A couple of weeks ago Fenway Park, the home of the Boston Red Sox baseball team celebrated its one hundredth anniversary. There was lots of pomp and circumstance befitting this venerable institution. One writer described it as the Holy of Holies of baseball parks. How is that for a religous metaphor? Another pointed out that it was the only sports venue for a major league team in any sport to make it to the century mark. Now there is pause for thought.
But of course Maple Leaf Gardens and the Montreal Forum, true shrines of hockey, have been supplanted by the Air Canada and Bell centres. Lots of people look upon their sports teams as a form of worship -- they aren't called fans, an abbreviation of fanatics, for nothing.
Bricks and mortar institutions come and go in just about every sphere of life. Why then are we so unwilling to let our structures go when we claim that church is the people, not the buildings? I served a congregation which had to pull down its impressive city core building and start again. I would meet people who practically bragged that they hadn't been to church since the demolition. The last church I served in Halifax had spent a million dollars on the building just before I arrived and have spent a bundle since I left. Meanwhile there are a bunch of other United Churches within a couple of kilometres.
Here in Bowmanville we have two United Churches within spitting distance, although I point out that we refrain from actually doing so. Many of our rural pastoral charges are one major structural problem away from insolvency. What is the matter with us? Can't we do better than this? Is this a form of idolatry?
But maybe its just me that is puzzled by this. Ministers don't stay with one congregation forever, so we don't get as attached to the buildings, even the best of them. I realize I have written about this before, but how about you? Would you be willing to shift your place of worship a block or two if it meant stronger ministry?
6 comments:
I think maybe a big part of that is the memories of great sermons, baptisms, confirmations, weddings that you've been part of in that sanctuary. And the people you've known and loved who have had their funerals and memorial services within those walls. From that perspective, I realize how important it would be to have a special service when you were preparing to depart and have time to reflect back and take your leave that way.
Well, I'm hardly there so I'm certainly not the most qualified kid on the block to discuss this, but I think what you're puzzled by has to do with some people holding 'place' dear to their hearts.
St. Paul's for me was such a great place to come as a kid. It was warm, full of nice people who knew my name, and was always full of smiles, music and laughter. As an adult, it's those things I remember the most, and it's an even deeper experience when my kids are there with me, seeing the same things (with the same people, too!)
Also, don't forget that despite its size, Bowmanville is still a small town at heart. Small towns always have people in them for whom place (and the long memories those places hold) is a major emotional factor in their daily lives.
I am encouraged by the strong youth presence we've got here, as well as how active, involved and generally "on the same page" the congregation seems. These kinds of things bode well for the future. Add in a smaller, more compact structure than other larger Durham structures, and I hope St. P.'s keeps doing what it does for years to come.
I'm with you Ian!!!
Having moved around a fair bit, I have found wonderful churches at every stop...and it is the people, and the lessons I have learned from them, that I cherish, not the building.
When I hear the dollar amounts of money spent on upkeep, and have watched congregations wear down (and age)trying to keep afloat my heart does sink. Young families aren't the ones painting the walls and cooking the fundraising meals for the most part...nor are they lined up for the other work that needs to be done in maintaining congregations.. I wonder where we will be in 20 years if we just let things unfold, without facing the hard questions and I do wonder what God thinks of how we are using our resources? A million dollars could do incredible things in the lives of marginalized Canadians and around the world.
I feel richly blessed by our St Paul's family, and would love for it to stay this way forever, but when I am feeling "visionary" and deeply honest with myself..the word entitlement comes to mind....I know this question is about more than just me and my own personal well being in 2012.
Interesting that all who respondede didn't grow up in this building as their church.
I know my in-laws would be devistated if their St-Pauls was in another venu.
How to seriously broach this subject in the open is going to be a challenge.
Good luck with that;)
These responses are all thoughtful reflections on the cherishing of memories and the pain of change.
Just the same, I am convinced that we are at a tipping point in our United Church as core people age and either step out of active involvement or go to their eternal reward.
At the other end, a great many younger people have either opted out of organized religion or have a far lesser commitment to the institutions of their parents or grandparents.
We can choose to change with respect for those older generations but with an eye for the future. Or the change will happen to us in ways that may actually be much more unsettling.
As I said last Sunday, nostalgia can be the blight that infects the True Vine of Christ/
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