Let's Dream Together!

 I love church buildings. When Robin and I travel, we always stop along the way to dash into a church. I love the smell. I love the way the light dances across the altar. I love the way the pews are worn down from generations of worshippers sitting, squirming, and (if we’re honest) sometimes even sleeping.

But there are things that concern me when I visit churches. Sometimes I wonder: is the church more of a museum these days (with very limited hours) or a mission outpost?

There was a time when the church building was the only community space in a town, so it was a vibrant gathering space. People knew it was the safe home to go to when the place you lived wasn’t safe. People came to find solace as well as challenge as they deepened their discipleship. They came to dream of ways to put their faith in action, to be a healing force for those who were hurting, a movement for justice for those who experienced oppression and injustice, a place where the redemptive love of Christ was experienced in tangible ways.

But times change. For many, the church building that served us so well in the 1920s now feels like an albatross around our necks. The roof leaks. The heater is on its last legs, and it feels like we are serving the building rather than it serving us. Each year it feels as if a greater percentage of our budgets are going to building upkeep than ministry programs.

COVID taught us that vibrant ministry can happen without a building. In fact, we in the Mountain Sky Conference are now worshipping more online than in person.

What does this mean for the future church? What will we leave the generations that will come after us? Someone was thinking of us when they broke new ground, although they couldn’t imagine the world we would currently inhabit. What is the new thing we need to create, for the sake of our children’s children? How will we shape a church that is less a museum of antiques and more a place (whatever that place might look like) where wounded souls find healing and peace through the love of God?

Let’s dream together!

Railside Redemption

Last week, I saw a former train station that now had a sign declaring “Railside Redemption”. Of course, I immediately wondered what kind of church had taken up residence there, only to chuckle to find out it was the recycle center for the region!

But it did get me thinking: where, in the midst of COVID-19, are the places where God’s saving grace found in Jesus Christ being experienced? If the church building is closed, where is the church as the Body of Christ now moving in communities, touching and changing lives?

When we go to the supermarket, are we attending the Grocery Store of Grace? When we get take-out from a restaurant, are we stopping by the Resurrection Restaurant? As we socially distance with friends on the porch, are we sitting at the Patio of Promise? Where, now, are you experiencing Holy Ground, that place where you are surprised by a God who shows up to offer new life in the most unusual ways in the most common of places? More importantly, how are YOU, as you move in the world, bringing the light of God to the forgotten corners of human existence?

The Holy Spirit has pushed us out of our church buildings and into our streets. We can no longer close the doors of our church buildings—or our hearts—to the sufferings of our neighbors. Our hymn singing can no longer drown out the cries of the poor. Our offerings no longer need to prop up a building that has had decades of deferred maintenance but instead can build much needed ministries that can transform individuals, families, communities, and a world as we seek to bring healing as Christ’s hands to a broken world.

Wear a mask. Stay safe.