Pillars ... another way to hold up the ceiling?

As I sat through the revival service I was a bit perturbed. I was stuck right behind a pillar and I could not see the speaker. I leaned up, back, left, and right, pretty much attempting anything I could to look around this stupid blockage. The Preacher made a facial expression and everyone laughed … but not me … I couldn’t see his face. Only his left ear and a bit of his collar could be viewed from my vantage point. Now don’t get me wrong, it was a nice pillar (for you folks in the south that really is Pillar, like the structure that holds up the ceiling, not the thing you lay your head on at night.). As older pillars go I’m sure it was a sturdy one as well. However, it was really impeding my view of not only the speaker but much of the stage, choir, and cross as well.

Now I like pillars just as much as the next guy. They are functional, pretty, sturdy, and they keep the ceiling from falling in. However, what if there was another way? What if we could throw in a flying buttress or something? Isn’t there some other way to hold up the ceiling without encumbering the sight of everyone behind it? Granted the people that had been there a while had gotten used to it, perhaps even their grandparents had paid for it to be erected when the sanctuary was expanded. I don’t really know what all the logistics were for this particular obstruction, all I know is it was in the way. These objects had held up the ceiling for a long time, but it didn’t look like they were changing, or moving anytime soon.

How many times do pillars in the church show up? Those things, doctrines, objects, or people, which may have held up the ceiling for a long time, but now, are impeding the view of others, and perhaps even the progress of the Gospel.

I’ve seen so many of my friends entering ministry for the first time and the run directly into a pillar. Perhaps they want to move youth group from Wednesday night to Thursday. One wanted to use a projector instead of the “youth hymnals” that someone’s parents had invested in. One suggested that his students research the multiple interpretations of Revelation … that didn’t go over very well. How about using a video series instead of preaching all of the time? NOT IN THIS CHURCH!

Oh let’s be honest though, this isn’t a new thing. A preacher friend told me he almost got voted out of a church because he used candles for advent and that was “too catholic.” Or perhaps the pastor that put the cross up in front of the pulpit and the decorating committee got mad because the cross “didn’t’ fit the décor.” These types of things make me want to scream “ISN’T THERE A BETTER WAY TO HOLD UP THE CEILING?!?”

It’s sad to watch old buildings be torn down. Recently I walked through the gutted student center at OCU (formally CBC). I had some great memories in the building, and I was sad to see it torn down. But when I turned around I saw a massive structure now dwarfing the old one. This was the new ministry center, and for it to be built, the other had to go.

Dr. Keith Drury wrote an article once that you had to decipher what to write theology in. You see some theology and doctrine is important but can be changed, that stuff is written in pencil. Other stuff was written in ink, it can be blotted out, but only after much more thought and deliberation. The final category was blood. There is some theology that is written in blood and should not ever be changed or taken away.

Is it possible that not only doctrine and theology, but church practice, church function, and maybe even people, are put into these categories. Are hymnals a pencil issue? Is carpet color even on the radar? Is communion an ink or blood? And more so is there really someone that your church can’t live without? Does the time come when the pillars in the church need to step aside?

Thoughts?