The Village ILWIDIot

Walt Wiltschek 

“Greet all God’s people in Christ Jesus.’” —Philippians 4:21a, CEB 

When I was growing up in Pennsylvania, we had some wonderful family reunions, all on my mother’s side of the family. There were actually two branches of the family, and each one had an annual summer event filled with heaping helpings of those three fantastic “F’s”—food, family, and fun. As a kid, I seldom had it better. 

My great-aunts and -uncles and cousins and extended family members I had never met before were all there. There were games and a cake walk and BINGO and music and lots of visiting and an incredibly delicious potluck meal, followed by ice cream if you still had room for it. 

As the members of the oldest generation of the family passed away, the reunions died out with them, although we still sometimes have smaller gatherings. I miss those big, energetic outdoor celebrations. 

In the church, district conference—like our recent gathering in Bloomington—feels like one of those “family reunion” times. We come together across the breadth of our district, converging in one spot for 24 hours or so to do many of those reunion activities: eating, visiting, music, and more eating, along with worship and business and some learning opportunities.

We talk about being the “family of Christ” or all being “children of God,” but we need times like that to make it real and tangible. You can travel more than 400 miles between the farthest-flung of our nearly three dozen congregations, but when we get those “eyeball-to-eyeball” times, it feels closer. While some business has to happen, that simple act of being in proximity to one another and engaging one another is probably the most important thing we do there. Other events in the church—National Youth Conference, Annual Conference, National Older Adult Conference, Young Adult Conference, etc.—also help to fill that role in wider circles, much as our congregations do at the local level each week. 

Zoom and other technology tools save us time and fuel and the headaches of being on the road, but we miss something if we rely exclusively on those virtual connections. So I’m grateful that we still enjoy being together in person, at least occasionally. It’s good to see one another.