St. Thomas children try their hand at architecture

Yesterday morning, seventeen St. Thomas Sunday schoolers in grades 1-5 created and presented their ideas for our new Life Center. Here’s Life Center architect Mark Nelson consulting with some of our young contributors.

This wasn’t merely an exercise in cuteness. We want the Life Center to feel like a second home to our youngest parishioners. To that end, we do well to listen intently as they describe their ideal building. We may not be able to create the Life Center in the shape of a spaceship, or have a live tree growing through the middle of it. But a disco ball in the youth center? That we can do.

And if we listen deeply enough, delving beneath each child’s fanciful architectural drawings, we will hear the voice of a young child of God, a full member of the Church through baptism, reminding us: “I belong here. I am not the future of the Church—I am the present. You have promised to help raise me in the Christian life and faith. I am a minister too, and I will do ministry right along with you in the new Life Center at St. Thomas.”