I’m fortunate in my assignment with the church that I get to do a wide variety of things. Most of them involve either being behind the wheel of a car or the keyboard of a computer. Over the past few weeks I have been a witness and an active participant in the life transitions of two congregations of church folks.
The Nampa, ID congregation voted a few months ago to turn over its building to the mission center for major repairs associated with mold cont
amination and then sell the building. To allow the people a chance to work through some of the grief issues associated with selling a building that has been a church home for generations, I volunteered to travel to Nampa and organize the repairs and work with a real estate agent to determine options.
For a week I worked in the building repeatedly vacuuming out water, trouble shooting water leaks, inventorying the building, and working with contractors to award a bid for the repairs. Buildings tell stories and church buildings tell stories about the people who have worshipped in them. It is our hope that the next owners will enable this building to keep telling stories. A popular theologian once said “We shape our buildings and then after we are done shaping them, they shape us.”
After spending a week in Nampa, I traveled to Pinedale, WY where we have two isolated church families. These two families are very skilled and gifted. It is exciting to hear about their community and try to figure out with the multitude of churches already in Pinedale just what the Community of Christ has to offer this relatively isolated mountain community.
Life and death. The vibrancy of new congregations often gives us a sense of happiness and success, while the death of congregations can often bring a sense of sadness and uncertainty about the future. I trust in a God whose purposes are bigger than my own and a future that is not yet written.
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