Old Time Church

I spent Valentine's Day with my girlfriend, which made for a super nice day. She did meet my parents but not until she showed me this church, which is in severe disrepair. As you can see from the first photograph, the east side wall caved in on itself some time ago. The pews, pulpit and piano are still sitting inside, but all of it is slowly rotting away. One wonders the history of this building and even when the last people gathered together for their last service inside this building. One day, the building will no longer be there, but it will survive in memory as well as these few photos.

Currently, the church I am a member of does not have bricks and mortar. For years, people kept saying that a church is not the building, yet kept raising money for the building fund. We have been renting space inside a convention center in order for our local assembly to meet. One of the great things about not having a building is that no one really has a claim to a pew or parking spot. The church needs to be more than a symbolic rotting corpse in the midst of decrepit neighborhood. Some of the worst neighborhoods in the city have a church on every corner and one in between. It is not the lack of churches or not enough people acting spiritual on Sunday morning, but a real and tangible understanding of good stewardship and compassion.

I am reminded of this as I see this building just crumble. At one time, this building was a pillar of the community it served. I am sure for those who sacrificed and donated their own money for this building, they were proud of their accomplishment. Yet, poor stewardship or a waning interest has left only remnants of what a group of people came together to accomplish. We cannot look at this old building to appraise its worth because it is not the building that was important, but the relationships that grew between individuals who had built this meeting place to fellowship with those of the same faith. I am sure that there are those today who carry the lessons and values they learned within these brick walls.



18mm f/3.5 1/50 sec. ISO 200
Old Church, 14 February 2009



40mm f/5.0 1/50 sec. ISO 200
Steeple, 14 February 2009



Front, Old Church, 14 February 2009
18mm f/3.5 1/40 sec. ISO 200