Church Building

This week I had breakfast with a clergy friend in the next town. Over basted eggs, sausage links, potatoes and English muffin, I shared a longing for something more (and not just more coffee). After months of community events and meeting lots and lots of people casually, I am longing for more spiritual depth and connection. I’m missing those conversations that go deeper into people’s thoughts, feelings, and lives. I miss journeying with others through significant times and issues of faith. Church planting has certainly been challenging and rewarding and significant, but there is something missing for me in not regularly leading classes on spiritual living, or preaching on eternal concepts from God each week, or being able to share soul-deep prayers back and forth with others. It’s not that I’m tired of meeting, greeting, and serving; I’m just hungry to go deeper with these new friends.

At our last meeting, my coach helped Janet and I to realize that everything we do in these preparatory months need not be about gathering together large crowds at safe points of first contacts. Four or five of these might be sufficient in the first year. These then need to be offset with small group times: times to build friendships and community; times to share stories, beliefs, and values; times to journey together, encounter Christ, and grow in faith. This is a refreshing thought for me at this point.

Here is another point of refreshment ...

Last night we received some good news. The lease on the space in which we have been hoping to set up shop was approved by the conference Board of Trustees! After eight months of searching and discerning, six versions of build-out drawings, twelve pages of legal dissections, and hundreds of prayers from people like you, the nod was given to move ahead. The contractor predicts readiness for occupancy to be in March. Now we can truly begin to put visions-for-ministry into actions-for-ministry.

And yet, I remind myself that the church is not a building, it is the people. Although a space to call our own will make ministry easier and more effective in some ways, Christ and people are the essential building materials. In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he writes, “God is building a home. He’s using us all – irrespective of how we got here – in what he is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he’s using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day – a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home (Ephesians 2:20-22 MSG).”

Therefore, even though I am excited to be building structures without, I am hungrier to build souls within. I feel we are about to move into another phase of this church-planting adventure. Please revise your prayers and keep them coming!