A Funeral for a Church
November 21, 2006 by Laura | Trackback URI
What are the typical components of a Christian funeral? There are normally stories about the loved one we’ve lost, prayer, a time of worship, tears, and laughter. It’s quite common for Christians to say, “It’s just a building - the church is really the people,” and while that is true, it fails to acknowledge that those buildings house memories of important times of our lives.
So Jacob set up a memorial, a stone marker, to mark the place where God had spoken with him. He poured a wine offering and olive oil on it.
(Genesis 35:14 GW)
Our church was a couple of blocks from the infamous 17th Street Canal levee break, and sat in about twelve feet of water for a week and a half. So we ultimately made the decision to knock it down. For this year’s Thanksgiving service, held in a borrowed church on a Saturday, we gave thanks for all the years that building served us, all the wonderful blessings we enjoyed in it, and for the fact that we will have a new building on that location in a few years. In many ways, it was the funeral for our church building. We looked at pictures, told stories, laughed, cried, prayed and worshipped.
It was in this building that I heard from God - really heard from God - about a sin that I had struggled with for a long time. I experienced real repentance. I understood how my sin looked to God. That was a life-changing moment that I’ll never forget. The first, but not the last.
In that building, hundreds of people came and went through the decades and they all have their own stories. Weddings, funerals, baptisms, salvations, church events of every type and most of all, God ministering to his people, through other people or through the Holy Spirit. Yes, it was just a building. But it held so much more than chairs, equipment, and resources. It was our church home.
Pictures are below the fold:
A few guys from church managed to get some pictures while the area was still flooded - they got in through a hole in the roof.
After the flood waters went down, we were able to assess the damage - you can see the water line, and the mold that grew above it.
We actually gutted the old building while we decided whether to restore or rebuild, and we finally decided it all needed to go.
The new building will be bigger and better - and soon filled with memories of God’s grace.
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