Have concluded the journey through the New Testament, but busy schedule has kept me away from blogging once I hit Romans. One of those bits of busyness in the past couple of months was the very much fun busyness of going to Disney World with the family. Had a chance immediately after returning from Disney to speak to a gathering of Methodist and Presbyterian Camp and Conference folks who were gathered for a retreat at Kavanaugh Camp and Conference Center in Crestwood, Kentucky. What follows is a synopsis of some of what I shared with them about three observations from Disney that might have application for Camp, Conference and Retreat ministry and perhaps for the church in general.
3 Things I Learned At Disney World
1) Families Want To Be Together
This trip was a special trip for our family as we were able to be together with Julie's mom and dad and with her brother Ed as well as the four of us. We have been very fortunate and have been to Disney about once every two years for the past ten years or so. This particular trip was different for a couple of reasons. First, Julie's dad, Paul, usually doesn't go with us. He's not especially a Disney fan and has chosen to stay home in the past. This time however, Eliza, did that grand-daughter magic and asked Grandad to come along - and he said yes. Second, Julie's mom, Joy, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer back in the fall, not long after the plans for this trip were finalized. That diagnosis was followed by a surgery that was to have been an hour to an hour and a half, but ended up being about eight hours long. Joy spent several weeks in the hospital recovering, getting stronger and then, after going home, getting ready for chemo treatments. It seemed the trip was perhaps going to be a casualty of this much more immediate and important circumstance. Instead the trip became a rallying point. Through the rigors of healing and chemo Joy kept in front of her the goal of being with family at Disney, a place she, along with rest of us, very much enjoys. It was a great week for us - doing a few things differently and learning to move at a more leisurely pace at the "Happiest Place On Earth", but it was great and the fireworks at the Magic Kingdom on our last night is one of those memories that will always be with us.
Looking around while we were there I noticed that we weren't the only extended family at Disney. In fact, it seemed to be a pretty common occurrence. Grandparents, Parents, Grandchildren, Uncles and Aunts traveling together and enjoying being together. Our family clearly had our own story going on in this trip, but on further reflection, I suspect that most of those families had equally dynamic narratives that were going on in their lives and time and again I saw families, the larger, extended kind of family, enjoying one another with gusto. It seems to me that families want to be together. That they are looking for a place that makes this kind of intergenerational, family experience possible. A place that facilitates that sort of interaction, making it easier rather than more difficult. This would seem to me to be both useful information and strategic challenge to the Church. In our worship, in our fellowship, in the variety of ways that we come together, we have multiple opportunities to be a place where families can be together and grow in their relationships with one another and with God. And, for the Church, I think the multi-generational family can be interpreted in a number of ways. The bottom line is that people of different age groups can not only tolerate each other, they can enjoy one another even seek out being together. How can we work at facilitating this in the Church.
An aside: Kudos to Aldersgate Camp in Irvine, Kentucky where my kids have been campers since they were very young. One of the camps that they have loved as they've grown up has been Aldersgate's Grand Camp. From about ages 4-12, Cameron with his Grandad and Eliza with her Granny have enjoyed these annual times of being together.
2) We Are Trying To Move From The Steam Engine To Space Mountain
When I was young I was not a big fan of the train ride that encircled the amusement park. Whether it was the Zoo or Kings Island or Disney World the train seemed kind of boring. My parents really liked them however and I have come to understand why. Every moment you are on the train is a moment that you are not walking. Having a seat for 20 minutes in the midst of a day of constant motion is actually not just a good, but a great ride. So, I'm in for the train ride - I'm a fan.
Disney's train is pulled around the park by a steam engine from the early 1900's (the oldest being from around 1903). The train leaves Main Street USA, travels through Frontierland, where it stops and then is on to Fantasyland. The train used to have a stop in Fantasyland, but they are doing some fairly substantial construction in this area so there is no station to get on or off of the train there right now. The train did stop there however, to take on water for the engine. We were in the front car of the train and as we sat there in the front car waiting as the engine took on water I found myself looking throught the back window of the engine, through to the front window of the engine and then on to the looming, distinctive shape of the coaster, Space Mountain in Tomorrowland. I sat looking at that and thought to myself, "I'm sitting in Church." In a way, that's where we are - the church is sitting in the train, pulled by a steam engine and trying to figure out how to get to Space Mountain. We are trying to figure out what is essential to who we are and what is of value from our past that we do not want to jettison and yet we are looking off through the windshield and see we've got some moving forward to do. There's a world of internet, and Twitter and Facebook and globalization and all manner of things that challenge us to figure out how we take the best of who we are, our core as the body of Christ forward into the future so that we may continue to share the timeless truth of the good news of Jesus Christ in the most effective and relevant manner in the tomorrow into which we are moving. The steam engine is great, but if the world is ahead of us on Space Mountain, like the Apostle Paul we want to go where the people are.
3) Little People Want To Learn To Be Big and Big People Want To Remember What It's Like To Be Little
I was riding around in those little cars in Tomorrowland with my daughter and having a look around at the cars around us. These are the cars that you drive - sort of. They have their own gas pedal and steering wheel, so you make it go and you guide it. However, there is a rail on the road so you can't really get off the track and everyone is guaranteed to make it from beginning to end. Watching the surrounding cars it was clear that kids love to drive these cars. Some whose feet barely reach the gas, whose cars stop and start and stop and start and some who have a parent of other adult riding with them and maybe taking over the chore of keeping the accelerator pushed down. The kids have huge grins on their faces - they are driving! Kids love the opportunity to experience something that is typically reserved for adults. They love to learn to be big. At the same time adults love driving these cars. They have to fold themselves up carefully to be able to get behind the wheel and once in the seat it can't be all that comfortable, yet they too have faces that are lit up with grins. They love being out of their minivan or other grown up car and driving the stylized race car on the Disney track. They also don't mind a drive where you can't possibly wreck the car and where if you do bump the car in front of you it causes a good laugh rather than a lawsuit. Adults love remembering what it was like to be little.
There's a discipleship lesson here for the church I think. The more obvious perhaps being that we have a task in the body of Christ of helping those who are little to grow in their faith as they move along in the journey. Children do hunger to learn the stories and the traditions of faith and are eager to share time with adults who care about them and authentically want to serve as their guides. At the same time adults clearly benefit from remembering what it's like to be little - to see things on occasion from the perspective of their younger, more adventurous and sometimes more creative selves. Leaving for awhile the planning calendars and the responsibility and having creativity and fun be the most important goals can be stimulating to us on our spiritual journey and open us to experience God and to growth that we might miss in what becomes our day to day grind.
Disney was great once again and we had a great family time. And maybe along the way learned some things.
