It was a summer Sunday...
Illustration
It was a summer Sunday evening when everything is supposed to be quiet in a small town in western Pennsylvania. Suddenly the fire alarm at the local volunteer fire department went off ... the call was at the local United Methodist Church. The church building was engulfed in flames and it looked as though the 123-year-old structure would burn to the ground. Hundreds of people looked on in disbelief and horror to watch this pinnacle of the town burn to the ground in a matter of hours. Working through the grief of the loss of the building, the church family realized that the church is not the building but the people. They began to pray for a new vision and new beginning as they started the process of a new building. They met in the local fire department on Sundays for worship and shared the local Presbyterian church rooms for weekly meetings. Yet through all this process the church family became closer and filled with a new rekindling of God's Spirit. The Sunday finally came for their first worship in their new building. With all pomp and circumstance, yet with a great deal of joy, they gathered on the outside of the building to prepare to enter their new temple of worship. The lay leader read from Revelation: "Then I saw a new heaven and new earth ... I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them ... They will be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God. There will be no more death or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.' " -- Smith
