Renovating Our Building ... and Ourselves
- By Pam Chao and Kevin Wong, Grace Fellowship Community Church
Our church building is undergoing renovation this year because of our growing need for more sanctuary capacity as well as for structural strengthening. Because we’ve had to vacate our building, we talked about what we should do with our ministries that meet in the building. One of those ministries is Kaleo, our outreach ministry of hospitality to neighborhood families.
Temporarily not having a church home has put us in a position of need and dependence on one another and on our partners. This has been such a blessing to our congregation! It has allowed us to learn to be open and flexible, trying new approaches that have not been part of our normal rhythms.
For Kaleo, our desire was to continue serving and caring for the families God has brought us. Unable to meet in the building, we decided to hold the Kaleo gatherings in people’s homes. This has been a wonderful blessing, providing Kaleo team members opportunities to open up their homes. We got to practice hospitality and experience a deeper sense of ownership in the ministry.
We’ve also begun to more deeply embrace the bi-directional nature of hospitality. We may be eager to host and serve others, but we’re less comfortable with being hosted, for example, by Kaleo participants who desire to serve us in return. One family in particular, whom we recently helped move into their new apartment, offered to host a gathering in their home in appreciation for the ways they’d been served by our congregation. Accepting that offer was not automatic for us. We were too quick to judge the size of their apartment as too small. Truth be told, the greater obstacle was our impulse to be in the position of giver rather than receiver. The mother’s enthusiasm and generosity prevailed, however, and we enjoyed a wonderful evening. We are grateful for how God is using this season of renovation to give us new eyes to see those He brings to us as friends, not just guests.
Gathering in homes rather than a large building has forced us to relate to each other in new, and better ways. In our old setting, we had rooms dedicated for the kids to play in, yet completely separated from the adults to do other things. The coziness of the homes put everyone in close proximity and provided more opportunities to look out for each other. For example, as we played board games we discovered that the kids and parents actually enjoyed playing games together, something they rarely if ever did at home.
As we learn from the disruptions in our routines and from having our ministry gatherings in the intimate confines of our homes, we also reflect on the new possibilities these experiences can produce. We can dream of new ways to use our renovated church building to build our relationships or, more simply put, to create space in our lives for one another and the people around us.
Just the beginning
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