A Circuitous Road

Long term readers of my other blog "eclectica" are aware that the church I attended all my life was amalgamated with three others last year. There was a long period before the amalgamation when we were unsure what would happen to us as a church community. The uncertainty and sense of helplessness were painful but with a very sick bottom line and diminishing numbers it was inevitable that a dramatic change would need to be made.
In the pre-amalgamation mess I thought God told me that my church would not be closed. It seemed an unlikely idea but i made a mental note of it.
Then we were amalgamated and the four congregations moved to a new location. It certainly felt as though my home church at Earlwood had closed but the building remained and some of the weekday activities that happened there continued.  I felt that as long as the building was functioning, there was hope for a genuine community to exist there again.
When the church became mostly vacant there was a suggestion that it could be used as a charity store, which would have been a church endeavour but not a church. This would be a long term plan, with extensive regulatory requirements.
A few months on, I happened to hear of another congregation nearby whose building had been condemned. They were desperate for a new location and I suggested they could make temporary use of the building at Earlwood. The relevant people got in touch and within the month there was a new community worshipping in the building, keeping life in it, stopping the dust from gathering.
The new community in the building are Chinese speakers and they have appealed to a demographic that the original congregation did not.
Today, it was announced that the Earlwood site could not be redeveloped because of the expense involved in meeting updated building codes and local council regulations on truck access etc so it has been decided that the church there will remain a centre for worship. 
Being human, all of the people from the various original congregations feel that they are in a temporary place and they all hope for a "permanent" location. Things won't stay the same in the foreseeable future but that is  ok.

I always anticipated that anything I posted here would be generalised musings on Christianity, not the specifics of one church, but I feel that this story is worth telling and I think there will be more fascinating twists and turns to come. Maybe there is just a little inspiration for someone.....


Bless you