Page 3 - Presbyterian Connection Newspaper

presbyterian.ca
spring 2018
Connection
presbyterian
3
mESSaGE FRom ThE GEnERal SECRETaRy
Considering Church Building Strategically
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By the Rev. Ian Ross-McDonald, General Secretary,
Life and Mission Agency
In CBC’s sitcom “Kim’s Conveni- ence,” the Korean congregation wor- ships in Queen St. East Presbyterian Church, where I serve as the interim moderator. The church’s façade is unremarkable except that three dates appear on the cornerstone. This crowded plaque points to the fact that in the last 140 years the edifice has changed significantly and often. Fences and gates were removed. The entrance has been repositioned and rebuilt repeatedly, and at some point a steeple was demolished and an education wing appeared. The in- terior of the sanctuary has been re- modeled in many ways many times. At least three of the renovations were significant enough to warrant being recorded on the cornerstone.
Churches across the country share Queen St. East’s history of change. It seems there was a time when we were more comfor table altering our structures and even moving to new ones as we kept up with changing needs and circumstances. But some- thing shifted and we seem less com- for table thinking about buildings stra- tegically. By the time Queen St. East Church was heavily damaged by fire in the 1960s this congregation, once so used to change, made a hasty de- cision to repair the sanctuary without taking advantage of the situation to realize a dream to incorporate a hous- ing project into the design. The min- ister quipped, “The good news is that the church caught fire, the bad news is we are going to rebuild it exactly as it was.” When the PCC adopted the strategic plan (presbyterian.ca/ strategic-plan) in 2016 and pledged to “explore buildings as tools that set congregations and presbyteries free to pursue faithful ministry” it signalled a newinterestinbuildings.Whileitsays we will be intentional about how we think about them, it’s very hard work.
We have a complex relationship with buildings. On the one hand, they can be places of vibrant worship and study as well as a sanctuaries from the psychological, economic and po- litical forces of the world. On the other hand, buildings can be a burden and distraction. We sing, “the church is not a building, the church is not the steeple, the church is not a resting
place, the church is the people,” yet we expend endless amount of time, energy and money feuding over the furniture and fretting about bricks and mortar.
With a few exceptions, the Bible is not very interested in buildings. In fact, biblical faith is more mobile than stationary. It tends to value time rather than spaces. Abraham Heschel writes inTheSabbath,that,“Judaismteach- es us to be attached to holiness in time, to be attached to sacred events, to learn how to consecrate sanctuar- ies that emerge from the magnificent stream of a year. The Sabbaths are our great cathedrals... The meaning of the Sabbath is to celebrate time rather than space.”
Celebrating time over space al- lowed early Judaism to be, in theory at least, nimble and mobile and also relatively free of a fixation with build- ings. It’s true that Moses instructed the Israelites to create the Tabernacle or tent-sanctuary that journeyed with them through the wilderness. But the Tabernacle was a portable dwell- ing for God, not for the people who worshipped outside. Most of Jesus’s preaching, teaching and praying was done on hills, lakes and highways or
This Toronto congregation sold this church for redevleopment and joined a Presbyterian congregation in an Ecumenical Shared ministry.
Biblical faith is more mobile than stationary.
in the homes of friends and strangers not in synagogues and the Temple. ThegreatrevelationsintheNewTes- tament took place at a cattle stall, on a mountain and in a garden. Jesus was baptized on a riverbank and the sacrament of Holy Communion was first celebrated in rental space. There is no reference in the New Testament to the church as a building. The first Christians gathered ecumenically with Jewish worshippers in synagogues until they weren’t welcome anymore and they moved to meeting in homes, tunnels and tombs.
What of our own worship spaces? For many congregations, having a place to worship is a faithful use of resources. But too many congrega- tions exhaust themselves and their resources maintaining outdated, out- sized and even crumbling buildings, some of which can’t meet the ministry needs of today. There are many good reasons we are so attached to our churches. But sometimes, we keep them because it’s difficult to know what to do with these much-loved but not much-used resources. This can be a painful situation. But when imagination is paired with courage, in- spiration is born. Addressing building challenges can not only fur ther faithful ministry but also generate energy and spark renewal. There are some crea- tive stories in this issue of the news- paper about just some of the possibili- ties that can arise out of challenges.
Renewal awaits us, even in the midst of loss. One congregation sold itsbuilding,remodeledahousetouse for worship and used the proceeds from the sale to fund new mission projects it had dreamed of doing. And the congregation used the move to design a beautiful new worship space that nur tured its spirituality and en- hanced its worship.
We are summoned to worship God in beauty and truth. Beauty matters but it’s undervalued in many of our gatherings and churches—we almost treat beauty as a vice rather than a vir-
tue. Beauty needn’t be distracting, os- tentatious or fussy. The Shakers, Zen ar tists and painters like Mark Rothko show us the arresting, centering and spiritual beauty of simplicity.
Church proper ties are the respon- sibility of congregations under the care of presbyteries. Decisions about construction must be made locally and mindful of contextual needs and resources. But the heavy work of dis- cernment doesn’t need to be done in isolation. Depar tments at the denomi- national offices have worked together to create a web page (presbyterian. ca/buildings) with resources to as- sist presbyteries and congregations as they look at buildings as tools for renewal. Call us if you’re looking for ideas and suppor t—we’ll do all we can to help in any way we can.
The denomination is rethinking its location in Toronto for some of the same reasons as many of the con- gregations. In 2015, the Assembly Council gave the staff permission to investigate new locations and the possibility of renting space with other denominations, where we would re- main distinct, but benefit from shared amenities. Not only would a new lo- cation free us to work more efficiently and possibly realize savings, it would also be a sign that the church is on the move, announcing that we are not entrenched settlers but the free and faithful pilgrims Christ calls us to be.