When the Roll is called up Yonder
A few years ago, I was living in the USA and my home church was beginning a building project. They were at the point where they had the architect plans and needed the cash. So they hired a “consultant” to help them come up with the cash. Well, there was a big plan. One of the major aspects of the plan was that on a given day, teams would be sent out from the church to visit every household listed in the church “roll” and drop off an information packet about the new building program. And that’s where I came in. I was one of the teams. I helped recruit other teams. And on the given day, I was given my list of houses with names and addresses and maps to go out and deliver my info packets. Things were going great, right up until I went to a house, knocked on a door, and was kindly greeted. I introduced myself, and asked for the name on my list. I was then told that this woman was dead. I was speaking to one of her children.
I gave my condolences on behalf of the church, and made my exit. To be honest, I was unprepared and didn’t know what to do. I felt terrible and said I was sorry. I can’t remember if I left an info packet at the house or not. It’s all kind of a blur in my memory. I do know that after leaving, I continued on with my efforts at distributing my info packets. At the time, I thought, well these things happen. Some people do fall through the cracks in a large church, and that’s okay because the really important work of the church is still going forward and happening.
When the pledge cards came in, the total cost of the building project had not been pledged. I thought my pastor had said, back before the pledge drive began, that we wouldn’t continue forward if we didn’t have the full cost of the project pledged. Well, when the full cost didn’t get pledged, the topic of what to do next came up at a business meeting, one of the few I ever happened to attend. The pastor seemed a bit reluctant to move forward, but some of the elders in the church said we had to move forward, we’d already done too much. There’s now a church building, and church debt, and an economic recession. I hope there has been some church growth, but I honestly don’t know if there has been.
I wish I had spoken up at that meeting, and voiced my concern about how it didn’t seem like the church was doing what it had said it would do. I wish I had spoken up against going into debt. I wish I would have spent time in prayer about the whole building issue, as my pastor had asked the congregation to do. I did none of those things. I can’t point a finger, because I have some of the blame for this coming at me. I was fully and completely part of the system that sent someone asking for money to the door of a dead woman so that a bigger building could be built.
As the church, I think we’re supposed to be known by our love for one another, not by our big beautiful buildings. We’re commanded to love God and others before loving ourselves. There’s a story in the NT about not building bigger barns. When Jesus said he was leaving, he said he was going to prepare a place for us, and he didn’t ask for cash. When the roll is called up yonder, it won’t be time for your pledge card. It will be time to see if we’ve found our identification with the person of Jesus.
