Dear Beloved Community,
In his recent Christian Century article called “What’s special about a church building?,” Brian Bantum writes this:
“How many places exist in our world anymore that aren’t tied up with subscriptions, tickets, memberships, or the IYKYK that only shows up on my social media feed after the fact, leaving those of us on the outside wondering how people find out about such cool things?
How many buildings exist in virtually every neighborhood, every city and town, as little nooks of possibility, of sanctuary—where one can walk in and be reminded, “You are loved. You are good.”
How many spaces exist where you come to visit, visit again, and after weeks, months, years you realize you’ve transformed from stranger to kin, from guest to host, from the one receiving reminders to the one offering them?
… the welcome is not just keeping the gates open but also the
tending we collectively have to commit to, remembering that this little patch of land doesn’t belong to us or exist for us. It’s where we’re allowed to tend, a point in time and space where our participation with God’s work in the world condenses, where bodies and souls gather into rich gray clouds just waiting to return what has been gathered.”
Our church house, like the many he describes here, is a place of transformation, nestled right in the heart of our city. Here, a five year-old leads the congregation in prayer and the 95 year-old finds her final rest, both in the 100 year-old Sanctuary that holds their history and their future. Here, a refugee family finds temporary sustenance in bags of food prepared in the youth room by our teenagers and shared by our Sunday greeters. Here, musicians rehearse, and people meet, and students learn, and all God’s children find a home. Here, the heartbroken are embraced. The overlooked are seen. The grieving are consoled. The hopeless find antidotes for despair. We live this life together.
Like Christians who have gathered in place since the very start, it is in our feasting, in our study of scripture and our worship, in our service and our care that Jesus is made known in and through the church who meets at 501 West Fifth Street. And like the treasure Paul says is found in clay jars, there are seasons when our “clay jar” of the church house needs our tending and our care. That season is now.
This Wednesday, August 7 (6:00pm in Kelly Auditorium and on Zoom), the Building Projects Task Force will offer a presentation to the congregation, sharing their recommendations for work on our church house that will allow us to deepen our commitments to the community and broaden our capacities in this place. Using feedback you shared in last year’s Congregational Conversations and focused work completed by our Deacons, House & Grounds, and Finance Committees since then, the Building Projects Task Force is heartened and excited to share this dream with you!
You can RSVP by clicking the link here.
This patch of land we call home between 5th and 6th, Spruce and Poplar offers us the gift of tending to its care, and tending it together. Imagine the way that gift will continue to be found and shared in all the years to come!
Together in God’s work of Love,
Pastor Emily