Devotion of the Week
February 5, 2005
John Carwell
Pastor of the Wallins Christian Church
Member of the Baxter United Methodist Church

Building the Perfect Church

A rich man went to his pastor and said, "I want you and your wife to take a three month trip to the Holy Land at my expense. When you come back, I'll have a surprise for you". The pastor accepted the offer and he and his wife went off to the Middle East.

Three months later they returned home and were met by the wealthy parishioner, who told them while they were gone, he had had a new church built. "It's the finest building money can buy," said the man, "No expense was spared." And he was right. It was a magnificent edifice both outside and in.

But there was one striking difference. There was only one pew and it was at the very back. "A church with only one pew?" asked the preacher.

"You just wait until Sunday." said the rich man.

When the time came for the Sunday service, the early arrivals entered the church, filed onto the one pew and sat down. When the pew was full, a switch clicked silently, a circuit closed, the gears meshed, a belt moved and, automatically, the rear pew began to move forward. When it reached the front of the church it came to a stop. At the same time, another empty pew came up from below at the back and more people sat down. And so it continued, pews filling and moving forwards until finally the church was full, from front to back.

"Wonderful!" said the Preacher, "Marvelous!"

The service began, and the Pastor started to preach his sermon. He launched into his text and, when 12 o'clock came, he was still going strong with no end in sight. Suddenly a bell rang and a trap door in the floor behind the pulpit dropped open.

"Wonderful!" said the congregation, "Marvelous!"

Wouldn't it be just perfect if we all got our own way; I don't think so. It seems as though in today's society we have taken on the role of making the Church "my/our church", not God's. It also seems that in today's world we have been molding God into our image, not letting God be God.

Building the perfect church is as simple as this:
"And he [Jesus] is the head of the body, the church…" - Colossians 1:18a (KJV) "If ye love me, keep my commandments." - John 14:15 (KJV)

As leaders and laypersons it's in our hands, so let's let God build, Jesus lead, and the Spirit comfort. I'm not saying that we should just sit back and do nothing, rather we should be active in our faith and in the work of the church under Jesus Christ's leadership. "As God's messenger, I give each of you this warning: Be honest in your estimate of yourselves, measuring your value by how much faith God has given you. Just as our bodies have many pars and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ's body. We are all parts of his one body, and each of us has a different work to do. And since we are all one body in Christ, we belong to each other, and each of us needs all the others." - Romans 12:3-5 (NLT)