As I climbed the stairs to the sanctuary this past Sunday morning, I thought of the multitudes over the years who have also climbed those steps to come to a place or worship. What a history!

That history, that connection, contributes to the sadness of the announcement. Yet the joy comes from knowing that it is time for this church to serve the larger community better by making the move into a one-level, accessible, and much more child and youth-friendly building. We have a vision as a church of helping to nurture the next generation of children and youth growing up in Krum and the surrounding areas. We seek to offer spiritual care and education to all, knowing that a sound foundation of knowing the Bible and how to live as integrated, deeply moral people is the only way to bring hope and transformation to a very troubled world.

Even the public school system has now acknowledged the necessity of learning the Bible in order for a person to be really educated. According to a recent column in The Dallas Morning News, “surveys of high school English teachers and university English department heads indicate that most believe biblical knowledge confers a major educational advantage to students who have it.” The article also states, “In one of the more popular study workbooks for the Advanced Placement literature and composition exam, more than 60 percent of the allusions recommended for test-takers are from the Bible. As an example: the works of Shakespeare have more than 1,300 biblical references, according to experts.”

I admit that is has been an intriguing journey and powerful challenge to be the pastor here as we are making these momentous changes. It would have been much easier to have kept the status quo, and just ridden this out, taking no real risks; to let the next pastor be the one who said, “The time has come. We can wait no longer.”

But I can’t find any place in the Bible that says, “Play it safe.” Instead, the Scriptures are full of invitation and admonition to move and live in radical obedience to the leading of the Spirit of God. And often that leading is not to places of sweet comfort and ease, but rather to places of great challenge.

I also know that in the same way that the building is no longer our own, our own lives are really no longer our own. We as people have been bought with a price, just as the building was. The price for our lives was the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. God held back nothing in the move to bring all humanity back into connection with Him. How can we do any differently?