Buildings
“Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you.” Romans 15:7
In coastal Connecticut, where I currently live, February is a time alternately of freezing and mud. We are prone to sudden snow squalls or equally sudden thaws where just walking across a street can mean skirting mud puddles from melted snow and thawing ground. Often in February as I watch people enter the warm church building on a Sunday morning, I can actually see their shoulders drop and their bodies relax as they shrug off cold or wet and enter the welcome warmth of our sanctuary. For a little while at least, they can rest secure and dry before tackling whatever the elements throw at us on any particular day.
It occurred to me that during the week between worship services, many other people come into our building to find a place of safety and warmth. Twelve step groups of various kinds, a PFLAG group, two community choirs, La Leche, a community youth group, a program for those who have recently been released from prison, children practicing and playing recitals and others. Then there are the people who come seeking help, from food to counseling. Our presence on this busy city street corner has an impact on hundreds of people we often do not see on Sunday, whose names we do not know. They, too, have a place in Christ’s Church. They, too, are part of our congregation, and our stewardship of this building is for all of us.
Let us pray for our congregations and their stewardship of God’s resources, and also for everyone who passes through our church doors.
Rochelle A. Stackhouse is the Senior Minister of The Church of the Redeemer, United Church of Christ, New HavenConnecticut.
February 2010 God is still speaking,
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