Flexibility 101

News Headline: Flooding in Ireland!

I am in the middle of a trip to visiting Douglas, a suburb of Cork, and while here, the region received unusually heavy rains and as a result - flooding. This means for us all sorts of things. One, will I be able to return to Killarney as scheduled because the Cork bus station was flooded. Two, church has been modified.

Let me ask you something: In America, if there is flooding and as a result the church building is without water, what would you do? Well, this is our problem. There are health code issues that are preventing the Douglass church from meeting in its normal location, so we had to come up with a plan "B." What is plan B? We made one up!

We are splitting into separate homes for the Sunday, and in each house there will be some songs sang, someone will lead a devotion or Bible study, and maybe even break bread together. What this means is we need people available to prepare bible study lessons. Up until this afternoon, everyone was expecting just one person to have a sermon ready. Now, three others need to have something prepared... and guess who was asked to share at one of the house meetings?... yours truly.

Why this decision? I found the reasons to be fascinating and convicting. What is church? We often think of church as the place we meet for worship. A building, a congregation singing and worshiping together on Sunday mornings. If we have to miss a week, oh well. But not here. There is no option for "oh well." The church here is committed to demonstrating that church is more than a building. It is more than a large group gathering on Sunday mornings. Church is a dynamic organism not tied down to any one place or method. It is a group of people, committed to Christ and to each other. And we will meet together, one way or another. Kinda gets you thinking doesn't it?