dancing cripples

One Webster’s re-visit: Yesterday’s blog remarked upon the community outcry to save Webster’s Used Bookstore and Cafe.  I asked the question that won’t shake loose, “Would the community cry out to save Calvary if we were going out of business.?”  Today I read these words from the owner of Webster’s regarding her desire to find a new place for her business…

“Webster’s is not the building, the stained ceiling and the crappy tile. It’s the people that fill it,” Meder-Wilgus told the newly formed “Friends of Webster’s” group who gathered at her store Wednesday night.

Ahh…now we see the reason for the outcry.  She gets it.  It’s not the building.  It’s not the high quality selection of low priced used books.  It’s probably not even the locally grown food.  It’s the people.  At Calvary, our vision is to build a church without walls.  At the heart of that vision is an understanding that church is not an address, church is not a building, church is not an organization, the church is people.  When we are at our best, we are a people who are there for other people.

Every time that we (the church) get the fact that the church is not an organization that exists for us, but that we are the church and we exist for others… good stuff happens.  When we get rid of the walls of a building — and the walls around our hearts — and connect with people, serve people, good stuff happens.

Meder-Wilgus is right.  It’s not the building.  It’s the people.