This past week’s district church conference was hosted by my alma mater, McPherson College. Many of the same campus features of some 40 years ago remain firmly etched in my mind. Like most former students, there are highlights as well as cringe-worthy moments of my college career, a mash up of experiences constituting undergraduate rites of passage. We actually went to class most days, resulting in an expanded knowledge base that pressed the boundaries of the time but also impressed upon us the value of community that would remain long after the graduation confetti had been swept away.

The campus has endured various facelifts the past few years, yet some elements remain including lots and lots of red brick badly in need of refurbishing. Each update do-over reflected current expectations of the decade in which it resided. Despite best efforts, enrollment remained static at several hundred students. Survival, not expansion, was at the core of most fundraising efforts. A more recent culture instilled by a visionary board and a forward-looking president (also a McPherson College graduate) is changing the face of the institution nearly overnight.

A press conference was held over the weekend (ironically while district churches met to wrestle with their own struggles) in order to announce the fulfillment of a 250 million match challenge by an anonymous donor resulting in endowment gifts exceeding 750 million dollars. Unexpected, however, was an additional pledge by the same primary donor to double his 500-million-dollar commitment. Total commitments across the weekend totaled 1.592 billion dollars in support of rural health initiatives, a center for engineering and transportation, student debt relief, and campus development that many are anticipating will result in a ten-fold increase in enrollment. The small plains Brethren college founded in 1887 is barely recognizable today. Except …

One of the highlights of gathering annually at a district confab is the opportunity to share as family once again. Program matters, but it is one-on-one relationships that are the highlight of being with each other. Past and present officers of the conference, camp managers, youth conference organizers, business coordinators, generational storytelling, and more laughter than many of us experience all year are all part of a mix that declares relevancy to today’s world and tomorrow’s future. Lord knows that we are not all on the same page, as many churches can attest, but the fact that we can discuss widely divergent theologies and remain good friends in the cafeteria is notable, at times even remarkable.

Likewise, when the buzz of billion-dollar endowment donations begins to die down, what is left at the core is the goodness of people working together toward common understandings that guide us on our faith journey. There will be breath-taking moments, but mostly what stands over time is recognition of an enduring family that cares for one another, no matter our age, race, sexuality, gender, disability, or economic circumstance. The time that remains for any of us need not be consumed with anger or bitterness. Unable to reconcile belief and action? There is no crime in moving on, or acknowledging there are unanswerable questions that will not be resolved in our lifetimes.

Meanwhile, if you come across an extra billion or two, I am sure we could help find a home for it.