By the Way: Faith that moving churches is part of God’s plan
By Jeff Decelle on September 28, 2019.
Earlier this year, the church I serve (Unity Lutheran) moved, trading buildings with the Evangelical Free Church. Like moving out of a family home, it was a bittersweet moment. Our building was bright and open and had large windows that overlooked the bluffs of the South Saskatchewan. Because the building was built just more than 20 years ago, it meant that many of our current members were actively involved in the design and construction process. And a church building is more than just a building – it’s a place of worship, ritual and memories associated with important events in the life of faith: baptisms, weddings, funerals. I’m sure the folks from the Evangelical Free Church would tell you the same for their building that we are now in. I also grew up singing songs about how the church is more than a building – it’s the people. While I knew this at a kind of head level, and I’ve been a member of many congregations over the course of my life, this is the first time I’ve had to live that out by loading up a trailer and moving my church to a new place. Church buildings can be historical or modern, minimalist or ornate, inviting or imposing, but without a community of people, they really are just buildings. We Lutherans are always joking that we don’t like change. But I have a strong suspicion that other Christians tell the same jokes in their churches, too. It’s not news that we are living in a time of great change, you might even say a time of disruption. And not just for churches and faith, but for industry and jobs, for technology and media, for politics and healthcare, for family and climate. We humans are not always easily adaptable, and so it’s easy for us to get anxious and fearful. In spite of this, change and being alive go hand in hand. It seems likely that the pace of change is only going to speed up, and congregations need a flexibility to be able to adapt. Our congregation discerned that moving buildings was the direction God was calling us into. And as we said goodbye to what was our worship home for two decades, we are thankful that we have a new place to gather, and that our old place is still being used for worship. It’s not always easy to be adaptable – for Lutherans, or Christians, or humans in general. If we had the choice, we’d rather that things stay the same. But life has a way of forcing choices on us, and, as people of faith, we trust that God is found even in those moments, leading us into a new thing. Rev. Jeff Decelle is pastor at Unity Lutheran Church. 8-7
