In a recent Worship and Wonder chapel, our children cozied up on the floor before the chancel, every inch of space taken by one of our little learners.  Little Eric from our Robin class was so excited to hear the Bible story, he pushed his way up from the crowd to be in the front row.  (Imagine that!  Oh, if we adults could show so much outward anticipation each time God’s word is read in church!)  Mr. Smith began telling the story of the healing of Naaman, who had an incurable skin disease.  He had taken his servant girl away from her family to work in his home.  The girl told Naaman’s wife to go to her country and see Elisha.  Elisha told Naaman to wash seven times in the Jordan river to be made well.  By this time in our story, Eric had gotten restless at Mr. Smith’s feet.  The Blue Jay class was all in line with their number cards to help us count to seven and so Mr. Smith decided to make Eric part of the story.  He pulled him up into his arms and lifted him up to be “dunked” in the water as we counted to seven.  I wish you all could have seen Eric giggle with delight as he was lifted those seven times!  What a moment!

Many preschool learning standards list observing people, places, and things from different viewpoints as a key experience for spatial development.  Most parents probably don’t realize that when they gently toss their child up in the air out of joy that they are actually helping them develop spatial awareness (as long as the child is at least a year old and beyond the age that we are careful of Shaken Baby Syndrome).  Spatial awareness is an organized knowledge of objects including oneself, in a given space. Spatial awareness also involves understanding the relationships of these objects when there is a change of position.  This is a complex skill that children hone from a very young age through activities like climbing on a jungle gym or crawling under a table.

As the ministries of our church and school are being “rejuvenated” with our growth into the new building, I have pondered this idea of spatial awareness.  Our first year has been filled with many moments of delight, like young Eric had at being lifted high.  I remember all the small “WOW!” moments our school educators have had as we have seen the greater depth of educational experiences our children can now be given in our new building.  “We can do this!” and “We can do that!”   Such joy at our blessing!  Yet spatial awareness isn’t just seeing what you couldn’t see before, seeing what you couldn’t do before.  Spatial awareness also involves seeing the relationship between things, the relationship between our ministries.  No action, no ministry is isolated in itself.  We are called as Christ’s servants in the church to relate to each other, to work together, to connect our ministries.

This additional “ministry of space” is no small task!  Recently, Pastor Bill and I were in Chicago for the Evangelical Lutheran Education Association’s Pastor/Administrator’s conference.  As we talked with other school administrators and pastors from across the country, I was amazed by the similar difficulties other churches and schools have with sharing space.  At times I worry that the image of our school’s work is summed up by what remains at the end of our days when the school “steps out” and the church “steps in”—the stray crayon mark on the wall, the tricycles left out in the hallway, the trash needing to be taken out, the noisy and tired children remaining the last minutes of  the day when church members are coming for Wednesday evening activities.   I struggle with finding ways to share the other images of our work – the young child who is learning English by signing the words to our “Alleluia” song, the family struggling to find strategies for working with their child’s special needs, the teacher supporting a child as they learn to write the most important word in their life- their name.  How can our school be a ministry of the church, not just a renter of the space or an obstacle for the other work of the church?

Can we find ways to see the ministries of the church and school from each other’s vantage points?  Rather than focusing on what we need, can we listen for the needs of the other?  Can we relate to each other in a spirit of wanting to give each other’s ministry what is needed for them to thrive deeply?  Our school and staff share the vision of reaching out to change lives and want to do the work of supporting the entire church community.  In the end, the church and the school don’t really step in and out of our shared spaces, but rather our ministries are ongoing and connected.  Perhaps we’ll even find the joy young Eric had at seeing the world from a new perspective!