Every July at St. Thomas, two very different events coexist in a wonderful way. Working with Congregations for the Homeless, we put up a group of homeless men for an entire month. This is a sponsored evening program that offers meals, overnight shelter, and hospitality.

St. Thomas is always a busy place. But for one of those July weeks, we do double duty. In the morning, the men leave promptly at 7:00 a.m., and the VBC staff gets ready for dozens of children to descend on the church. This year, our theme for Vacation Bible Camp is “Friendship Trek”; our children will be exploring friendship with Jesus and each other as we imagine going on a hike in the woods.

One of the most exciting developments I’ve seen in our Vacation Bible Camp program is its word-of-mouth promotion. Each year, in addition to our own group of kids, we welcome Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and others. There’s something unique about our camp that keeps kids from other traditions coming back for more, year after year.

All Christians are charged with announcing the Good News. But we Episcopalians do it in a particular way, using sacraments, storytelling, songs, and actions to weave a pattern of learning that draws kids into a tight-knit community. I once knew a mom who had moved her kids to a different church so they could benefit from a larger Sunday school program. But after a while, the kids said, “I want to go back to the little church with the bread and wine.”

One of the beauties of Christianity is that we have found so many different ways to announce the Good News. There’s no one right way to be a Christian, and I think God likes it that way. At St. Thomas, our way is sacramental: we recognize that God is open and available to us through everyday things like bread, wine, water, oil, and each other. It is about storytelling: we understand that the stories of our faith teach us things that can’t be expressed in simple formulas, but that become personal as they relate to our own experiences. Our way is very musical: we don’t just sing traditional hymns, and we don’t just sing contemporary Christian “pop hits.” Our musical tradition is deep and broad, encompassing the best of both traditions, and others as well.

Most of all, our tradition is hands-on. We are saved through faith, but that faith manifests itself in actions that work to build the Kingdom of God. Our annual work with Congregations for the Homeless is one of many examples of the people of St. Thomas practicing what we announce.

How do you announce the Good News? What types of Christianity have you experienced in your life, and which ones have appealed to you most? Why do they touch you the way they do? Or are you still looking for a way of being Christian that speaks to the deepest pieces of your experience?