lunch and to ride the carousel. On the way they stopped by the Baltimore-Washington Conference Center.

The children shared stories about learning division and playing games. They also shared their camp prayer, which they said together every day: 'Thank you God, for this day. Thank you for my mother, my father, my teachers and all of those who love and care for me. Help me to be where I should be. Help me to be all I can be. Amen.'

All summer, 130 small heads bowed, each praying, 'Help me to be where I should be. Help me to be all I can be.'

How could change not occur? How can we not expect a miracle or two on our collective and historic Adventure?

Roaming through the Natural History Museum, it became very clear to me that each moment we live is a moment of choice ? a moment bursting with the possibilities of change.

Listening to the children pray and witnessing the discipleship of Cedar Lane UMC, I also saw that who we are and what we envision makes its best sense when seen through God?s eyes. And I?m certain that God seldom settles for the expected or ordinary when where and what we can be could change the world. It?s time, it seems, for a change.