Many of you know that I’m the president of my homeschool co-op board, I’ve been on the board for the last 5 years- though I’m looking forward to taking a break from it starting in June.

It’s kind of a big job. I’m responsible for overseeing the class schedule which means making sure we have classes that appeal to our members and teachers that are capable of teaching- believe it or not we’ve had a few instances in my tenure where we’ve had incapable teachers. Thankfully, I’m very capable of having uncomfortable conversations because I’m the one that deals with those things. During the Covid year I was responsible all the communication that we sent out and the policies that we enforced. That was really no fun because no matter what we did and no matter how thoughtful we were in our messaging it seemed like we made someone mad every time. We moved to a different location this year and that was another nightmare that I got to oversee. It was a lot of work to determine exactly what we needed and then to find locations that could meet our needs AND were willing to host us AND would rent to us for a reasonable price. It ended up working well and we love our new location, but it was a chore.

We met this week and I worked hard at another aspect of my role which is to coordinate and facilitate an open house where we welcome potential future members to come, take a tour, see how we operate and decide if they’re a good fit for our community. Membership at our co-op tends to be fairly steady- so we’re not fishing to bring in lots of new families. We hope to bring in just enough to account for attrition, maybe a few more. We’re not a business, so we don’t have a mindset for growth. One of our main goals as a board is to remain healthy. So while we put a lot of effort into the classes we offer and making sure the location is nice and welcoming. We put most of our effort into making sure we have a thriving and healthy community.

The co-op community that I’ve worked to foster in many ways is like a second church community because we’re all believers and we all share a common goal. It’s had me thinking a lot about our church community here and the importance of making sure it is thriving and healthy.

Having a good community of like-minded people is pretty important in homeschooling- honestly even more so for the parents than for the kids. Because homeschool offers a lot of challenges that sometimes can be easily solved by a more experienced parent. There is definitely a lot of frustrations shared in the parent room- yet those conversations are most often fruitful because there is good advice and wisdom shared from those that have been in a similar situation. You could say, if one of us suffers the rest of us suffer alongside.

But also homeschooling comes with a lot of huge wins that might not otherwise be celebrated. I know for me, JJ (husband) does not seem very impressed by the wins I have so I really look forward to bringing them to my peers at co-op. We rejoice with those that rejoice.

The development of our co-op community doesn’t come totally naturally though. We have several things in place to make sure that it is thriving and healthy. One of the main things is that we function as a body and we hold people accountable for the role they play in the body. So, it benefits us greatly when we have a member who is willing and capable of teaching- but not everyone is. And that’s ok because our body needs more than just teachers. We have a literal list of roles that everyone is required to take on one of the roles listed. Sometimes you get a role that fits you to a T, and I’ve witnessed people grow into roles that they took on a whim and sometimes people just have to take a role because nothing better is left. But everyone is responsible and accountable for fulfilling their role. And being that I am capable of having difficult conversations, I usually get to be the person who has a conversation with those not filling a role. And when I have to have those conversations we always talk about 1 Corinthians 12, because even though it isn’t really a church body- we try to operate the same way and the principles in these verses remain. If someone chooses to attend but not contribute- it harms our group. If someone is a member but has a lot of other stuff going on and they feel that they can’t contribute right now- it harms our group. If someone is part of our group but volunteers a lot elsewhere- it harms our group. I’ll tell ya- I don’t take excuses.

Read 1 Corinthians 12:12-26 and see about how our body suffers whenever someone isn’t using a gift to contribute to the body. Just imagine how strong our community could become if we all served in the way we each should. It’s kind of fun to think of all we could accomplish if everyone took a call to serve. Today I ask you to read 1 Corinthians 12:12-26 and consider if you’re a functioning part of the body. If not, why? Are you serving where you should be? Can I help you to find where you fit?