Dedicated

[Solomon stood before the Lord’s altar and prayed:] “Constantly watch over this temple, the place about which you said, ‘My name will be there,’ and listen to the prayer that your servant is praying toward this place.” – 1 Kings 8:29 (CEB) 

I am certain that once upon a time, when it was first constructed, the church I’m currently sitting in was prayerfully dedicated to God. I’m certain because there is a plaque near the entrance saying as much along with the date of the dedication. We’ve since lost the words they prayed over the then-new church building, but I hope they included a provision to reimagine the use of the space by each subsequent generation.  

Every congregation I’ve belonged to has transformed our shared sacred space to meet the needs of the moment: offices reimagined as meeting rooms, rooms previously reserved for the Sunday morning congregation reimagined to serve the needs of the wider community all week long, closets containing a vintage vase collection reimagined as closets containing communion supplies.  

The sacred spaces we gather in are as prone to change as the people they hold, often providing physical evidence of the same cycles of life, death, and resurrection that its inhabitants embody. Sometimes the change is so minor we don’t notice it—a hallway mailbox formerly designated for a committee chairperson that becomes the holding place for the spare office key—and other times the changes are so significant that they involve months of discernment and discussion before an all-church vote.  

Marking our buildings as sacred does not mean they are immune to the change we expect to experience in every other aspect of communal life, but if we dedicated them to God from the very start, we can be reassured that whatever comes, God’s presence will never wane. 

Prayer
May we trust that your vision for our sacred spaces, O God, is bigger than we can yet imagine.

About the Author
Liz Miller serves as the Designated Pastor of Granby Congregational Church, UCC and is the author of Only Work Sundays: A Laidback Guide to Doing Less while Helping Your Church Thrive.