Losing a Church: The In Between

The official announcement of our church closing has come and gone, but our final service on May 1 is still four weeks away.  It's an odd place to be.  I've traveled the road of intense emotions that come when a grief is first observed, and by the grace of God, I'm left in a place of quiet acceptance, albeit tainted with some lingering sadness.

But the end is still yet to come.  At the risk of overstepping my bounds, I find myself seeing parallels between the situation we're in with our church, and the situation the wider Church is in with regards to waiting for the return of our Lord.  The only difference is that our church knows when our end will be, but the Church does not know when to expect the return of Christ.  But we all know the end is coming, and everything we are doing now is in anticipation of that day.


Our last services have been focusing on glorifying God and looking back at how He has been working in each of our lives through our church.  In a more practical way, my job has completely switched focus into working on wrapping things up and preparing for our final Sunday.  I've been given the task of putting together a slideshow presentation using all the pictures from the last six years of our church's short history -- there are a TON of pictures!  I've been busy putting together inventory lists and removing our church from various mailing lists.  And that's just the beginning.  There is still so much more to do...

Back to the point, it's not a particularly easy place to be, this already come/but not yet stage.  We know we're closing, but we're not there yet.  Sometimes I think it will be easier once it's all over.  We'll be able to turn our focus to moving on and finding new church families.  It will be time to put the past behind us and look forward to the future.

But just as God has a purpose for keeping us waiting for the Glorious Return, He also has a purpose in giving us these last four weeks together as a church family.  It is good to have a chance to look back, and it will be good to have a chance to celebrate on our final Sunday.  Through it all, we need to keep our focus on Him, and He will be glorified. 

"You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being." Rev 4:11