We have officially been here in Cheyenne for one year! Sometimes it’s a little hard to believe. Sometimes we do still miss Kansas (especially Parker). But a lot of the times we’re still very excited about all Cheyenne holds for us, the dreams, the realities, the community we have found here.
During our study on Millennials, I was asked a question that made me pause. You see, as we look at the Millennial generation (which I am a part of), and we really dive into what makes our generation us, we’ve learned that Millennials tend to have this eternal hope for the future, for making an impact, for making a difference. That’s something I think we can learn a lot from.
But the question I asked was if after being here for an entire year, if I still had hope for this church and for this community of believers.
My answer was a resounding yes. It still is. If I didn’t still have that hope, I wouldn’t be here.
I know we can and will make an impact in the lives of those currently in this church, of those who live in Cheyenne, and so many more. We’re already making impacts and differences. We’re already seeing the ripple effects of our faith in action.
Part of what makes me so hopeful about our congregation is the love that we have for each other and our desperate concern for the world and for the future of the world. We want people to know and love Jesus just as much as we do. But in our conversations about Millennials, and subsequently Generation Z (the kids just now graduating college and looking for jobs), through our conversations of the future of the church, we’re realizing that some things will have to change.
Change.
That big scary word again. Change, in my opinion, is only really ever bad if we make it that way (I’m talking about intentional change). In order to survive into the next century, we have to make changes to our cu
rrent church, and these changes come in a whole variety of ways, but the biggest change is in our attitudes, in our worldview, and in our hopes.
We have to have hope for the future. We have to have hope that we can and will make an impact. We have to have hope that we can and will make a difference in someone else’s life. After being here for a year, I know that this hope is being revitalized in our congregation, that we are once again seeing hope of having children in our church, in our services, learning and filling our building with joy and laughter and energy. We have a hope of building our legacy.