ELDER: When we or our churches grow cold

As I walked from the hallway of our church building into the sanctuary, I suddenly felt a chill in the air. I realized that it was colder in that room than usual. After checking and adjusting the thermostat, I arrived at the conclusion that the furnace used exclusively for that part of our building wasn’t working. Although a repairman responded quickly and diagnosed the problem, since it was Saturday, he wouldn’t be able to get the needed part until Monday. Therefore, we were facing the prospect of a cold worship service on Sunday morning. Thankfully, the outside temperatures didn’t dip too low that night. So setting up a couple of space heaters resulted in our sanctuary being only slightly cooler than usual as we gathered for our service the next morning.

While the physical temperature of a place of worship can be a distracting factor if it becomes uncomfortably cold, we should be even more concerned about the spiritual temperature of our gatherings. I have attended services in which I immediately felt a different kind of chill in the air. It was a coldness that indicated a lack of the warmth of God’s presence or of the fire of His Holy Spirit. It might be masked behind an abundance of activity, a crowd of people, and various forms of religion, but it was evident that there was something missing. If the fire had ever been there, it had been allowed to burn low and maybe even go out.