Deeper shade of grey | facade

Gordon Cotterill | The facade of church

I

took this picture of a church encased in scaffolding its beauty hidden completely covered by plastic with a print of a church on it. It is just off the A4 on the way out of London; not easy to stop and take the shot - this was taken with my phone hanging out of the window as we shot by at 50mph! (obviously I wasn’t driving!).

I suppose the point is that the church didn’t want to lose its sense of presence during exterior works.

It got me thinking about the façade of church that is seen and rejected by so many. 

Ask people what they see of church and what they generally see is self obsession and inaction; a gospel that is merely words to agree with and not the alternative way of life and of being that Jesus spelled out; any sense of hope destroyed by an impression of a cosmetic one-dimensional community bothered exclusively about its self serving needs.

Church defined by the songs it sings! 

Michael Frost (2006) in Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture uses the metaphor of exile and sets the scene through a Bruggemann quote.

“The danger in exile is to become so preoccupied with self that one cannot step outside oneself to rethink, reimagine and redescribe larger reality”. Bruggemann Cadences of Home: Preaching Among Exiles

I guess whatever angle you come at it from - there comes a time to move out from behind the façade by recognising our preoccupations and let the reign of God be seen!

Writer: Capt. Gordon Cotterill lives in London, England, is married to Kate and has two daughters Bethan and Eryn. He has been a Salvation Army officer for ten years and ‘cut his teeth’ in ministry with his wife as the corps officers at Poplar in the East End of London. The lessons he learned there in his day-to-day ministry, amid the chaos of the inner city, continue to shape his understanding and passion for biblical and grace-centred mission. His latest appointment as Spiritual Programme Director at the William Booth College, London now offers him the opportunity for the fusion and exploration of ‘mission’ and ’spiritual formation’ while trying to inspire a new generation of Salvation Army officers as to their role in God’s plan for His creation. Gordon keeps a blog where he mulls over themes of mostly, mission and spiritual formation.

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