Dorothy was right; there’s no place like home. I’m not sure how many miles we covered by car, plane, train and taxi, but at one time we were 2,073 miles from our house. (Google maps says it’s 2,073 miles from my house to Paul Revere’s house in Boston and we visited his house. He wasn’t home—THANK GOODNESS!)  We saw the Old North Church and the site of the Boston Tea Party. Several tall ships were in Boston Harbor and they were impressive.

            We stayed in Providence, Rhode Island, for a brief time. We worshipped at the First Baptist Church IN America, located in Providence, this past Sunday. The church was founded by Roger Williams in the late 1600’s and the building predates the Revolutionary War. The church house was constructed in 1775 by 300 unemployed ship builders. (It seems a group of Bostonians threw a little tea party involving 60 tons of tea and that irritated King George. He closed Boston Harbor in the hopes of bringing the rebellious colonists to their knees. It didn’t work.) They erected the building in one year and built and placed the massive steeple in only three days. Quite an accomplishment!

            The First Baptist Church in America is on the National Registry, so the congregation is limited in what they can do to remodel the facility. They can make NO changes on the outside without congressional approval. (O.K. I may have stretched that one a little, but it’s almost impossible to get permission to make outside changes.)

            Sunday night you saw some ideas for remodeling our North Campus. Kreg Robertson, our architect, is doing a great job. His proposals do not call for the demolition of any existing building but allows for a major re-do of our church home. (We WILL be able to make changes on the exterior of our building—we’re not on the National Registry.) We’ve taken the time to develop a Master Site Plan before doing anything so we can have a cohesive facility when we finish. Kreg is giving attention to gathering space, traffic flow, rest rooms, education space, administrative space…. It will be a pleasure to work with Kreg and Dan Hart, both with Parkhill, Smith and Cooper.

            During my time off I read 7 books. Several were ministry related and dealt with reaching the unchurched and marginalized. Consistently mentioned is the importance of action. A major criticism of Christians by non-Christians is too much importance on belief; too little action based upon that belief. The sad thing is—they are right. We’ve placed too much importance upon developing head knowledge of Biblical teachings and not enough emphasis upon putting that knowledge into action. (Rick Warren says we only believe what we do.) One of the reoccurring criticisms from the unchurched is the lack of care for the poor, hungry, needy and homeless by the very group claiming to love all people.

            Bacon Heights is not perfect, nor close to perfect, but we are working in the right area. Our 414 Compassionis a good beginning. What we hope to change in our building must be matched by our involvement in our community. If we get a handle on caring for the people Jesus cared about we’ll be on the right track. I believe we’re on the right track and truly believe our best years are ahead of us.