Look right through those stained glass windows.
Look beyond those heavy wooden doors.
Look above that towering steeple spire.
Is this the church or is there more?
Look behind the curtained baptistry.
Look beneath the pulpit furniture.
Look above the rows of organ pipes.
Is this the church or is there more?
Oh, the church isn’t found within.
No, the church isn’t bound within these four walls.
About this Song:
[Note: I’ve never recorded this song and can’t find the lead sheet for it. In the original version, I used “beyond” in the first three lines of each stanza. I’ve since changed that to “through, beyond, above” and “behind, beneath, above” for greater variety. Take your pick.]
This song may not describe your church–it doesn’t describe mine, either–but I believe it’s a far too accurate portrait of many contemporary churches that get so caught up in the fancy trappings that they lose track of what’s really important: the lost people outside their doors. Lost people who may not feel welcome or comfortable in grandeur.
Especially if the membership is so focused on itself that it fails to look beyond and outside itself to meet the needs of outsiders, welcome them, and invite them to become insiders.
King David wanted to build the temple in Jerusalem as God’s earthly dwelling place, but the Lord said no. David’s history of violence made him an inappropriate choice. Instead, his son Solomon would be allowed to carry out David’s dream.
But that didn’t stop David from stockpiling materials for the work Solomon would carry out. Only the finest of materials would do. After all, this would be the House of God, and God deserved the best man was capable of doing.
Solomon took over this project when he became king, and the temple he built would make even the fanciest of today’s churches look like ramshackle sheds in comparison.
God respected and blessed the temple and accepted it as his earthly dwelling place. He commanded his people to come there to make sacrifices for their sins. God truly inhabited Solomon’s Temple.
But did you notice one particular thing in the previous paragraph? Even today, we tend to refer to it as “Solomon’s temple.” Not God’s.
Is that the problem with today’s fancy churches? Have those congregations failed to place their buildings in God’s hands? And have they so badly dishonored Him by ignoring the people outside that He refuses to inhabit those buildings?
That’s something to think about. If you have something to add, please leave a comment.
I write Christian novels as well as songs. The two most recent ones are shown below and their pictures are links to the Amazon pages. The eighteen-book picture is a link to my Amazon Author Page.
I’ll be back again next Wednesday. Please join me then. Better still, sign up to receive these weekly posts by email.
Best regards,
Roger
Links you might be interested in:
As I Come Singing. . . 