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Picture of the day -
January 6, 2006
"Front Door Chapel"
Photo courtesy of
Morguefile.com.
Most people have an image that automatically pops into their
mind when someone mentions the term church. For example, many who
live in large cities have a mental image of a church that is something along
the lines of a huge building with large, ornate columns, a cavernous
sanctuary and a 100 foot bell
tower. But if you ask folks here in rural southwestern Virginia what a
church looks like, they will most likely describe it as a small,
white, wooden structure with a simple steeple resting on a hillside.
My guess is that few among us would think that a church could
possibly look anything like the one featured in today's picture!
But when you think about it, a church building doesn't really have
to exist in one of the forms that most of us have come to recognize
as being a church. For instance, the church that Cheria and I attend
meets in what used to be a
Damascus,
Virginia flower shop. I also
know of a local church that meets in an abandoned manufacturing
plant and there is even one in Texas that meets in an abandoned hockey
stadium!
The fact of the matter is, a church isn't really a building at all. A church is simply
a group of people who assemble themselves together on a regular
basis in order to serve God and fellowship with one another. The
fact that the congregation meets in a building that doesn't resemble
the typical image of a church house doesn't make it any less a church. In
Hebrews 10:25, God's word says "Not forsaking the assembling of
ourselves together...", but it does not dictate what type of
building to use. The way I see it, any place where God's people meet
in order to worship Him is a church, plain and simple.
About the photo: Today's picture features Front Door
Chapel, a tiny church for truckers located near Biggs, Oregon.
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