What a transition!
A great big thank you to all those people who came to help with the transition from pews to chairs. Moving the unsold pews out, taking part in the big clean up, shampooing the carpets and wax polishing the oak furniture, touching up the paintwork in church and finally setting out all the new chairs. What a transition!
I was recently asked why are we selling the pews and replacing them with chairs. Lots of things went through my mind but the one thought that stayed with me was that we need to make our church building accessible to everyone in an effort to introduce them to Christ. After all – that’s my job!
In the middle ages churches were used for a variety of functions such as courtroom, school, library, hosted meetings, elections, debates, plays and festivals. In fact until relatively recently church buildings were multi-functional community centres. It was only in the mid nineteenth century that church buildings put a restriction on secular use. However, attitudes are now changing again. Over the past 30 years we have entered a digital age where my children and grandchildren take for granted things like smartphones, ultra HD TV, Facebook, Facetime, Snapchat, WhatsApp, and Raspberry Pies (that’s computers that junior school children build not the sort you eat!).
Church buildings are again becoming places where people can meet to serve each other and the community in love, just as Jesus taught, but this time in a digital age, where our lives are surrounded by technology, the speed and breadth of which leaves me stunned!
In Matthew 28 Jesus said to His disciples “…go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.Therefore and surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
It is my passion to follow Christ in this task, and if my generation is not going to be the one that ‘puts God to bed’ then I think we have to move with the times, carrying our faith, hope and heritage with us. If this means chairs instead of pews, digital TV screens and audio systems, a toilet, a kitchen, and a new roof, then bring it on!
Local Minister Sue Deacon
