Well-Used

I came to work a little early today. I told Rick (one of the ministers) who was already here that I wanted to see what 8am looked like. I knew he would already be here. What I didn’t know was that there was a group of women meeting in our fellowship hall this morning. When I asked our secretary who the women were, she explained that they were a group of downtown business women who meet here every Tuesday morning from 7:30 to 8:30am to discuss items of mutual interest.
We seem to have this kind of thing go on at our building a lot. Oh, we’re not crammed with people wanting to use the building for meetings, etc., but compared to churches I’ve worshipped with in the past, this building is busy. We have Toastmasters regularly. We have a grief support group that meets regularly. Our seniors come on Thursdays for cards and fellowship. Even the school system uses our building from time to time for meetings and events, and we have another church group that uses our parking lot out back to serve the homeless regularly (We also serve the homeless, by the way. I didn’t want you to think we had someone else do our work on our behalf.) Families use the building for dinners, receptions, weddings, funerals. Some of those families are not church families. It is sometimes a rather busy place.
And that’s good. I know the building doesn’t make the church, but if the building seems a welcoming place to those who don’t regularly attend, and if in coming to meetings and events, visitors can interact with some of our staff and members, those are just additional opportunities for service and demonstrating the love of God in a broken world.
Yes, it wears the carpet. Yes, we have higher electric and fuel bills. No, we don’t charge non-profit groups or members. And yes, we like it this way. The more, the better. God expects us to be good stewards of what He has given us. And if we can take anything from the parable of the talents, he expects us to use those resources, not hoard and save them.
Churches that are silent and empty seem to be sad places to me. There is no movement; no noise; no life. That’s not what we’re about. Jesus said he came to give life, and to give it abundantly. The Bible says that “the life” is in Jesus Christ. I know a building is not the church, but I think a building can manifest the church that meets within it. A living, useful, and well-used building, in my view, reveals a church that is also alive, useful, and well-used. And that’s the way it should be.