"A Church is the People, a Church is not a Building"

St. Paul Lutheran church in Pomaria, SC was a beautiful gray granite-walled church with beautiful imported stained glass windows said to be the pride of their church. The church building went up in flames this month, January 2013. In the aftermath of the horrific church fire (no one was hurt) that burnt St. Paul Lutheran church to a condemned crisp, Rev. Brent Nichols said, "A church is the people, a church is not a building." In other words just because our building is destroyed does not mean we, the church, are destroyed. Our building doesn't make us who we are. What a great take away and reminder in the midst of a horrible incident that the body of Christ is not walls of a building, but the body of Christ is you and me who simply gather in one common place to worship, and then from there are sent into a world in desperate need of hearing the Good News of Christ.

Unfortunately many of our identities as church people are wrapped up in a church building; a church building does make many who they are, or so it seems. Wouldn't it be great if we referred to the greatest pride of our church as our people instead of stained glass windows or ornate pews or an organ or a fountain or any other fixture, brick or mortar. Sometimes I wish we still just worshipped in homes because too much time and way too much money are spent on building issues. Whether it is something that is broken that needs fixed or replaced, or something that was moved that has members agitated, it is easy to feel consumed, as a pastor, by the brick and mortar; it demands almost more time than homebound or hospitalized members, preys on the sensitivities of people, brings out the worst in people and creates more conflict than it should. Our buildings, though they are inanimate, somehow, have great power over us. They have become places we worship rather than places we simply gather to worship.

We recently refloored our education wing of our church building. We had an asbestos problem that had to be attended to because of the potential harm to people--especially our preschoolers who spend a lot of time on the floor. I never would have imagined that such a simple renovation could have brought out the worst in people. I wish people got as passionate about bible study curriculum or planning worship as they did about floor choices. I wish as many people showed up for Sunday School and Bible Study as they did for church council and trustee meetings about the new floors. And even though the floors have been redone and laid, the problems--mainly relationship problems persist. People are still not talking because so-and-so said or did such-and-such, and of course we have people non-stop complaining, more passionate and consumed with their dissatisfaction and disapproval of the new floors than other spiritual matters going on within our church--like the fact that we have yet to have a profession of faith in the last two years, or that one of our teenagers gave birth at 6 months and is struggling to make life and death decisions for her twin premies, or that our church has 18 homebound or hospitalized people who are hardly visited by their church family, or one of our pillars of the church is deciding to move away to be closer to her children, or we have members in our church who can barely pay rent, utilities or buy groceries. But such concerns are on the periphery because look at those floors!! If such time, energy and financial resources could only be used for those other problems.

The whole process disheartened me greatly. I know why the church has trouble keeping young clergy--or people at all. I used to chide people who complained of being "churched-out" but now I understand. Our priorities our skewed and the object of our worship is no more than things that wither and fade as Isaiah 40 talks about. When our focus and passion and centerpiece of our gathering is on a building, then yes, such a gathering is exhausting and draining. The church was never meant to be a place that depletes. Jesus said, "Come to the fountain of living waters and I will give you water that will quench your thirst..." And yet, so often church--when focused on such withering, trivial things--is often hopeless work that doesn't seem like any real change is happening in the lives of people so real change is not coming to our world by the very people God has called, empowered and equipped to transform the world for his glory because we are too occupied with floors and such. Our church buildings, our places of worship, have become obstacles--the Golden Calf of our day, if you will.

Yes, today, we need reminding of what really matters. "Church is not a building, church is a people." Not only a people, but people of God, made in God's image. Remember in John 2 and Matthew 26 Jesus talked about tearing down temples--tearing down buildings and raising up a new temple? Jesus was talking about his body as the temple of God--what does that mean for us today? We, God's people, Jesus followers, are the church. Maybe we ought to start focusing a little more on the inside and outside of our selves--God's temple, the church--so that through us we can truly begin to change to world, making God's presence in the world known in all corners of this world.