Stained Glass Windows and Potbelly Stoves

By

Barbara McKinney

Twenty some years ago God gave the church we belonged to a “this could only come from God!” gift. For background: our little flock had twice tried to buy a parcel of land on which to construct a church building. The local county board of supervisors overturned the use permit on each property at the urging of the local homeowners associations. Those who are not old enough to remember the seventies may not know that Christianity was woefully out of favor in Northern California during those years.

We ended up renting a dark storage area in the rear of a closed grocery store in a poor section of town. There was no sunlight in the warehouse, just what peeked in through the little ventilation windows near the ceiling. I prayed for windows.

At that year’s family camp, an older woman approached me and asked if we needed windows for our church. I said, “Absolutely! How did you know?” She didn’t know me or the depth of our need.

Twenty some years before our meeting, the younger members of her church had decided to update the sanctuary’s exterior to better relate to the lost of their generation. The day before the demolition crew arrived to do the modernizing work, some of the older people went down to the church building and cut out the twenty-six stained glass windows. They stored them in a chicken coop in Santa Rosa.

We gratefully accepted six of the bowed and broken windows. It took two years to return them to their former glory. They are beautiful. Our baptisms, weddings and funerals have been held in the jeweled light reflected through them for all these years. I recently heard that the windows may be removed. Stained glass windows have fallen out of favor once again.

I read a story a long time ago about a fellow who knelt down at his potbelly stove and asked God to baptize him with the Holy Spirit. Sure enough, it happened. He was so excited about his encounter with God that he went door to door telling his neighbors that they needed to come and pray at his stove.

Each generation has its own potbelly stoves. Preaching styles, building styles, teaching styles, “go to meeting clothes” styles, music styles, all change from time to time. The young people who are now enjoying the current trends in music find particular inspiration and closeness to God in them. Some day, an even younger generation will grow up and think that this season’s contemporary music is dated and the lyrics woefully uninspiring. It’s a little like fashion changes. The clothes still cover the body, but we love to dress in what we perceive as beautiful and up to date. Given a little time, some things become classics Remarkably, some styles even go full circle and become new again. Chuck was recently asked by a visitor if Valley Christian’s church building is new.

A lot of churches die of old age. We see the landscape littered with former sanctuaries that are now post offices or libraries. Jesus said, “And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins (Mark 2:22NIV).” But, who wants to become an old wine skin? “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day (2 Cor. 4:16 NIV).” Hallelujah! It is the Holy Spirit who keeps our wineskins from becoming old and inflexible.

Chuck Smith helped hippies, by the thousands, become ‘Jesus freaks’ at Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa in the sixties and seventies. One of our foster kids sang on Saturday nights in the circus tent put up in the church parking lot to welcome all those lost souls who were finding Christ. The church members were tempted to keep the kids out of the sanctuary until they were presentable, but they overcame it. New carpet had been laid, and on the first Sunday after it was installed, a sign went up saying, “No bare feet allowed.” Those beautiful Christians took the sign down and let the barefoot hippies in. Today, many of those `Jesus freaks’ are dressed in shoes and shirts and preaching the gospel in suburbs around the nation. If the fish scales on the bottom of a boat became carpet enough for Jesus to stand on to preach salvation to the lost, we can fish for the lost by offering them what attracts them. We do that much for trout.

We change our hairstyles and our clothes to be attractive to society (when was the last time I saw a polyester leisure suit?). So, I can surrender the stained glass windows even though they were gifts to us from God. Maybe they’re going to offer `indoor basketball and Jesus’ on rainy Wednesday nights to youngsters who might otherwise never hear the gospel and be saved. Jesus preached “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” He gave up a throne in heaven to be born in a stable, to die on a cross. Paul said, “I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some (1 Cor 9:22b NIV).” ““Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men (Matt 4:19 NIV).”" That is Christ’s vision for the church. We must be fishers of men, offering salvation to those who will go to hell if we don’t.

Valley Christian Church is following a Biblical approach offered in Matthew 13:52 in this work for our Lord. “He said to them, "Therefore every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.””

Modern worship music has become what is attractive to the younger generation, replacing the hymns that introduced older Christians to the Lord in their youth. The hymns glow like stained glass windows in the hearts of those who met our Savior and sang to Him, “At the cross, at the cross, where I first met the Lord…”

A happy effect of this approach of presenting ‘new treasures as well as old’ is that the people who sacrificed to plant and build this church aren’t denied their opportunity to praise God at 9:00 AM in whatever way brings them close to Him, and the next generation is able to meet with Him at 10:45 AM in praise that reflects their tastes.

I find the fellowship between services in the family room next door to be a particular blessing. Little children are in the midst of older people who, after a lifetime of living and praying, still believe in Jesus. What a witness to the children to see that these people (who had known all along that Santa Claus wasn’t real) are still trusting in Jesus. The young parents can experience the welcome of the multigenerational family of God. The mature can enjoy the joie de vivre brought by the little ones running through the place. And so, the family room and patio are used for their intended function, places for the family of God to be together. May our flock radiate the richness that reflects God’s plan that we are truly the family of God, in all of its wonderful variety – grandparents, adults, parents, teens, kids, babies!

The entire world will be burned up, along with the stained glass windows, when Christ comes again. Oh, how we will want to hear “Well done, good and faithful servant” from our Lord on that day of judgment. Jesus said, “In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you (John 14:2 NIV).” I’m hoping that there will be stained glass in the room Christ is preparing for me. And I’m figuring the angels will be singing “How Great Thou Art” up there. But, in the meantime, it is our work to ‘die to ourselves and live for Christ,’ walking “in His steps (1 Peter 2:21b NIV).”