The church won't be finished by the time we move in.
We can't move into the new home for the church without an occupancy permit,
of course. But that final inspection only establishes minimum standards:
access to exits and barrier-free parking, placement of chairs, quality of electrical,
heating and cooling systems, the height and placement of trees and shrubbery
along our property lines, things like that.
What we model in church is family life - and no family's life is finished
when it moves into a new home. A new home simply permits a family to function
in a new way, to explore new forms of hospitality, new ways to demonstrate caring,
new ways to shelter, new ways to eat together. Healthy families continue to
grow, evolve, change, no matter where they live. Besides, we don't model the
life of just any family - we model the life of a family of faith. That's
an unusual sort of family, because it does not live for itself, it lives for
Christ. It constantly works to give itself away, and so constantly works to
find new ways to teach itself to give itself away - and teach its members to
contribute, give back, help build, serve.
So we're going to move into this new building as an unfinished church, and
we'll live in it for a while before we figure out what to add next. You'll probably
need to decide to build a playground somewhere, and maybe a devotional garden,
and a place for Octoberfest. You'll need to figure out how to share space, what
we can store there and what to recycle, what furniture's necessary and what
we can do without, and how we're going to afford to pay for the stuff we couldn't
afford this first time around. Most important, you're going to need to figure
out what you, yourself, have to offer - because healthy families have a place
for everyone to contribute.
So the church won't be finished when we move into the new building. The building
will be done, but not the church, not us, not you and me, not what we do together.
Thank God for that. Because if we were done with the church, we might start
thinking that God was done with us - and we know that's not true.
Pastor Jim
I thank my God every time I remember you...because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:1-6
From the Shepherd's Song Newsletter -- July 2009
Copyright 2009 by Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
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E-mail your comments and questions to Pastor Jim in care of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church at gslc@sirus.com.