Article #19 Faith

The photo below is from a community church on a Saturday.  We were there for a piano recital presented by students of a local music teacher.  He teaches private lessons to a small group of young people using music as a part of the development of young people.  I was amused as each of the performers needed to reposition the piano bench before beginning to play due to their height and leg length.  The kindergarten kids needed booster seats to reach the keys on the piano the high schoolers needed to move the bench away from the piano to get extra room.  In a post COVID world it is getting more and more difficult to find public spaces for community use.  As we were walking into the building for the recital, a uniformed group of students were exiting dressed in the colors of their karate dojo looking every bit like Daniel LaRusso from the Karate Kid.  They were all hot and sweaty wearing in white robes with different colored belts.  Seems the church also hosts a local Karate club where young people use Karate as a method of development.

I love the idea of a church facility being used for all things community.  We know the development pastor there.  He is all about all kinds of community.  We have taught there as part of our Soul Guides ministry.  I can imagine the weekly conversations like this:

Are you a member of this church?

Um, no.

Are you a member of this community of Broomfield Colorado?

Well, yes.

Then you are welcome to use our facility here. You belong.

The church community has a vision: the church exists to serve the greater community of Broomfield Colorado every day as a resource. I love the idea of the church eliminating the boundary between what is deemed to be sacred and what is considered as secular.  There is no boundary.  It is all sacred whether it is Karate or Piano or a worship service on a Sunday.

It got me thinking, do the people who occupy these spaces tomorrow, Sunday, view the time as soul development?  Do they exit the building spiritually different than when they entered?  Is there a deep appreciation of an important transformational process going on?  Or is it just a tradition, another box to check off to start another week?

If you lead a community church, consider opening it up as a community asset.  It might become a vector for church growth both in numbers and in position within the greater community.  If you are a regular attender of a local church perhaps Sundays are not just the beginning of another week but a continual transformation toward a deeper spiritual soul life.

What would the world be like if everyone who attended a community church continually needed to reposition their proverbial piano benches indicating spiritual growth in their lives?  What would the world be like when we could all could participate in development, all ultimately reaching the pedals of our proverbial pianos, which would really allow for great music to be produced?  Church was meant for us to flourish in the communities in which we live.  Kind of like building a Soul Roadmap and then driving upon it.  It could allow us to more effectively navigate the world in which we all live, work and play.