How To Take Down A Church

In 2008 in Moscow, a Russian Orthodox Church building disappeared.  It’s hard to imagine, one day you have a building, one day you don’t.  The building was abandoned but with the growth of the church in Russia, the Orthodox Church was considering reopening the building.  When they sent someone to check on the condition of the building, it simply wasn’t there.  It was gone. Vanished.  But it wasn’t aliens or some form of paranormal experience.

The explanation is really quite simple.  With a little investigation, they learned that the building had been dismantled one brick at a time.  A neighboring businessman was buying bricks, and the Muscovites in the area were selling.  Over a period of time, they literally took down the building one brick at a time.  They sold each brick for a ruble (about four cents).

Isn’t this a metaphor for the church?.  Jesus is the cornerstone and we believers are the “little stones.”  We living stones make up the people of God who are “being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5).

God has a plan for the living stones.  He has chosen us as a royal priesthood to declare the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light (1 Peter 2:9). You can see the point here–every brick has a purpose.  When the bricks are apathetic, uninvolved, lazy, or immoral, the church is harmed.

Simon Peter put it this way: “I urge you to abstain from sinful desires. . . . Live such good lives among the pagans that . . . they may see your good deeds and glorify God…” (1 Peter 4:11-12). Godly lives bless the church and make it strong.

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