More Than a Building

When you say “church” to most people, the image that pops into their mind is a building, often with a steeple on top.  We don’t have a steeple at Old Union, but “church” often means “church building” for us, just like everyone else.

It wasn’t always that way at Old Union.  For the first sixteen years of our church’s life we had no building at all.  Each Sunday the congregation met in a grove of trees beside a creek.  In bad weather they put a tarp over their makeshift pulpit.  That was it.  For the next nineteen years we worshiped in a log chapel at “Covenanter Woods” beside Fetzer Road before moving to our present location.  When that building burnt to the ground in 1905 our forebears built what is now the main part of our sanctuary; an addition in 1958 and our expansion in 2009 gave us the building we have today.

It’s ironic that the building has become such a major focus of our church’s identity, considering the fact that we had no building at all during those first years, and that the oldest part of our current building is only half as old as the congregation.  We focus a lot of attention on our building, whether it’s fund-raisers to pay off the mortgage, policies to make sure it’s being used correctly, or comments about its care and upkeep.

I have news for you: the building does not define our congregation.  Old Union didn’t become a different church when they moved from Straight Run to Covenanter Woods.  We didn’t change when the building burnt down, or when the additions were put on.  Brick and mortar, wood and glass do not make us who we are.

Over the last couple years a number of churches have left our denomination because of policy changes.  In virtually every case, issues over who gets the church property are the focus of the debate and final decision.  I’ve heard of some churches, and presbyteries, engaging in blatantly un-Christian activity to get or keep the church property.  That’s the kind of thing you do when your building is the most important thing about your church.

We can learn a few other things from Old Union’s founding generations about what matters in a church.  It wasn’t the building, but it also wasn’t the pastor: they had to share Rev. Williams with five other congregations in a time when travel was difficult.  It also wasn’t the music: they only sang the psalms, without an organ or any other musical instrument, in a style that by all accounts was far from inspiring.

The true identity of our church doesn’t come from its building, its pastor, or many of the other things that we think are so important.  Our church is defined by the quality of the fellowship its people share and by the mission that Christ has put before us.

Spend some time this month asking yourself: what makes Old Union the church that it is?  And what can I do to build it up?

Peter