I have never been flippant about leaving things behind.

As a kid, I cried when my someone came to buy our little old pickup.  We were buying a big, shiny truck to take its place, but I was still sad.  I felt bad for the old one.  I cried when I came home from school one day to discover a new color TV sitting where our trusty black-and-white set had been.  I didn’t get to say goodbye.  The few weeks before moving to college …. how many ‘lasts’ can there BE for an 18-year-old?  This is the last time I’ll go to church as a resident of this town…. this the last time I’ll sit in this kitchen as a full-time resident of this house. The kitchen itself was sad about this, I thought.  No sentiment was left unturned.

In just a few days our church throws open the doors on a new worship center.  You can read about that project here. We have lots and lots of things to look forward to in this new part of the building.  But we also say goodbye to our ‘old room’.

At the time our original building was built, the people of this church had the wisdom to create a space that could be used for everything. And 23 years later, it has been.  The room has held all the expected things, like weddings and funerals and meals and meetings. But it has cheerfully held its fair share of unusual things… like rappelling and basketball and entire villages made of cardboard.

We’ve now had our last band rehearsal and our last set of Sunday worship services in this room. It isn’t going away; we now get to dream about new ways to use it. But it turns out I have a little emotional attachment to this space.  I have been learning how to worship in this room for 15 years; I have been learning to create opportunities for the church family to worship here for 10. I have learned what a ‘band’ sounds and feels like.  I have planned and led worship experiences during great celebrations, and during times of confusion and grief.  In this room, Neil and I dedicated our kids, and we said goodbye to a dear friend. I’ve laughed and cried and messed up and stumbled into great ideas.

Never do I want to slip into believing that the church IS the building or that the building IS the church. The church is a group of people unified by God’s grace and purpose to be His hands and feet in the world. The building is a tool. But memories are linked to locations, and this part of this building is linked to my entire ministry career so far.  It’s a room.  But it’s been a cheerful friend, willing to handle whatever we’ve tried to create within its walls.  For that I am grateful.