A visiting pastor talked to our church leadership about church building, specifically the local church, rather than God’s Kingdom in general.
He shared that he believes the commonly espoused phases of growth generally take place in more or less the same order everywhere, noting that every church will experience the finer details differently.
He talked about foundations, perhaps in small beginnings which shape the future.
He talked about pillars, key ministry partners, people who the pastor personally mentors.
He talked about pretty much every aspect of a building and the process of building it, which means he also talked about scaffolding.
Scaffolding isn’t glamorous.
Scaffolding isn’t permanent.
Scaffolding is often abused.
But it is essential* to the building process.
Without it, sturdy pillars cannot be fashioned in order to support the roof and walls.
Without it, the artisans can’t apply the finishing touches.
Without it, building practices can end up cutting corners at best, or become downright dangerous at worst.
While this pastor was sharing, it hit me…
I’m scaffolding
His point was that hopefully, everyone in that meeting would be pillars, or something permanent, but Diane and I realised we’re scaffolding.
And we’re ok with that.
Maybe one day we’ll be part of a church where we’re not the scaffolding, where we are part of the structure – planted permanently by God’s grace – but so far, we’ve been scaffolding, and it’s an honour to be used in Kingdom building in this way.
It also makes feeling settled, planted, rooted (if you will), difficult to achieve, because you know that you’re not there forever. Scaffolding is just there for a season, and because this scaffolding is also human, it might also be jealous of those who know they are there permanently, through thick and thin, clearly called by God not just through gifting, talents, timing, whatever, but for that place as well.
Whereas the scaffolding has to be ready for when God calls it on to the next building project, sometimes a long way from everything it currently knows.
Like, say, on the other side of the world.
In the past, I’ve seen scaffolding abused and broken, ripped down before it was ready to be removed – sometimes by some external force, sometimes not. It’s sad to see, painful to be part of, and usually ends in some degree of regret.
Having realised we’re scaffolding, Diane and I have to be careful to ensure our removal is done with care, in the right timing, in the right way, always with God’s purposes at the forefront and human flesh taking a back seat – as it always should – and learning from the mistakes of scaffolding that has toppled over before its time.
I’ll post more on this later, and yes, I realise there may be a sense of “what on earth is he going on about?” in here, but in the meantime:
Have you ever thought of the Church this way?
Are you scaffolding, or part of the permanent part of the structure of your church community?
* I’m not a builder, but I do know there have been replacements to scaffolding technology for certain building projects. I’m generalising. Work with me.
