‘Cathedral Thinking’ is an expression I have used during previous capital campaigns that now, with my youngest daughter in the 11^th grade, holds much more meaning for me. Just what is cathedral thinking? It's the sort of thinking practiced by the builders of the great medieval cathedrals. Those who provided funds to purchase land and materials and then laid the foundations of those imposing structures knew they would never live to see the tops of the spires. ‘Cathedral Thinking’ gave way to ‘Cathedral Giving,’ since Construction took longer than a single human lifetime.

Many of you have traveled through western Europe and admired the classic architecture of the many imposing cathedrals. Those massive structures, built to honor God, took many years to plan and to build. The statistics on the few catherdrals that my family have seen as part of their Student Leadership University travels are as follows: Notre Dame in Paris took 182 years to build, the 4^th St. Paul’s Cathedral in London (the current structure is the 5^th) took 200 years to build, and St. Bavo’s in Haarlem, The Netherlands (prominently featured in a book that is required reading for all 6^th graders at Faith Christian School - The Hiding Place) took 139 years to construct. What amazed me about the length of time required to build these structures is how they raised the money necessary to continue construction over such a long period of time.

The individuals who gave the land, provided for the materials, and performed the work necessary to complete construction were more concerned about the impact of that cathedral on future generations than they were about the impact on them or their immediate family. They truly had long-term vision! They practiced the sort of vision that goes beyond the next week, the next year, even the next century.

We now have an opportunity to build something that will impact the kingdom of God for generations to come. For those that have children in elementary or junior high, your children will directly benefit from the fruit of your giving. For those who may not currently have children attending Faith or for those whose children are about to graduate, you will impact future generations of children. In our chronically impatient culture, cathedral thinking is a tough sell. If we can't have something tomorrow, or even later today, then (we think) what good is it? We can be guilty of acting like a character in the tale, The Little Red Hen. As you will recall, in this story, the little red hen finds a grain of wheat, and asks for help from the other farmyard animals to plant it. However, no animal is willing to volunteer to help her. At each further stage (harvest, threshing, milling the wheat into flour, and baking the flour into bread), the hen again asks for help from the other animals, but again she gets no assistance.

Finally, the hen has completed her task, and asks who will help her eat the bread. This time, all the previous non-participants eagerly volunteer. There is no doubt that we can find plenty of families willing to send their children to a completed Faith Christian High School but the question is – who will build it?

Our challenge is this: do we want to be a character in The Little Red Hen or do we want to be Cathedral Thinkers?

Ron Clegg is the Director of Global Best Practices for BMC Software and has served on Faith’s board since 2001. He and his wife Kathy have two children; Weston (FCS 2008), a sophomore at University of Arkansas and Brett, a junior at Faith.