Thursday, November 5, 2020

The People Or the Steeple?

Driving by our church the other day, I pulled in and took the following photo:  You can no doubt see how the roof is covered with tarps to protect it from further damage.


The photo above is the aftermath from Hurricane Delta.  The photo below was taken the morning after the first storm, Hurricane Laura.


To use a boxing analogy, I feel like Hurricane Laura softened up our church with some body punches and then Hurricane Delta, although a weaker storm, came through with the uppercut to the jaw.  Fortunately, it was not a knockout punch.

We'll need a new roof and we have insurance for that.  Shingles littered the landscape.  It took quite a while to pick them all up.  The steeple was blown sideways, allowing driving rain to come in through the ceiling above the choir loft, knocking down ceiling tiles, exposing insulation.  Once the shingles were gone and the strong winds blew, rainwater came in through the ceiling, through walls, windows, and doors causing quite a lot of water damage.  

We have been unable to meet for the past few weeks in our church, but this Sunday we will be meeting for Morning Worship Services in our church.  A local church in a small town just west of Jennings allowed us to meet for services in their church at 1PM for the last two weeks.  What a blessing!  They welcomed us and allowed us to use their church as if it was our own.  True brothers and sisters in Christ!  We also met the past three Wednesday nights in our home for Wednesday night prayer meeting.  

This crazy year with both Covid and hurricanes have emphasized that the church is not the building, not the bricks and mortar, not the wood and glass. The Church is the Body of Christ, a fellowship of believers who meet whenever and wherever they can to Worship our LORD.  We have had "church" under the cedar tree out behind the church during the pandemic.  We have had "church" at our house and at a neighboring church during the hurricane damage.  The church is God's people, not the steeple.

“Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”  Hebrews 10:25  



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