Stained Glass Windows
I love stained glass windows. I’m not one of the pastors who sees them and has some repressed childhood experiences come to the surface. What I want to ask you is, have you ever thought about which way stained glass windows face?
Historically, these windows served great purpose in a picture-book fashion of telling the stories of the Bible. I remember the sanctuary that I spent my childhood in and I can tell you that there were three large windows. One of Jesus depicted as shepherd, one with Jesus walking on water and saving Peter, and another involving the angel appearing to the shepherds at the birth of Christ. The church I’m serving now has some of those windows also, which are smaller and are arrangements of Christian symbols.
Nowadays, these windows have become, more or less, decorations. Have you ever stopped to think about which way they face though? They face inward! Just another sign that our churches don’t get it!
A few weeks ago, I read part of Kennon Callahan’s “Effective Church Leadership”. He begins his book by telling his readers that the day of the professional pastor are over and the era of the missionary pastor has begun (or returned, depending on how you see it). This is an intricate way of saying that since the 1980’s, we haven’t really been in a churched culture in the U.S. anymore. We now live in an unchurched culture, where we can’t expect to merely open the doors and hold a couple of interesting events and expect people to come running and fill our sanctuaries. Our job as Christians has changed and disciple-making has taken back it’s original meaning.
How many of us have actually adapted to this? Ministry in a churched culture is easy and you spend most of your time taking for granted that your church will always be healthy. When things change, you move into a state of denial before accepting the fact that it’s time to “reverse the stained glass windows.” We need to continue to tell the Gospel story within our churches (Lord knows there’s plenty of non-Christians there) but we need to make a greater point to witness to our communities. Imagine what your town would look like if the churches turned around their windows and those beautiful images shone out to the downtown squares and the neighborhoods around them. Imagine if Christians began to do the same and reverse the windows in their own lives and their “private faith” no longer was private.
What’s the holdup?
