Closing the doors

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.”

- Ecclesiastes 3:1

Death is one of those things that, by virtue of my vocation, I encounter on a fairly regular basis. Of course, it is inevitable for us all; but not everybody faces the death of others intentionally. Sometimes death comes suddenly and unexpectedly. Sometimes death comes tragically early in life. Sometimes death comes in very peacefully after a long and fulfilling life. No matter how death comes, I always feel a sense that I am not completely prepared. Maybe that's because everybody encounters death differently.

So, I do the best I can. I hope that when I accompany someone through that “valley of the shadow of death” – whether it is the person who is dying, or family members and friends – I can offer something of the grace and peace of God.

Recently, I experienced a first in my 23+ years of ordained ministry in regard to death. I participated in a worship service to close the doors of a church. 

I officiated the funeral of a church.

It was a small congregation of about 20 members on the rolls, in a small rural community. The young people of the community had mostly left in order to pursue jobs and opportunities in other cities and towns. Realistically there was no potential for growth, and most of the current members were pushing 80 or older.

It wasn't that the church hadn't tried. It was simply a case of a season coming to an end.

The author of Ecclesiastes is right. 

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.

A time to be born, and a time to die...A time to weep, and a time to laugh...A time to mourn, and a time to dance...A time to seek, and a time to lose...A time to hold on, and a time to let go...

And so at the closing service we reflected on the seasons that God gives to us. We gave thanks for the faithful witness that every generation of that church had given to the community. We thanked God for the way God used the ministry of that congregation to influence the community with the grace and love of Jesus Christ. We expressed our gratitude for the harvest of faith that grew through the common life of the people as they gathered together through the generations for worship and study and fellowship.

We shared communion one last time, affirming our hope in Christ, and our common bond to one another. Our union with one another and with Christ did not end when the doors were closed for the last time—nothing can ever take that away from us.

Whenever I officiate a funeral or memorial service, I do more than thank God for the life of the one we are remembering. The most important thing I can do at any such service is to remind all who gather of the hope that is ours in Jesus Christ, and sharing in his resurrection.

I believe that the same goes for a church's own funeral. And so we affirmed that it is not death which defines us; it is life—eternal life. For God is about making all things new. God is about making a new creation. God is the one who says, “Behold, the former things have taken place” (i.e., they're in our past now, behind us), “and new things I declare.” And God is the one who says, “For I know the plans I have for you, plans for your welfare... and to give you a future with hope.”

I know it sounds trite—almost like what you see on some church signs—but the saying really is true: When God closes one door, God opens another one. We closed the doors of a church the other day, but not before the congregation itself had opened a new door for the larger church. You see, they would've closed shop a year ago, but they saw an opportunity that God gave them. The person who had been supplying their pulpit was a person who had just graduated from seminary, and needing a call in order to be ordained. So this small congregation worked with the Presbytery to have this woman ordained in their church.

Stained glass panel from the
McDowell Presbyterian Church
Greeleyville, SC

It was, I truly believe, an act that declared their hope that, though the season of their own congregation had come to an end, God was doing a new thing in them and through them. Because of their faithfulness and love for the gospel, their last act is to send forth a minister to a new congregation in a new town.

The McDowell Presbyterian Church may have closed its doors, but their faith continues.

Thanks be to God for faithful saints!