Nothing Is Changing

Good morning, church! I hope this note finds you doing well and enjoying the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. As you know, the time for our transition from Rosewood Hall to Green Springs is drawing near! How near? Well, that’s impossible to say with certainty, although we are hopeful that we can spend all or part of the Christmas season in the new space. There are certain things that are out of our control and even out of our builder’s control, but that is the general timeframe we have been given. So, pretty near!

With that in mind, I thought it would be good to write a weekly series of brief blog posts about the upcoming move. Hopefully, these will be helpful for us as we pray, plan, and prepare in the coming months. And the first installment is this: “Nothing Is Changing!”

For over a year our church has considered, discussed, and strategized concerning this new space. “The building” has been an agenda item at every elders’ meeting since at least June 2017. Almost every person I talk to outside of our church who knows about our church asks me about the building. I probably go up to the building twice a week just to look around. I fairly frequently have dreams about the building (you can pray for me)! 

None of this is necessarily bad (well, maybe the dreams part). Indeed, much of it is necessary when you undertake an endeavor such as this. As a congregation, we prayed about this at length, and I’m really excited about what God may have in store for us. But having said all of that, it’s critical to remember that a change in location is relatively unimportant, with an emphasis upon the word “relatively.” Let me explain.

Imagine other changes that we might make. What if we decided that community no longer mattered and, as an expression of that conviction, abolished all of our growth groups? Or, what if we decided that preaching was old-fashioned and outdated and opted to watch movies during that time instead? Or, what if we decided that congregational singing was weird and children were a bother and global mission was a waste of money and, consequently, sang only solos to highly produced musical accompaniment, quit teaching kids, and pulled all our partner support?

Well, you see what I mean. A change in location is relatively unimportant when stacked up against other, more important aspects of the church. Yes, moving to Green Springs is important. But no, moving to Green Springs is not most important. Nothing is changing in God’s Word or in His commands to our church. We are still called to make disciples here and around the world. We are still called to preach, hear, and obey the Word. We are still called to see the gospel reach into every corner of our lives and into every corner of the world. We are still called to love our neighbors selflessly and to love God supremely. Practically speaking, we are going to sing the same songs, recite the same Scriptures, follow the same order of service, teach the same curriculum to our children, and preach the same gospel. We are even taking our baptism trough over there!

So, even though a lot is changing (we’ll get to that in a future blog post), what is most important must stay the same. We must still confess the same truths, and we must still, as we say in our church covenant, seek “to carry out the spirit of [the] covenant and the principles of God’s Word.” May God give us grace by His Spirit to do that faithfully.

Blessings,

Bart